Each year many companies build brand awareness and increase sales by giving their audience a printed promotional calendar which they will use all year long.

While custom printed calendars can bring in a tremendous amount of revenue, it’s important to know each factor that comes into play when figuring out the cost to print calendars so that you can take advantage of these amazing promotional items while still staying within your budget.

When it comes to printing calendars with commercial printers, there are several factors that most strongly influence the price. These key factors have varying degrees of influence on the end cost, and by simply taking a closer look at these factors can give you a better understanding of how much it costs to print custom calendars.

To help develop a better understanding of the various cost-affecting factors, we’ve broken them into a few categories, below, to help you determine how much making a custom calendar could cost.

Quantity - How Many Calendars Do You Need Made?

The most obvious cost-influencing factor is quantity. It seems logical that if you order more of something, the price will go up. This is often true, as it is more expensive to print 100 calendars than it is to print 25, but in certain cases, adding a few more calendars to a job can make the price drop a little.

For example, if you were to print 20 calendars the price would be around $2 more than printing 25 calendars.

This is due to the way jobs are laid out on press sheets and how certain numbers of them are often more difficult or require special treatment to print.

In most cases though, printing more calendars will result in a higher cost. If you're still not able to get the price you want, but you don't want to produce any fewer pieces, the next best option would be to take a look at the following factors including the size, paper, and more to better understand where you can limit your spending without jeopardizing the quantity.

Paper – How Do You Want Your Calendars to Feel?

The type of paper you choose to print on has a very heavy influence on the pricing of your calendars. Most printers have a set of house stocks that they recommend using when you choose to print with them and using these house stocks will result in a much lower price.

A heavy paper for your calendar cover printing is important as it better protects your calendar and makes it feel more professional. However, choosing to use a self-cover—cover paper is the same as your inside pages—will be cheaper than opting for a thicker cover paper.

Because using a heavy calendar cover stock will maximize the durability of your calendar, giving you more opportunities to communicate your message, it’s recommended that you do use a thicker more protective cover paper for your calendar. If going with a self-cover is the only option that fits your budget, it’s a good idea to go with a slightly thicker paper like a 100# text weight paper rather than a 70# text weight paper which will increase the price by only a few dollars.

If going with the recommended thicker cover stock, then depending on the size, weight, and your use, the inside pages may need to be very thin or very thick. While this may require a custom quote to get the printing aspect within your budget, one must very closely look at the USPS postage rates if your calendar needs to be mailed to ensure the postage is within your price range—we never mark up or profit on postage when you mail with us.

For Conquest Graphics, we have a “Conquest Preferred” stock that is the default option value when configuring your order on our product pages. Some of the default preferred stocks we order are a 100# gloss and velvet text, 80# gloss and velvet text, 100# gloss and velvet cover, 80# gloss and velvet cover, and a 14pt C2S gloss cover. This is because we have a great majority of projects coming through our press that customers print on those stocks.

Since they are such popular paper types, we order them in bulk, and therefore they are the most economical for us to print on when it comes to printing daily. Because it’s more common, it’s also easier for us to print alongside other projects that require the same types of paper.

Choosing an irregular quantity and one of our non-preferred stocks for your paper will result in a higher price since it’s harder for us to pair with other jobs when laying out our press sheets to print alongside other projects.

Some types of paper require us to specially order them since they’re rarely used. If we have to special order a stock, it will cost us more, which translates to the final cost of your calendars.

There may also be additional time required for the special order stock to reach us for us to begin printing on it, so if you need to print on a special stock, you should be prepared for higher prices and longer turnaround times.

If you have questions on how you can change your projects paper type to save you more money, feel free to reach out to our customer service team via email or phone at (800) 707-9903.

Turnaround Time – How Soon Do You Need Your Calendars?

Turnaround time is the time it takes to print your calendars and depending on how quickly you need your custom calendars, there will be varying prices associated with different turnaround times. Generally speaking, the sooner you need your calendars, the steeper the price will be.

This is due to the various benefits associated with longer turnaround times for commercial printers. If you allow a commercial printer a turnaround time of, say 6 days, they will have more time to receive similar jobs that they can print alongside yours on the press sheets before cutting, folding, and binding. Therefore, saving themselves paper, time, and resources.

For example, say you wanted to print 200 calendars and needed them ready within 4 days. If you were to extend that time to 7 days, it would save you around $70-$100.

Just like ordering anything online, it costs more to get it to you more quickly. So, to save money on making your calendars, it’s recommended to plan ahead of time so you can avoid needing a rush order.

Ink and Coating for Your Calendars

When it comes to matching colors and getting projects to more perfectly match their digital renderings, it can take special types of ink to get exactly the colors a customer wants.

For example, if a customer wants an exact color in their project, they may specify that they want to use a certain Pantone Matching System (or PMS) color value. Ordering special PMS colors of ink can become quite costly, so getting exactly that color for the customer can add a significant cost to their project.

Usually, only international brands or brands that are highly focused on maintaining consistency across all their printed media will have exact PMS requirements for their jobs.

In most cases, cyan, magenta, yellow and key (or black) or the CMYK color system is the best for rendering precise colors. Sticking to this color system in your jobs will result in significantly lower prices and matches digital renderings very closely making it the ideal calendar printing choice.

Your calendars will have a better chance of attracting readers if the images and text are printed in full color. It’s less expensive to print a full color calendar than you might think, and it’s almost always worth it versus a dull one or two-color calendar printing. So always use full color printing when ordering your custom calendars. In fact, most printers will have full color printing for the inside pages and cover pages as the default.

