Count the Hands First: Working Out Print Numbers Without the Just-in-Case Box

There is a moment in nearly every print enquiry when the number gets rounded up. Not because anyone has counted, but because a round figure sounds responsible. A few hundred. Five hundred. A thousand, maybe, since the price per unit drops. The job goes on press, the boxes arrive, and six months later half of them are still in a back room behind the till.

The overrun is rarely a disaster. It is just quiet money. This is not an argument for printing too few, which has its own costs in reprints, missed events and apologetic phone calls. It is an argument for counting first, then choosing a number you can defend.

The invoice is only the first cost

Printers price by quantity, and the unit cost almost always falls as the run goes up. That is real. But the invoice is not the whole cost of a print run. The rest arrives later: shelf space, boxes that get moved three times, staff time spent finding the last dozen, and the slow realisation that the phone number on page four changed in March.

A Highland business with a spare dry cupboard may carry a modest overrun without noticing. A community group working out of a hall with a damp store and no lockable shelf is in a different position. Storage is not free simply because the rent is already paid. It is space that could hold something else, and in small premises that matters.

Then there is obsolescence. Brochures date. Menus change with suppliers and seasons. Programmes belong to one weekend. Even a general leaflet can go stale when a website changes or a service is added. Stock that cannot be used is not an asset; it is a reminder to plan the next job more carefully.

Start with distribution, not with a number

The most useful question is not how many can we get for the money. It is where will these actually go, and who will pick them up. That sounds obvious, but it is rarely written down.

Make a list of real outlets. Not the ones you might approach one day, but the ones that have taken stock before and will take it again. A reception desk, two cafés, the library, a community centre, the leisure centre, a hotel foyer, a couple of trade counters. For each, note a sensible number. A busy café may take fifty. A small office may take ten and still have some left at Christmas.

Then add the events you know about. A show, a fair, a open day, a conference. Multiply by a realistic take-up rather than a hopeful one. If you expect two hundred visitors, you will not hand a leaflet to all of them. Some will already know about you. Some will ignore the table. A third to a half is a fair starting assumption for general event print.

A simple count that holds up

Here is a method that works for brochures, menus, programmes and community booklets alike.

Write down the confirmed outlets and the copies each will take. Add the event numbers at a realistic rate. Add any copies that must be posted or kept for staff, board members or archives. That gives you a working total.

Then add a small buffer, usually ten to fifteen per cent, for spoilage, extra requests and the inevitable outlet that asks for more. Round down rather than up, because a shortfall can be fixed and an overrun cannot be unprinted. If the total lands at 640, ordering 650 is sensible. Ordering 1,000 because the unit price looks better is a different decision, and it should be made on purpose.

A quick example. Thirty outlets taking an average of fifteen copies is 450. Three events at 80 copies each is 240. Another 60 for post and internal use brings it to 750. A ten per cent buffer takes it to 825. Rounding to 800 or 850 is a planned run. Rounding to 1,500 is a guess with a storage problem attached.

Plan the short reprint before you need it

A sensible first run is easier to defend if you know a second one is possible. Before the job goes to press, ask what a short reprint would cost at one hundred or two hundred and fifty copies. Ask whether the artwork and plates can be held, and for how long. Ask what would need to change to make a reprint straightforward.

Modern digital printing makes short runs far more practical than they once were, especially for A5 booklets, menus and programmes. The unit price is higher than a long litho run, but you are not paying for boxes you will not use. For many Highland organisations, the flexibility is worth more than the saving.

It also helps to keep the file in good order. A named folder, a clear version number and a note of the fonts and images used will save time and money when the reprint comes around. If the layout was built by a volunteer or a former employee, make sure someone else can open it.

When a bigger run does make sense

There are genuine cases for printing more. A booklet with a long shelf life, stable content and a known annual distribution can justify a larger run. So can a job where storage is dry, secure and genuinely available, and where the unit saving is substantial enough to matter. A calendar or a heritage booklet that sells over twelve months is a different proposition from a menu that changes with the seasons.

The test is simple. Can you name where the extra copies will go, and by when? If the answer is vague, the overrun is not a saving. It is stock.

The question worth asking

Before you approve the quantity, ask the printer one plain question: what would a reprint cost if we need one in three months? The answer tells you whether a leaner first run is sensible. It usually is.

Count the hands first. Print for the people you can actually reach, keep a small buffer, and plan the next short run before the first one lands. The cupboard stays clearer, the cash stays working, and the leaflet that goes out is the one that is still current.