The costs depend on the paper you choose and the printer (the company, not the machine). The best way to find out how much it's going to cost is to get several quotes from a bunch of local printers.

As far as setup goes, it really depends on how you want the final product laid out. In the old days, you often had to make various adjustments to the file to account for how the document was going to be printed and folded, but these days, every printer i work with takes my files, paginates everything (so that pages get printed on the back of the correct pages so that when you're reading through it, everything is in the right order), makes the plates right from my files (no more printing film then making plates from that) and prints it.

You _can_ print 100 copies of a 32 page booklet (the number of pages in your document has to be a multiple of four), but it's not going to be cost effective. That's a VERY small quantity, so all the various setup costs (printing plates, press setup, saddle stitch setup, etc.) will be spread out only 100 pieces, so your cost per piece will be very high. Even though it's only black and white, there's a still a lot of setup involved.

You might want to look into digital printing. The quality can be quite nice (and some digital printers even use ink, rather than toner), and for that quantity, it'll probably be more cost effective than offset.

Is it possible to get 100 - 30 page booklets printed in black and white?

This is too small for even the short-run book printers to do offset. Print-on-demand technology only, which is *not* offset. The images will be well-rendered, but the type won't be up to offset quality. You might find a small local print shop who'll do it, but the cost won't be attractive. Break even cost for offset is around 500 copies of a 100-pages.

You might want to Google Indigo printing. It is great for short individualized runs.

Michael

Offset printing is much more expensive than digital printing or photocopying because maintenance of the press and setting up jobs is more complicated than it is with digital/photocopy. It’s also best done in larger quantities—at some shops the first 100 sheets through the press are just checked for problems before they go in the trash and adjustments are made. The big advantage is that the print quality is sometimes better than digital, special inks and coatings can be used, and one gets more paper choices. You can also use really cheap paper with offset printing to save money.

There are now a lot of small printers who specialize in simple offset jobs at low prices. Take a look at http://www.printplace.com/ for your zine.

wow, thanks guys.

I'm used to just printing laser on my own paper and photocopying stuff. i had only ome idea that offset was out of my league.

Indigo press sounds familiar. I'm also aware of RICO duplicators.

If anyone knows of other stuff feel free to drop knowledge....

I just wanted to clarify James' comment. For *low* runs offset printing is much more expensive. For a run of, say 500 copies of a small brochure, most of the cost is the setup of the press and in many cases, for large jobs, 100 sheets is a low estimate of how much paper is run through as "make ready."

Once everything is setup however, the only additional costs are paper (relatively cheap) and pressman's time. That's why there are usually huge price breaks as you increase quantity. It might cost $1000 to print 500 brochures, $1500 to print 1000, $2500 to print 5000... you get the idea.

Digital printing is super convenient for low runs, but there don't tend to be significant price breaks. It may be $25 per booklet whether you print 5 or 50 or 500.

We use both offset and digital printing a lot and anytime you have a run of something between 300 - 500 it's an awkward middle ground where it's going to be too small for offset, but expensive for digital.

I'd disagree with Charles_e a bit on type quality for digital short-run printing. True, some of it looks as though the type had been carved into a slab of potato and inked with a rubber stamp. But there are quite a few shops who can do really good type.

I think it is the images that suffer most in digital, at least halftones. But even those differences are disappearing.

check these:

http://www.bookmobile.com/
http://www.integratedbook.com/index1.html

Get a sample, or have them do a test from your files. You'll be surprised.

powers

Zines should be properly published on the dirtiest copier at the local Kinkos or, ideally, a mimeograph.

Magazines, well, they should be done offset.

If you want to offset a zine why not? It would be a good way to learn the process. Everyone is right, it won't be cheap but you can always try to make things more economical. If you want to use black plus one colour, plan your 32 pages with the imposition (the arrangement of the pages prior to folding) in mind. If you plan correctly you can produce a a two colour document on two plates.

It sounds fun and the whole process is really rewarding.

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