There's no better place to be than at the beach on a sunny summer day. While canoeing around our little lake on a colder day, we saw these three chairs sitting forlornly on a neighbor's dock, just waiting for summer to come again. And if they're like me, they're wishing it would hurry up.

Graphics Time: $30.00 per hour

For all design time, including logos, graphics, typesetting, and page layout, I charge a flat rate of $30.00 per hour. Very roughly speaking, I can usually come up with 1-4 preliminary logo ideas or lay out a single page within an hour, if I have a good idea of the customer's needs. I encourage clients to supply a rough sketch of their ideas as a starting point. Anything that helps me to understand the feel and direction of their project saves me time and that saves them money.

Printing Prices Depend on Many Variables

Copies vs. Press—Copying is generally considered lower quality than printing on a press, but is often the only viable option for quantities under 1000. Even for pieces that don't require higher quality, large quantities are more economically produced on a press.

Raised vs. Flat Inks—Generally, raised ink (thermography) looks expensive but is more economical for business cards (and sometimes letterhead and envelopes) than flat print, but some people prefer the look of flat ink. Thermo printers usually limit their products to business stationery and invitations or announcements. Flat printing is usually preferable for flyers and brochures, since it lends itself better to screens and photographs.

Ink Colors—Black ink is the most commonly used color, and that translates into being the least expensive. Standard ink colors (like red, dark blue, cyan blue, dark green, light green, teal, purple, and burgundy) vary from printer to printer and are often a bit more expensive than black. Another step up are special inks such as imitations of gold and silver, and mixing a custom color is generally the most expensive.

Foils & Embossing—Metal foils can be stamped or embossed onto business cards, etc. but they are more expensive than inks. In additions, they require the creation of a die, which can easily add $100.00 or more to the cost of the project. Blind embossing, a design pressed into the paper to leave a recessed or raised image without the addition of ink, also requires a die at similar charges.

Full Color Printing—Full color printing can be done four ways: photographic, four-color process, ink jet, and digital laser color copies. The lowest quality is likely to be inkjet output, if we're talking about the kinds of inkjets we all have at home and not the more expensive versions that are sometimes used to make fine art prints. Color quality can vary broadly depending on communication with and expertise of the printer. Because there are no universal standards between computers, monitors, and printers, there are any number of ways that color output can go wrong when an image is scanned into the computer, viewed and adjusted onscreen, and then sent off to a printer across the country whose output may be entirely different than what was expected. I send color files direct to a local printer, with whom I can meet in person to proof and make adjustments, and that gives me the highest level of control and best possible color quality.

Paper Choices—Paper selection can substantially affect cost. Paper prices vary widely, and, like ink colors, go in and out of fashion. Therefore, a paper that was common a few years ago may be unavailable today. Papers come in a wide assortment of colors, textures, and finishes, but thermography printers offer only a limited selection and charge a fee for supplying your own paper to cover their costs in the event that your paper causes damage or problems on their end. Flat printers, on the other hand, order paper specific to each job, which opens up the possibilities and may make flat printing a much more attractive choice. Digital equipment is somewhat limited in paper weights and textures that can be used.

Special Charges—In traditional, non-digital printing, Inks usually run through the press one or two at a time, requiring additional plates, passes, and press cleanup for additional colors, which adds to the cost of printing. Also, when a job requires that ink colors must be "in register" (two colors touch without any allowance for movement between them), more attention is required of the printer who may add a registration charge of $30 to $60.

Inks that print to the edge of the page require the page to be set up so that the color "bleeds" off the edge, giving the printer an extra printed allowance so that the page can be cropped back without danger of any unprinted area showing at the edge. Again, additional effort (along with more paper waste) equals additional charges. Bleeds average about $10.00 per edge.

Folding, collating, and binding all incur additional charges, depending largely on quantity.

Web Design—No, I don't do web design. It's a whole 'nuther ball game. But I can highly recommend www.geekwebdesign.com for affordable and artistic web design. The Geek did mine according to my taste, and you can see a range of other clients' site designs by clicking on the above link and checking out the portfolio.

All contents are copyrighted by Charlotte Terhune.