Short Run Printing

Short run printing is always a relative term. To a consumer products company that wants to produce a small quantity of units for a relatively small market. For example, a product that would be printed in Arabic or Tagalog might require a run of only 20,000 to 50,000 units. These applications would still be produced on the largest company printing presses.

For organizations that require extremely small quantities in the range of 1,000 to 10,000 units, the number of cost effective options is limited. In general one must be satisfied with what is possible as opposed to what is desirable.


Short run printing is always a relative term. To a consumer products company that wants to produce a small quantity of units for a relatively small market. For example, a product that would be printed in Arabic or Tagalog might require a run of only 20,000 to 50,000 units. These applications would still be produced on the largest company printing presses. For organizations that require extremely small quantities in the range of 1,000 to 10,000 units, the number of cost effective options is limited. In general one must be satisfied with what is possible as opposed to what is desirable.	Click the image above to play the movie 2 MB Quicktime movie
Short run flexible package printing is generally limited to two distinct options: INLINE HOT STAMPING – Hot stamping as the video above demonstrates clearly has some obvious benefits. First, the turn around time is short. However, the size and type of image is extremely limited. There can be no shades to the colors and even the color choices (red, black, blue and yellow) are very limited. The overall image size is 1.75” tall by 2.75” wide and must be centered to some degree on the package. The design may only include one color. It’s possible to produce as few as 1,000 packages, the image in the video is of a ZipSeal 8” x 10” O.D. tamper evident bag for a specialty cookie company. While it is possible to produce as few as 1,000 pouches, the overall cost will be within 10% of the cost of 5,000 pouches since the initial setup cost of the machinery must be covered. SHORT RUN NARROW PRESS PRODUCTIONS - In short run narrow press production printing, the primary consideration to bear in mind is that the press is only 13.5” wide, capable of a maximum of 6 colors and utilizes a technology known as surface printing. Thus if you have a flexible package that is 6.5” wide and 12” tall, one side of the package would have to be unprinted. Because only a dimension up to 13.5” tall on one side can be printed. However, if the pouch was 6” by 6” then the material can be printed in a format or “web” that would be 12” wide and when folded over on the pouch making machine, would provide you with a finished product that was, for example, a 6 ” wide pouch that was 6” tall . Or a 3" by 5" pouch could be produce by printing a 10.0" wide web. The intervals or blocks of print are every 3.0" - a distance referred to as the "cut off." This type of job does require submission of artwork and a plate charge (the plate charge will be $225 and if the artwork requires modification, there will be a minimum charge of $75.) For examples of high resolution very high quality short run printing go to the “Mama Bird” case study.

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