1. Calculating the Length of Time a Job Will be on Press
Press Impressions
Calculating the Length of Time a Job Will be on Press

2. Learning Goals
After completing the activities in this slideshow lecture you should be able to…
Define Press Impression
Use the number of sheets required to produce a job to calculate press time
Use press time and a BHR to calculate the cost for press time

3. What is a Press Impression?
What is press impression?
An impression occurs when ink is applied to a sheet of paper as it passes through a printing press.
The diagram to the right illustrates the inner workings of a 1-color printing press tower. Each tower holds exactly 1 color of ink.
The green line represents a sheet of paper that will get ink applied to it. The impression cylinder pushes up on the sheet of paper as it passes between the impression and blanket cylinders causing ink from the blanket to be applied to the sheet of paper.
Fountain (Water)
Plate
Cylinder
Ink Well (1 color)
Blanket
Cylinder
Impression
Cylinder

4. What is a Press Impression?
How does printing work?
If you are interested in learning more about how offset lithography and other printing processes work, please visit the following links.

5. Types of Presses
Types of Printing Presses There are many different types of offset lithography printing presses. Some can print up to 8 colors while others can only print 1 color. Each tower represents the press’ ability to print an additional color.
1 tower= 1 color
4 towers= 4 colors
6 towers= 6 colors
2 towers= 2 colors
8 towers= 8 colors

6. What is a Press Impression?
What is press impression?
In theory, the diagram below could be considered to have 4 press impressions because each tower will add an additional color to the sheet of paper, but in printing we consider 1 press impression to be 1 pass through the printing press.
If a sheet must go through the press twice (say once for the front and once for the back), then it would be considered 2 press impressions.
Plate
Cylinder
Plate
Cylinder
Plate
Cylinder
Plate
Cylinder
Blanket
Cylinder
Blanket
Cylinder
Blanket
Cylinder
Blanket
Cylinder
Impression
Cylinder
Impression
Cylinder
Impression
Cylinder
Impression
Cylinder

7. What is a Press Impression?
What is press impression?
The image to the right is of a 4-color printing press. Each time 1 sheet of paper passes through the press 4 colors will be applied to it, but it is only considered 1 impression because it is all done in one operation.
4 towers= 4 colors

8. Steps for Costing Press Impressions
Calculate the # out of the item being printed on your PSS (press size sheet)
Divide your total quantity by the # out to calculate total sheets needed
Multiply sheets needed by passes through press to calculate press impressions
Divide press impressions by the impressions per hour of your printing press to calculate the length of time your job will be on press
Multiply the number of hours on press by the press’ BHR to calculate the printing press run time costs (press impressions cost)

9. Steps for Costing Press Impressions
Calculate the # out of the item being printed on your PSS (press size sheet)
Divide your total quantity by the # out to calculate total sheets needed
The next several slides are duplicated from previous lectures. Calculating the # out and quantity of sheets needed should be a review.

10. How Many Sheets Are Needed?
Steps for Calculating # Out Per Sheet: Use the same steps for calculating # out in a shipping container for calculating the # out of a press sized printing sheet. (Slides 8-12 from the Packaging & Shipping Lecture)

11. How Many Sheets Are Needed?
Steps for Calculating # Out Per Sheet: Calculating the Number Out within a 2D Surface: When calculating how many will fit out you must test your printed item size against the sheet 2D surface size two times. We first test it if the objects are placed horizontally and then we test it with the objects placed vertically. For example, if we wanted to see how many 5in x 7in post cards will fit on one 23in x 35in press size sheet (PSS), we must see how many 5in x 7in cards fit on the 23in x 35in sheet and then test the cards as 7in x 5in going on to a 23in x 35in surface reversing the orientation. We are in essence rotating the cards 90 degrees to see if more will fit that direction/orientation.

12. How Many Sheets Are Needed?
Formula For Calculating Number Out (you must always test it 2 ways!)
Test Option 1:
Paper Size Length
Paper Size Width x =
Take the whole number result of each division problem (disregard the decimals… we can only print whole items) and multiply them together. This will be the total number of items that fit out in the box.
Item to be printed size length
Item to be printed size width
Test Option 2:
Paper Size Length
Paper Size Width x =
Item to be printed size width
Item to be printed size length

13. How Many Sheets Are Needed?
Test Option 1: How many 5in x 7in post cards can we get out of a 23in x 35in sheet of paper (PSS)?
Test Option 1:
23in
35in x =
Option 1= 4.6 x 5 or 4 x 5 since we only use the whole number.
4 x 5= 20 out (We can fit 20 5in x 7in postcards on one 23in x 35in sheet of paper)
5 in
7in
35in
20 out =
23in x 35in press sheet (PSS)
23in =
5in x 7in post cards

14. How Many Sheets Are Needed?
Test Option 2: How many 7in x 5in post cards can we get out of a 35in x 23in sheet of paper (PSS)?
Test Option 2:
23in
37in x =
Option 2= x 7 or 3 x 7 since we only use the whole number.
3 x 7= 21 out (We can fit 21 5in x 7in postcards on one 23in x 35in sheet of paper)
7 in
5 in
35in
21 out =
23in x 35in press sheet (PSS)
23in =
7in x 5in post cards

15. How Many Sheets Are Needed?
How many sheets of paper are needed to produce a job? Once we have calculated the total number of units that can be printed on one press sized sheet (PSS), we can finish the formula for calculating the total number of sheets needed. That formula is…
Quantity being produced =
Total number of sheets needed
# out per sheet
Always round up the number of sheets need to the next whole number. We can’t purchase partial sheets and we can’t round down or our final quantity produced will not be fulfilled.

