Gerber Edge Print Costs

[signdesign]

What does it cost to print on a gerber edge full color. Just wander the square foot costs. And hoe long do the prints last outside without lamination and with lamination. I appreciatte any info. Thanks Karen

 

[Fred Weiss]

Process print costs on an Edge can cover a wide range depending on who's supplies you use and how much discount you can negotiate.

Using non-Gerber foils and Oracal 651 at negotiated prices, my unadjusted cost for process color prints is $1.47 per foot. Adding UV/Abrasion Guard clear overprint, adds another 27¢ a foot. This print typically holds up without the overprint in Florida sunlight exterior application for 18 to 36 months depending on sun exposure. With overprint, another 12 to 18 months of life is added.

Paying full list for Gerber foils and using Gerber/3M 220 film to print on, the cost for a non-overprinted print rises to $3.72 per foot. Typical life is 24 months in harsh conditions ... average exterior conditions expect 3 to 5 years.

Film lamination using 1 mil Tedlar provides an almost unlimited life. Cost on Tedlar is about $1.15 per foot.

 

[cdsgraphic]

Hi Karen,


With the cost of the resin rolls being about $1 per foot (zeronine), plus the cost of material, a full color edge print would cost about $4.50 - $5.00 a square foot to produce. I had a full color edge print on the back window of my truck for a while, it was about 2 1/2 to three years when it started to fade to the point that it didn't look good anymore. the print wasn't laminated.

The strong point of the edge anymore, IMO, is using it to print short runs of 1 or 2 spot colors, and the ability to print white on any color or clear.

 

[Fred Weiss]

Trevor, I think you're overstating the price of Zeronine foils. The foils are 50 yards, not 50 feet, and sell for around $60. That figures out to 40¢ a foot. So 4 color process would be $1.60 plus the cost of the vinyl.

I agree that spot colors and the ability to print on a much wider range of films is a strong point of the Edge, but I would not discount the value of process color output. We do it everyday and prefer process color for most jobs because of the setup time we save not having to worry about chokes, spreads and traps that are needed with many spot color jobs.

 

[cdsgraphic]

oh yeah, sorry, your right fred. don't know what I was thinking. :Oops:

 

[signdesign]

Fred when you say you prefer process color for most jobs is that with the gerber edge or are you talking abut something else. And can you use flexi software with the gerber edge? Why dO I see people selling fonts for the gerber edge. You can't use regular fonts off your computer. i am confused. Please reply Thanks Karen

 

[Fred Weiss]

Fred when you say you prefer process color for most jobs is that with the gerber edge or are you talking abut something else. And can you use flexi software with the gerber edge? Why dO I see people selling fonts for the gerber edge. You can't use regular fonts off your computer. i am confused. Please reply Thanks Karen

It sounds like you have a fair amount of misinformation Karen.

Yes i am talking about the Gerber Edge. I print from Omega and have printed from Flexi but do not print from Flexi on a regular basis. I'm unfamiliar with an aftermarket offering for Gerber Edge specialty fonts but it would make sense. These are fonts designed for use with the Edge and about a dozen are supplied with Omega. The attachment below shows a few of them along with a non Gerber font from our own Steve C's offerings which I typed out to demonstrate that standard Windows fonts can also be used with Omega software.

Here are a few pics of work done using the Edge ...

Mailboxes Etc. uses the Gerber specialty font, Burgess Chrome.

Cool World uses ITC Novarese with a spot black outline printed on red vinyl and process color on white for the logo.

Mary's Orchids uses Spot Magenta and Green for the text and process color for the graphic. All printed on HP White and cut to shape. Font is Ruzicka Freehand from my TTF font library.

Gas Grill Center is cut Kelly Green and Sapphire Blue and process color on white for the photos. House Informal Script and Adobe Utopia are the fonts.

Palm Beach Aquatics uses cut black vinyl and process color on white.

One of the really great things with using Omega for Edge printing is that it has evolved into a very powerful applicaton for that purpose. Setting chokes, spreads, halftones, bleeds etc. has all been built into the program. Once people see printed and cut work versus printed rectangles being substituted for signs, they want it. We regularly get $25 per square foot for this kind of work so I don't really care if my costs are $1 to $2 higher per foot as compared to inkjets.

 

[kevco]

stupid ?

I know ther is not a simple answer for this but... what is the difference between spot and process colors? Fred could you recomond a good book on digial printing basics?

 

[signdesign]

Fred
Do you laminate all of your work? Or does it just depend? Thanks Karen

 

[Fred Weiss]

Spot colors a dedicated colors just like vinyl comes in dedicated colors. Process colors are blended together in varying percentages of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black to produce millions of possibilities.

In working with spot colors, there is no color management involved. What you print with is what you get. If I print with Kelly Green, I get Kelly Green. If a green similar to Kelly is called for in artwork and I am printing it with process colors than I will choose a setting like Cyan 80% Magenta 0% Yellow 100% and Black 0%.

