How much does poster printing cost in Australia?

What they cost, by quantity

Every figure below is an A2 — 420 × 594mm — printed full colour on 170gsm satin, including GST. Read from the same price list the checkout charges from.

One poster is the job a local copy shop does best: it prints while you wait, with nothing set up on a trade press and nothing couriered. Spread over a single sheet, that setup and delivery would make one poster from us dearer than it should be — so we start at five, at $167.75 for five A2s, $33.55 each, and leave the one-off to the shop down the road.

Five goes further than it sounds: one for the window and one for the counter, one per site office, a spare for when the first one tears. At ten the per-poster figure drops to $23.65, and past 25 it is as low as it goes.

Each A size is double the area of the one below it, and the price does not double with it. At any quantity an A1 is $15.40 more than an A2 and an A0 is $22 more — a flat step per poster rather than a multiplier, because the cost that scales with area is the ink and the paper, and on a poster most of the cost is neither. So an A0 at $55.55 is about four times the paper of an A2 for well under twice the money.

Which is why the right size is the one the room needs, not the one the budget suggests. Sign sizes and viewing distance has the arithmetic: how far away it will be read decides the letter height, and the letter height decides the sheet.

Delivery. Delivery is included in this price — Australia-wide, with no freight line at the cart and nothing added later. Allow 1 to 2 working days longer outside NSW, QLD and VIC. Your complete delivered price is confirmed before you pay.

Lamination and mounting. The prices above are the printed sheet. A poster that has to survive outside, or be handled, is a different product — a corflute sign if it is going on a fence, a laminated print if it is going in a busy foyer. Both are quoted with the job.

Artwork, sometimes. Setting up supplied artwork is free with every print order, from the smallest — five posters at $167.75 — up. A poster designed from nothing is quoted per job.

1. What stock? 170gsm satin is a poster. 120gsm bond is a plan print, and it is what a very cheap “A1 poster” usually turns out to be — it creases if you look at it and the colour sits flat. Ask the weight.
2. Which size, exactly? A2, A1 and A0 are each double the last. “Large poster” is not a size.
3. Per poster, or the total? A per-poster figure is nearly always the 25-plus price. Ask for the total at the number you want.
4. Including GST and delivery? The two most common reasons one quote looks cheaper than another. Every figure here includes GST and delivery.
5. What resolution does the artwork need? 150dpi at the finished size. A poster printer that does not ask is going to print whatever you send, at whatever quality that turns out to be. Check a file first.