Costs
Part of 4 parts of printmaking inks and paper, explained
Printmaking inks and paper: the version that survives contact with reality
Comparing ink and paper prices honestly using coverage and unit size, tracking how input costs move, and the deposit duty that arrives with a published edition.
What to take away
- Compare ink by coverage, not by tin price. A stiff, heavily pigmented ink goes much further than a soft one.
- Compare paper by cost per square meter, then adjust for how many sheets you actually ruin.
- Input prices move with the wider economy, and official series exist if you want to see the direction.
- Publishing an edition in the United States can carry a deposit obligation that nobody bills you for.
Comparing ink honestly
Two tins at the same price can differ by a factor of two in how many prints they produce. Coverage depends on pigment load, on how much base you add, and on how thin a film your paper needs.
Which ink comparison basis works
Basis
- Price per tin
- No
- Price per gram
- Partly
- Grams per print
- Yes
- Cost per finished print
- Yes
Useful
- Price per tin
- Tin sizes differ
- Price per gram
- Ignores pigment load
- Grams per print
- Only figure that transfers
- Cost per finished print
- Includes reject rate
Why
- Price per tin
- Price per gram
- Grams per print
- Cost per finished print
Measure it once. Weigh the tin, print a known number of sheets at your normal film thickness, weigh it again. That gives grams per print, which converts any tin price into a real cost per print in one step.
Useful
- Price per tin
- No
- Price per gram
- Partly
- Grams per print
- Yes
- Cost per finished print
- Yes
Why
- Price per tin
- Tin sizes differ constantly
- Price per gram
- Ignores pigment load
- Grams per print
- The only figure that transfers
- Cost per finished print
- Includes your reject rate
Comparing paper honestly
Convert everything to cost per square meter, then to cost per sheet at your working size. Pads and packs are priced to make that comparison hard, and a heavy cover sheet counted as a sheet is a common trick.
Then apply your reject rate. Paper you print badly on costs the same as paper you print well on, and a beginner keeping one in three is really paying three times the sheet price.
Watching input prices move
Materials prices do not move in isolation. If you want to see the direction rather than guess at it, the official series are public: the monthly Economic Indicators publication, prepared for the Joint Economic Committee, collects data on prices, production and business activity in one place.
For a studio the practical use is modest but real. When input prices are moving, buy the stable items ahead and the perishable items late. When they are flat, buy as you go and keep less stock.
The deposit obligation nobody mentions
Publishing an edition in the United States triggers a duty separate from registration.
The Copyright Office says U.S.-published works are subject to mandatory deposit: generally two copies of the best edition within three months of publication. The Office may demand those copies.
Budget for it if you publish. Two prints from an edition of twenty is ten percent of the run, which is not a rounding error, and it is a cost that arrives after the pricing decision has already been made.
Our supply cost overview covers the wider method for building figures without inventing prices, and our review framework for inks and paper explains which specification differences justify a price difference.
Recalculate once a year rather than at every purchase. Coverage and reject rates move slowly, so a figure revisited annually stays accurate enough to price with while costing about an hour.