When it comes to durability and the appearance of your custom calendars, it’s recommended to also use a coating, like a gloss UV coating for your calendar cover. While this will increase the cost of your calendars, from anywhere between $10-$30, it will add a rich, classy look that will also increase the durability of your calendars. Velvet or matte coatings are also available which can give your calendars a muted, understated look. While adding a coating to your calendar cover is a great idea to improve its appearance and strengthen its durability, if adding a coating is not within your budget, it’s important that you at least consider a thicker cover stock for the cover of your calendar.

Size – How Large or Small Will your Calendars Be?

The size of your printed calendar has a large impact on how a commercial printer ends up printing your project on press sheets, and in the end, it determines how many press sheets your project will end up needing to be completed.

Generally speaking, the larger each individual calendar ends up being, the more press sheets it will require which roughly translates to higher costs associated with printing your calendars.

The average calendar size is 8.5” x 11” and sticking with this size or a smaller size is the most economical choice compared to a larger or custom size when printing your calendars. This is because these smaller sizes allow printers to piece your project together with other projects that have similar sizes to fill each press sheet and save paper.

Ultimately, a larger calendar or any custom size not listed on your printer’s website will result in a higher price. So, if you’re looking to stay within a certain budget, but do not want to select a different size, then consider selecting a different paper type or quantity to better influence a price that fits within your budget.

Page Count for Your Calendars

The average calendar has 28 pages which include a cover (4 pages) and 24 pages on the inside (a front and back for each month.) However, if you want to include extra pages for ads, looking to create a 2 yearlong calendar or even just a 2-month calendar, you’re able to make your calendar as custom as you would like.

While the typical calendar will include 28 pages, the number of pages has a huge impact on the final cost of your calendar. This is because page count ultimately influences how much paper and ink your project needs. For example, if you wanted to add just 4 more pages to the standard 28-page calendar to include room for extra advertisements or information about your company, then the price would increase by around $10-$20.

At Conquest Graphics we offer the standard 28-page calendar as well as calendars between 8 and 96 pages so you can make the perfect custom calendar for your goals and budget. However, if you want to print longer or even shorter calendars, you can contact us via email or phone at (800) 707-9903.

Similar in level of influence page count has on the final cost to make a custom calendar is binding, described below.

Calendar Binding Options and Their Influence on Price

There are several calendar binding options to choose from and each method will play a role in the overall cost to print calendars.

Saddle stitching is the most common and cheapest calendar printing method, and this option makes it easier and more affordable to mail. This method involves each page being folded in nested order and then having staples punctured or stitched on the “spine” of the folded calendar pages.

Another binding option is perfect binding. This option is more expensive and not as common in calendar printing and uses glue to create a flat, squared-off spine for your calendars.

There are also 2 other options to choose from including spiral binding and wire-o binding.

Spiral binding uses a plastic coil that is weaved into uniform holes that are punctured along the edge of your induvial stacked pages. Wire-o binding uses a c-shaped wire comb that is placed into punched holes along the edge of stacked pages and then clamped shut. Both spiral and wire-o binding are more common than perfect bound calendars but more expensive than saddle-stitched calendars.

Mailing Your Calendars

Choosing to use your calendars in a direct mail campaign can result in great revenue. However, you will need to consider the cost of mailing your calendars.

First things first, the postage rate will have an impact on the end price, for example, mailing your calendars using Standard Mail will be cheaper than First Class Mail but First Class mail will get delivered faster than Standard Mail.

Another thing to consider is whether you need to purchase a mailing list, or whether you will be using a list you already have. Purchasing a list will ultimately increase the cost to make calendars but depending on your goals reaching a targeted, new audience could increase your sales so it’s important to weigh your options.

You also need to choose whether you will mail your calendars out yourself or have your commercial printer mail them out for you. Often times, as is the case with Conquest Graphics, your printer will not charge you any more than the postage would cost you already.

If you want to get your calendars delivered faster and if you want to save yourself time and money trying to figure out the best way to mail your calendars, it’s ideal to elect your printer to mail your calendar from their mail center.

Not every printer offers mailing since they don’t all have their own mail centers like Conquest Graphics. So, be sure to ask before placing your calendar order whether or not they will be able to mail your calendars to a list of your choosing.

When mailing with Conquest Graphics, all you have to worry about is uploading your mailing list on time and we’ll be sure to mail them when you want them to mail. For more information about mailing, check out our mailing services page for answers to any questions you might have, and feel free to contact our mailing experts by calling (800) 707-9903 at any time for further questions or for help getting started on your direct mail calendar project.

So, how much does it cost to print calendars?

The cost to make a custom calendar will ultimately be determined by the quantity, paper, turnaround time, ink, size, page count, binding and mailing of your order.

Calendars often require slightly longer turnaround times since they have more factors than other, simpler printed products. So, when making a calendar for printing make sure to plan ahead so you don’t need to pay more by placing a rush order.

Depending on all the specifications outlined above, your custom calendar could cost anywhere between $50 and $10,000 total, or anywhere from $30 per calendar to $1 per calendar. Additional shipping costs can add a little, but in the end, the best way to save on your project is to use the tips outlined in each of the sections above and to choose a commercial printer who can print and mail your calendars in-house while also working with you to bring costs down to meet your exact budget.

For more details on the cost to make a calendar, click below to take advantage of our calendar price configurator to get an even better idea of how much it could cost you to print calendars.

Get Started on Your Calendar Order

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Calendarss are one of the more complex products in the world of printing since there are many variables involved that weigh heavily on the end cost to customers. Commercial printers also offer mailing and other things that can have an influence on the end cost of a calendar print order. In this blog we break down the various cost components of a calendar print order.

By Conquest Graphics