Kinkos printing prices :-O

[datac0re]

I just talked to kinkos on the phone and after hearing the prices I think my heart skipped a beat.

For a marquee that's 23.75 x 6.375 they want $53 to print it on standard ink-jet like paper. For a gloss paper they said something in the $100 range!

The artwork itself is custom made by yours truly, and it's in photoshop format.

Is this type of price typical? Also, what about the paper type - is inkjet-like paper ok for a marquee? What types of paper allow for a nicer look when being back-lit?

Thanks!

[grueinthebox]

You could have it printed for $19.95 at www.mamemarquees.com.

Normal and photo papers aren't made to be backlit, and you'll be able to see grain through them.

[walls83]

emdkay.net

or

mamemarquees.com

both do fantastic jobs.

You DONT want to go to kinkos because theres about a 90% chance they wont get the colors right.

[skid_68]

My marquee 26X7" = $7 bux.  

[DrewKaree]

No one's really told him if his prices are outrageously silly by Kinko's standards or not.  I'm interested in knowing this as well, as I'd like to be able to reach across the counter and throttle the person who screwed up my marquee, rather than call them and bang the phone down when it's all solved :-)

[SpamMe]

Seems like those prices are _way_ off by kinkos standards.
Offhand prices for oversized prints last time I was there:  $6/sqft for indoor vinyl, $7/sqft for outdoor scrim vinyl, $15/sqft for backlit material, and $12 or $13 for glossy paper.

23.75x6.375 = ~1.05 sq feet...

My control panel (35"x20") print came to all of $30...

[SteveJ34]

I believe my marquee was about 27 x 8, printed at Kinkos on their backlit material and I recall something in the neighborhood of $35 for the print.

The backlit material was wide enough to print it 2-up so they did instead of just wasting the material. I had to cut it out of the material after printing. They gave me the extra copy for free which I sold off on eBay for about $25-30 netting my cost at about $10.
 
However, that was a few moons ago....

[TheOtherBob]

I believe my marquee was about 27 x 8, printed at Kinkos on their backlit material and I recall something in the neighborhood of $35 for the print.

I think mine ran about $25-28.

[DrewKaree]

Alright, today I stopped in there to see how much they'd charge me to spiral-bind Saint's book, and asked....it's as everyone else says - somewhere in the $25-35 range, depending on a couple things I didn't really pay attention to.

Also, I was taking in something to be printed, and she opened it up to look at it to give me a quote.  What I did was to take my image and put a line in several areas along with "this should measure x" at this line.  If it does not, it has not been printed correctly, and I don't need to be called yet unless there is a problem" with an arrow pointing to the line I was referring to, along with "measure from this point" at one end.  The lady came out laughing, and I naturally had to ask her what was so funny.

She told me they often get complaints on stuff like that, and I was the first person she'd ever seen that went to that length to make sure they got it right, and she was laughing because she said it was the wierdest, but BEST, solution to the problem she'd seen! 

She said most problems come from the chuckleheads that pay absolutely no attention to the file sizes and do NO looking at the image and its properties AT ALL....she's seen the "Blockbuster Store Sign" print, like someone posted about here (mebbe Zakk?), and worse! 

You may feel a little "confrontational" by doing something like that, but when it's written RIGHT ON THE PRINT, it's kinda hard to lose your argument that they effed it up, and they need to fix it, hey?

[geomartin]

I've learned not to get quotes from Kinkos over the phone.  They are usually much cheaper if you take the disk to them and get a qoute in the store.  I had my marquee printed on thier glossy indoor/outdoor banner paper for $7.84.  The dimensions were 23.75" X 8"

[mahuti]

Kinkos has NO standards. Across the  country and over the last 15 years, the only standard they have is their standard poor service & lack of attention to detail. If you have worked with a good Kinko's then that is an aberration. Definitely use one of the services listed above. 

[macattack]

i use a kinko's in charlotte NC, they are open 24 hours. email them the pdf'd artwork and it costs about $25 for a 22"x32" cocktail print on glossy paper ready the next day.

I get my brother to collect it and send it over to the UK, still works out cheaper than getting someone to do it over here even if you can manage to find someone.

right now the 1.95 exchange rate don't hurt either!!

[datac0re]

Well I ended up going with mamemarquees.com. I just got the marquee today and the quality is awesome. I can't wait to put it on the cab!

[mahuti]

good call.

[NiteWalker]

$5.65 for an overlay 14x9 printed on indoor vinyl. They've been good to me so far. We'll see when it's time to print my marquee.

[Crowquill]

First of all I'll tell you I've worked for Kinko's for about a year now.