16. How Many Sheets Are Needed?
How many 23in x 35in PSS are needed to print 1,500,000 5in x 7in post cards?
1,500,000 post cards =
71, sheets are needed
21 post cards per sheet
Always round up the number of sheets need to the next whole number. We can’t purchase partial sheets and we can’t round down or our final quantity produced will not be fulfilled.
71,429 sheets need to be purchased

17. Steps for Costing Press Impressions
Multiply sheets needed by passes through press to calculate press impressions
Sheets needed to produce job
# of sides of the sheet being printed
Total Press Impressions X =
This formula assumes that the printing presses we are using can only print on one side of the sheet at a time.
We will print the front and then flip the paper over and print the back (if necessary).

18. Steps for Costing Press Impressions
EXAMPLE 1:
Multiply sheets needed by passes through press to calculate press impressions
We are printing 1,500,000 postcards. The job prints 4/1 (CMYK over Black or CMYK on the front and Black on the back). We’ve already determined that the postcards will print 21 out on 71,429 sheets of 23in x 35in paper. How many PRESS IMPRESSIONS are required for this job?
2 sides are being printed
142,858 press impressions
71,429 sheets X =
This formula assumes that the printing presses we are using can only print on one side of the sheet at a time.
We will print the front and then flip the paper over and print the back (if necessary).

19. Steps for Costing Press Impressions
EXAMPLE 2: Try this one on your own
Multiply sheets needed by passes through press to calculate press impressions
We are printing 18,000,000 postcards. The job prints 4/4 (CMYK over CMYK or CMYK on the front and CMYK on the back). The postcards will print 21 out on 857,143 sheets of 23in x 35in paper. How many PRESS IMPRESSIONS are required for this job?
This formula assumes that the printing presses we are using can only print on one side of the sheet at a time.
We will print the front and then flip the paper over and print the back (if necessary).

20. Steps for Costing Press Impressions
EXAMPLE 2: Try this one on your own
Multiply sheets needed by passes through press to calculate press impressions
We are printing 18,000,000 postcards. The job prints 4/4 (CMYK over CMYK or CMYK on the front and CMYK on the back). The postcards will print 21 out on 857,143 sheets of 23in x 35in paper. How many PRESS IMPRESSIONS are required for this job?
2 sides are being printed
1,714,286 press impressions
857,143 sheets X =
This formula assumes that the printing presses we are using can only print on one side of the sheet at a time.
We will print the front and then flip the paper over and print the back (if necessary).

21. Steps for Costing Press Impressions
Divide press impressions by the impressions per hour of your printing press to calculate the length of time your job will be on press
Total Press Impressions
Length of time your job will be on press (you can round this number to 2 decimal places) =
Impressions Per Hour Your Press Is Going to Run

22. Steps for Costing Press Impressions
EXAMPLE 1
Divide press impressions by the impressions per hour of your printing press to calculate the length of time your job will be on press
We established in the last example that 142,848 press impressions are required to print 1,500,000 postcards 4/1 (CMYK over Black) 21 out on 71,429 sheets of 23in x 35in paper. How long will this job be on press if the press they are going to be printed on can run at 12,000 IMP/hr (impressions per hour)?
142,858 press impressions
11.9 hours
(you can round this number to 2 decimal places) =
12,000 impressions per hour

23. Steps for Costing Press Impressions
EXAMPLE 2: Try this one on your own
Divide press impressions by the impressions per hour of your printing press to calculate the length of time your job will be on press
We established in the last example that 1,714,286 press impressions are required to print 18,000,000 postcards 4/4 (CMYK over CMYK) 21 out on 857,143 sheets of 23in x 35in paper. How long will this job be on press if the press they are going to be printed on can run at 18,000 IMP/hr (impressions per hour)?

24. Steps for Costing Press Impressions
EXAMPLE 2: Try this one on your own
Divide press impressions by the impressions per hour of your printing press to calculate the length of time your job will be on press
We established in the last example that 1,714,286 press impressions are required to print 18,000,000 postcards 4/4 (CMYK over CMYK) 21 out on 857,143 sheets of 23in x 35in paper. How long will this job be on press if the press they are going to be printed on can run at 18,000 IMP/hr (impressions per hour)?
1,714,286 press impressions
95.24 hours
(you can round this number to 2 decimal places) =
18,000 impressions per hour

25. Steps for Costing Press Impressions
Multiply the number of hours on press by the press’ BHR to calculate the printing press run time costs (press impressions cost)
Total Run Time Costs for Press Impressions
# of hours on press X
Press BHR =

26. Steps for Costing Press Impressions
EXAMPLE 1
Multiply the number of hours on press by the press’ BHR to calculate the printing press run time costs (press impressions cost)
How much is the run cost for a printing job that requires 11.9 hours of run time on printing press with a $490/hr BHR?
11.9 hours X
$490 =
$5,831

27. Steps for Costing Press Impressions
EXAMPLE 2: Try this one on your own
Multiply the number of hours on press by the press’ BHR to calculate the printing press run time costs (press impressions cost)
How much is the run cost for a printing job that requires hours of run time on printing press with a $523/hr BHR?
95.24 hours X
$523 =
$49,810.52

28. HW: Press Impressions Q: Press Impressions
What’s Next?
HW: Press Impressions
Q: Press Impressions