Hi Tom,
A couple of years ago my museum wrestled with the same decision. They
decided (before I came on board, FYI) to buy an Epson SylusPro 9600 44"
wide plotter. It cost an arm and a leg (seriously, I can't remember how
much, but it wasn't cheap then and it's around $5,000 now), but it is a
sweet machine. And over time, it is cheaper than outsourcing. My printer
has 7 ink wells that cost about $80 each (list price is $110, but I
found some cheaper sources), and paper is about $100 a roll (list price
is about $150). We sometimes do work for other museums or charge
different departments, and my cost for a full color graphic mounted on
foam core is about $0.02/square inch. That does not cover costs for the
designer/producer's time, nor do I build wear and tear on the machine
into my price. I only include paper, ink, mounting adhesive, and foam
core costs.
So it is definitely cheaper monetarily to do it in-house versus an
outside print company, but be aware of the time and expertise it will
take to do it in-house. You'll have to purchase good design software
(e.g. Quark or Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, and/or Photoshop (around
$500–1000 more)), have a good computer (a cheap Dell won't do – look to
spend around $1000), find someone who knows graphics design and knows
how to print and mount. A typical graphic can take about an hour from
start to finish. More if you're starting from scratch, less if you've
got a bunch with similar design (e.g. label copy). And if you make a
mistake anywhere in the process, you have to do it again.
Producing graphics in-house will force you and your staff to start
thinking like print professionals. You'll have to think about equipment
maintenance, keeping a steady inventory of supplies, and the significant
increase in time and effort required of you and your staff. A lot of
people believe printing graphics is an easy task. I can't tell you how
many times I've heard, "Can we just have George make a sign?" thinking I
need to just plug stuff into Word and hit print like their printers. It
doesn't quite work that way. :) Most people – perhaps including your
board – are used to the ease that modern inkjet printers offer home
users. But to get the quality and size of graphic you're looking for,
much more time, effort, and expertise will be required. This may or may
not be worth the monetary savings depending on your institution.
Hope that helps, and I'll be happy to talk more offline about our
decision and its ramifications.
Best,
George Garner
---
George Garner
Director of Exhibitions
Center for History
808 West Washington, South Bend, IN 46601
www.centerforhistory.org // (574) 235-9664
--------
Celebrate Founders Month in August at the Center for History with a
visit to the exhibitions, From Southold to South Bend and New Order on
the Land.
> -----Original Message-----
> *From:* Tom Bennett [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> *Sent:* Monday, August 29, 2005 2:07 PM
> *To:* [log in to unmask]
> *Subject:* [MUSEUM-L] Question on plotters
>
> We are considering the purchase of a plotter or large format printer
> (36") to produce graphics for our exhibits. Naturally, our Board wants
> to know what costs are per square foot as opposed to local print
> shops. We would rarely need photo quality, but since we produce our
> exhibits in-house my thought are that this would save the museum quite
> a lot over the course of years. If anyone has numbers available on
> this I'd sure appreciate it. BTW, "local" to me is Anchorage so our
> print shops run higher than most. Thanks List!
>
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