The way the POS system is set up leaves some room for interpretation. Also, with so many different materials, machines, and different employees, there are going to be some people who don't know entirely what they are talking about despite all of those who do.

The "official" pricing according to the sign & banner brochure is $6/sq.ft for indoor banner. This stuff works pretty well when backlit. Most marquees are going to be about 1.5 to 2 feet ($9-$12). It's not rigid and you'll need to sandwich it between plexi. The worst part about this material is that it isn't that durable and is pretty bad about showing scuffs and creases. Just be very careful when transporting it and I'd double check it for scuffs and such when you pick up the order.

There is also a backlit material that we don't print on in my store. If I remember right it's $15/sq.ft. It looks fantastic but it's meant to go into a lit frame that has a white panel in the back. The printed pieces are pretty transparent. I'm thinking it also has a bit of a texture to it. I'm planning to print my marquee on this and cut down one of the white panels used with drop ceiling lights to put behind it.

The binding thing really doesn't make sense. At our store we charge $1.50 to cut the spine off, then $4.95 to bind it with vinyl covers. If the book is smaller than 8.5x11 (like most are), then they may charge $1.50 per cut to trim the covers to match. If the book's over 1 inch I'm thinking it's a dollar more for binding. Still, even with all of this it would come up to $10.50. Pricing on this stuff varies a bit depending on store location but definitely shouldn't vary that much.

DrewKaree's way of doing it is great. You probably don't need to do all of that, but I would suggest making sure your image is set up to be either the final printed size or an even proportional amount to it (like 50%). It's not a bad idea to set it up with a bit larger image (.25" on each side) to give a bit of room for error as well as cutting it down with the image bleeding all the way to the edge. Vector art will print cleaner when resized. The HP printer we use for oversize prints can get decent looking prints even at 100dpi. Higher resolution will help but beyond 300dpi at 100% is just overkill. If you're putting your image together at a reduced size be sure to account for the resolution degrading with enlargement (100dpi at 50% of final size = 50dpi at 100% = pixelated crap print). Try and avoid working entirely with JPEGs.

Hope my long-winded rambling helps.

[NiteWalker]

Ok I just got my overlay back. It came out odd. Why are the greys a peaish green and why are the reds orange? I submitted it actual size @300dpi jpeg at best quality. This should not have been the case. I know if I bring it back they'll fix it but the thing is that it's tedious to make the trip. How hard is it to look at the final print and look at the image on screen and notice they don't match. Here's what it was supposed to look like and below is what it came out like.
It was printed on indoor vinyl.

[DrewKaree]

The binding thing really doesn't make sense. At our store we charge $1.50 to cut the spine off, then $4.95 to bind it with vinyl covers. If the book is smaller than 8.5x11 (like most are), then they may charge $1.50 per cut to trim the covers to match. If the book's over 1 inch I'm thinking it's a dollar more for binding. Still, even with all of this it would come up to $10.50. Pricing on this stuff varies a bit depending on store location but definitely shouldn't vary that much.

I took it to another Kinko's that was closer to my house - ended up being after tax and all ~$6.  They told me similar to what you said here, but couldn't give me a reason for why she would be THAT far off on the price, only that "well, bring us your stuff, we'll make sure you get charged the right price". 

I guess check pricing from a brochure or online before you go in so you have an idea about how much it SHOULD cost you, so you can ask informed questions when going in.  I didn't do that the first time, but I'll certainly do it the next time!   

btw, the spiral binding came out nice - see the results in the "Project Arcade - The Book" forum.  Worth every penny I paid.

[Crowquill]

Grays always seem especially hard to print properly on our printer. Like many inkjets, if it's printed in color mode it tends to tint the greys. What sucks is the software we have doesn't have that much control over color management. We pretty much have to tweak things in Photoshop to compensate which is just idiotic. It also doesn't help that only about half of the people there know Photoshop that well anyway. If the print is a color and things are off just a bit it's much less noticible. Definitely have them reprint it though.

[SOAPboy]

I just talked to kinkos on the phone and after hearing the prices I think my heart skipped a beat.

For a marquee that's 23.75 x 6.375 they want $53 to print it on standard ink-jet like paper. For a gloss paper they said something in the $100 range!

The artwork itself is custom made by yours truly, and it's in photoshop format.

Is this type of price typical? Also, what about the paper type - is inkjet-like paper ok for a marquee? What types of paper allow for a nicer look when being back-lit?

Thanks!

its 15 bucks to print a backlit marquee at kinkos.. dunno what tard was giving you prices, but thats WAY off..