With many corporations and other businesses being required to file an annual report, it’s important that you weigh the costs of printing as well as find ways to print the highest quality annual report at an affordable price.
Whether you need to print a nonprofit annual report, an LLC annual report, or a corporation or small business annual report, you’ll need to know how much it will cost to print them.
To figure out how much annual report printing costs, you’ll need to look at the different factors influencing the end price. This will not only help you build a budget for your annual report, but it will also help you find ways to minimize the costs.
Below are the various factors that influence the cost to print annual reports as well as a few tips on how to get the best price possible.
Quantity – How many annual reports do you need?
The more annual reports you print, the higher the cost will be since larger numbers of annual reports require more paper, ink, and time.
However, as you increase the quantity, the price per annual report decreases.
For example, if you were printing 5 8.5” x 11” 20-page annual reports, the price per annual report would be around $24. If you were to increase the quantity to 50, the price would be around $6 per annual report, and if you were to print 500 of those same annual reports, the price would be around $2 per annual report.
The Cover and Paper of Your Annual Report
The type of paper you choose for the inside pages and cover of your annual reports have a huge effect on the end cost.
Thinner paper like a 100# or 80# text weight paper is the most common paper type for the inside pages of an annual report, and they are the cheapest option.
For the cover of your annual reports, you can opt for a a self-cover annual report meaning the cover is printed on the same type of paper as you use for the inside pages. However, choosing a thicker paper like a 100# or 80# cover stock rather than a text-weight paper for the cover, will better protect your annual report and make it feel and look more professional.
While selecting thicker, more durable paper for the cover of your annual report can increase the price of printing them, it isn’t as expensive as you may think.
For example, if you were to print 5 8.5” x 11” 8-page annual reports, using 80# text weight paper for the cover and inside pages, the cost would be around $80-$100. If you were to select a thicker paper for the cover, like a 80# cover weight stock, the price would be around $100-$120.
Also, keep in mind that your printer will offer a set of house stocks and these options will be the cheapest when printing your annual reports. This is because your printer’s house stocks are regularly used by other customers and are always on hand. If you were to select a specialty paper or a paper that they don’t have in house, the price would increase because it will be harder for them to pair your job with other customers and if they don’t have your requested paper on hand, they will need to special order it.
At Conquest Graphics, we offer our “Conquest Preferred” paper which is the default paper options when configuring your project on our annual report price calculator. Some of the default preferred stocks we offer include 100#, 80#, and 70# gloss and velvet text, 100#, and 80# gloss and velvet cover, and 14pt C2S cover paper.
Turnaround Time – When do you need your annual reports?
Turnaround time is the time you give your printer to print your annual reports and the more time you give them the lower the price will be.
This is because when you give your printer more time to print your annual report, they’re given more time to pair your job with similar jobs when laying everything out on press sheets, which saves them a lot of paper and time.
For example, if you were to print 100 12-page, 8.5” x 11” annual reports and only gave your printer 4 days to print them, the total price would be around $25-$35 more than if you were to give your printer 7 days.
To save money on printing your annual reports, always plan ahead so you can save money by giving your printer more time to print your annual reports.
Ink and Coating for Your Annual Reports
A well-designed annual report often includes imagery, graphs, and other data and by printing your annual reports in full color, it will help drive attention to the important information you have included. Plus, many printers’ default for printing is full color so opting for black and white will typically not affect the price at all.
When it comes to coatings for your printed annual reports, adding a coating to the inside pages and cover or just the cover will increase the printing cost. Often coatings are not necessary for the inside pages, however, adding a coating like a UV gloss or velvet coating to the cover of your annual reports will increase its durability and add a professional look and feel to your annual reports.
If you were to add a UV coating to the cover of 100 8.5” x 11” 16-page annual reports the cost only increases by around $25-$30, so if professionalism and durability is important for your annual report project, choosing a UV coating for the cover will be worth the small added cost.
Keep in mind however, that UV coatings will be much cheaper than aqueous coatings since UV coatings take less time to dry and use less resources.
The Size of Your Annual Reports
The most common size for annual reports is 8.5” x 11” and is one of the more affordable booklet and annual report sizes.
However, the smaller your annual report is, the cheaper it will be and as you increase the size, the price will increase since the larger your annual report is, the more paper and resources it will require.
For example, if you were looking to print 50 20-page annual reports, then if you were to select 5.5” x 8.5” as the size the price would be around $160-$190, if you were to select 8.5” x 11” as the size the price would be around $290-$320, and if you were to select 9” x 12” as the size, the price would jump to around $410-$430.
If your annual report needs to be larger, but you’re trying to save money, selecting a different paper type, turnaround time, page count, or quantity will help you reach your target price.
Page Count for You Annual Reports
Just like how the size and quantity influences annual report printing costs, the page count also influences the cost.
The higher the page count, the more paper your annual reports will need which translates to an increase in the price.
For example, if you were printing 200 8.5” x 11” 36-page annual reports, the price would be around $80-$90 cheaper than if you needed 200 8.5” x 11” 40-page annual reports.
At Conquest Graphics, we offer annual reports between 8-96 pages. If you’re looking to print longer annual reports, don’t hesitate to contact our team via email or phone at (800) 707-9903.
Annual Report Binding Options and Their Influence on Price
Saddle stitching is the most affordable binding method for annual report printing. This method for binding works by printing 2 pages on the front and back of a single sheet and then stacking the pages on top of each other. The sheets are then folded in half in nested order with the sheet containing the front and back cover on the outside. Thin wire staples are then punctured or “stitched” along the spine of the annual report.
Because saddle stitching is the most cost-effective method for binding, it’s the most common method for annual report printing. However, there are a few other binding methods that can be used including perfect binding, wire-o binding, and spiral binding, but keep in mind these options may require a custom quote and will increase the overall annual report printing cost.
For more details on the other binding options available to you for your annual report printing project, check out our binding services page.
How Much Does Annual Report Printing Cost?
Creating an annual report and having a commercial printer print your annual reports is the most cost-effective option because they have the tools and experience to help you from beginning to end to ensure your design and content is properly set up, you have chosen the right options to meet your goals and budget, and they can print, bind, and ship your annual reports all in one place so you don’t need to worry about anything.
Depending on the varying factors listed above, the price to print annual reports could cost anywhere from $50-$4,000 and beyond.
If you’re needing to print your annual reports and are interested in taking advantage of printing your annual reports with a commercial printer, check out our annual report pricing calculator to get an idea of how much printing your annual reports could cost you. If you have questions, need assistance, or are interested in an option not listed on our annual report product page, please don’t hesitate to contact us today!