The difference in setup comes into play just as it does with multi-color cut vinyl. With spot colors that are touching other colors, an overlap must be created or you will see white or light at the joins. When you print with process colors touching other process colors, the need to overlap them is eliminated providing they have a process color in common. If I have blue touching the Kelly green, then the cyan content of each is printed where they join and there is no gap appearing in the finished print.

Spot colors also provide colors that cannot be achieved with process colors such as metallics. Complimentary and very dark colors can be used to print on films other than white. If I want a dark blue outline on a light blue letter, I just print right on the light blue vinyl with a dark blue foil.

 

[Fred Weiss]

Fred
Do you laminate all of your work? Or does it just depend? Thanks Karen

I have one customer that specifies lamination who buys about $7000 worth of labels a year from me. Otherwise, I print a clear UV Abrasion Guard foil on top of the print when it is for vehicle graphics or permanent signage. Work that is not expected to be as durable ... where 24 to 36 months is satisfactory or that won't be out in the elements, goes out with no additional protection.

 

[signdesign]

so after you printed the decals you have to put them back in the machine for the clear uv abrasion guard is that correct. And then do you put it through the cutter if needed to be cut.
Thanks Karen

 

[James Chrimes]

I get $20.00 A SQUARE FOOT FOR ANY PROCESS PRINT FROM MY EDGE MACHINE. High perf. vinyl is about $2.45 a foot based on a 15" roll to fit the edge. this is with transfer tape. add the cost of the foils and I get about $5.04 cost. Rember weed time and any other little details that eat up time.

 

[Fred Weiss]

so after you printed the decals you have to put them back in the machine for the clear uv abrasion guard is that correct. And then do you put it through the cutter if needed to be cut.
Thanks Karen

Not exactly. The clear is a foil just like any other color. The instruction to overprint is in the plot program which simply adds it into the print run, so the overprint is done without any removal from the Edge and just means one extra print pass. It also offers a choice of fully overprinting or just overprinting where printing of a foil has taken place ... leaving any unprinted vinyl alone.

 

[signdesign]

Another question - If you have a small decal - full color and it is only 2" wide by 1 1//2" tall what would my cost to print those be and then what would you sell them for per 100 or 1000. Thanks Karen

 

[Fred Weiss]

Another question - If you have a small decal - full color and it is only 2" wide by 1 1//2" tall what would my cost to print those be and then what would you sell them for per 100 or 1000. Thanks Karen

The way I price Edge prints like this is based on the number of colors, the type of vinyl and the size. The size in the nest height (11.8") by the width of the nest. We don't count gaps.

A 1.5" height will nest 7 high. The wholesale price for 4 colors on Oracal 651 is $1.22 per linear inch. On Oracal 751 it is $1.27 per linear inch. So calculating the price:

Width x Rate / Nest Quantity = Unit price

2 x 1.22 / 7 = 35¢ each

In my store I would retail these for 53¢ to 70¢ each depending on quantity.

 

[signdesign]

Another question You posted you would charge 1.25 for a 2.75" x 12" one color print. That would come to .18 linear inch. How do you base 2 color / 3 color and full color process - above you said full color would be my cost of .35 cents right - what I am saying is how do you break it down per color my cost if I were printing it for someone.
1 - color cost per linear inch
2 - color " "
3 - color " "
full color " "
Thanks Karen

 

[Fred Weiss]

At wholesale we add 20¢ per color per linear inch. One color plus the vinyl is 62¢ per inch.

1 color = .62 x 2 / 7 = 18¢
2 color = .82 x 2 / 7 = 23¢
3 color = 1.02 x 2 / 7 = 29¢
4 color - 1.22 x 2 / 7 = 35¢

 

[nauras]

Please help
i have one gerber edge 1, i have a problem weth file send, if i send one file to edge it, (PLT print file) he gon to cutplotter, gerber edge is LPT 1 en GSP plotter is COM 1, mijn problem is: print & cut job wend to cut plotter (COM 1)

please Please help

greets,

newres

 

[Fred Weiss]

Please help
i have one gerber edge 1, i have a problem weth file send, if i send one file to edge it, (PLT print file) he gon to cutplotter, gerber edge is LPT 1 en GSP plotter is COM 1, mijn problem is: print & cut job wend to cut plotter (COM 1)

please Please help

greets,

newres

There are 100's of possibilities as to what may be the problem.

• Your job may not be setup correctly
• Your Edge and plotter may not be setuip correctly
• You may have a hardware or software defect

Who sold you the machines and did the setup and trained you?

Here is a link to my download page. The second column from the left contains 4 jobs that are setup for the Gerber Edge. The jobs are self-extracting archives. Read and follow the instructions for downloading them and extracting the jobs. Open one in Omega and select all then center justify them. This will give you a known working sample of a job that works.

Output the job to GSPPlot, load vinyl in your Edge and press function key F10 to send the job to the Edge. When done printing, load the printed job and line up in your plotter and press function key F8 to start the plot.

Finally get back to us to tell us what happened.