At Some Point In Any Printing Project, The Question of Price Arises

It may be sooner if the project is new and a budget hasn't yet been established. But eventually your printer will need to provide you with the cost.

In order to give you an exact price, your printer needs to have firm specifications for the job - the finished size, the paper, the number of ink colors - and whether the job will require any post-press operations like trimming or folding or special applications like die cutting or foil stamping. They also need to know the quantity to be printed. With this information they can give you a firm quotation.

Before the specifications are firm, the printer can provide an estimate. An estimate differs from a quotation in an important way - it is the best guess about the cost, but it is not considered binding like a quotation. Estimates are useful for establishing a budget or for determining whether the planned project fits within costs that have been established previously. If the estimate exceeds your budget for the project, ask for suggested changes to the specifications that will help bring the two closer together.