Printing of Poster Size Maps

[annadobritt]

Anyone know of a company that prints poster-size maps for reasonable rates?

Thanks!

 

[Morrus]

I have the same question. Gamer Printshop is the one I'm familiar with, but the csts are prohibitive - it costs four times as much to print the maps for one adventure than it costs someone to buy an entire 12 adventure campaign path. I worked out it would cost a DM $3000 at their rates to print out all the battlemaps from the $49.99 War of the Burning Sky 4E campaign saga. Not a realistic option for non-millionaire gamers.

If anyone knows of any other options, I'm all ears!

 

[EP]

I have the same question. Gamer Printshop is the one I'm familiar with, but the csts are prohibitive - it costs four times as much to print the maps for one adventure than it costs someone to buy an entire 12 adventure campaign path. I worked out it would cost a DM $3000 at their rates to print out all the battlemaps from the $49.99 War of the Burning Sky 4E campaign saga. Not a realistic option for non-millionaire gamers.

If anyone knows of any other options, I'm all ears!

How many are there and what the heck were they planning to print on? I work at a large format printer in Canada but we deal with photo paper and other high quality inkjet stocks for museums and other exhibits. While I've looked into starting something up for map printing, we'd be on the pricey side.

Not $3000, mind you.

 

[Morrus]

How many are there and what the heck were they planning to print on? I work at a large format printer in Canada but we deal with photo paper and other high quality inkjet stocks for museums and other exhibits. While I've looked into starting something up for map printing, we'd be on the pricey side.

Not $3000, mind you.

10-12+ battlemaps per adventure x 12 adventures x $20-$25 each map plus shipping.

 

[EP]

Oh, wow, ok, yeah. That sounds right then. Although a bulk order should see a more dramatic decrease in price, but I'm not involved in sales at all. It does seems like there's no bulk discount at all.

Would that be double-sided? Gamer Printshop does strike me as a small-time print shop with a big internet presence, but quite a few places offer a smaller price for double-sided work as it uses less stock.

Sounds like an ultimate prize for the ultimate fan. $3000 worth of full-colour battlemaps is one hell of a collection.

 

[Morrus]

Oh, wow, ok, yeah. That sounds right then. Although a bulk order should see a more dramatic decrease in price, but I'm not involved in sales at all. It does seems like there's no bulk discount at all.

The discount that would bring it into an acceptable range for the average gamer down from $3000 would have to be pretty hefty! We're talking 95% or so!

Would that be double-sided? Gamer Printshop does strike me as a small-time print shop with a big internet presence, but quite a few places offer a smaller price for double-sided work as it uses less stock.

No, they're single sided. To their credit, they are beautifully done.

 

[jdrakeh]

I have the same question. Gamer Printshop is the one I'm familiar with, but the csts are prohibitive - it costs four times as much to print the maps for one adventure than it costs someone to buy an entire 12 adventure campaign path.

I think Gamer Printshop is setup more to deal with individuals looking to print campaign maps and cutom battlemaps for home use, as opposed to publishers looking to mass produce books for sale, hence the pricing. If I were you, I'd try a commercial poster printer like Print Direct or a commercial map printer like Eureka.

 

[EP]

I think Gamer Printshop is setup more to deal with individuals looking to print campaign maps and cutom battlemaps for home use, as opposed to publishers looking to mass produce books for sale, hence the pricing. If I were you, I'd try a commercial poster printer like Print Direct or a commercial map printer like Eureka.

Agreed. Gamer Printshop sounds like they use equipment similar to ours (though not as large) and they are not fast printers. Nor is the stock necessarily cheap either. It takes 10-15 minutes just to run off one row of maps that size and each row could only have two or three (depending on it's set up).

Find a shop with 4-colour presses, not printers. Any decent press shop will have a machine big enough to produce your work, it can be done faster and cheaper. Battlemaps can be done easily by the right place and that would be your best bet. If they have a press big enough to gang up two or more at a time, you'll be laughing.

 

[annadobritt]

I think Gamer Printshop is setup more to deal with individuals looking to print campaign maps and cutom battlemaps for home use, as opposed to publishers looking to mass produce books for sale, hence the pricing. If I were you, I'd try a commercial poster printer like Print Direct or a commercial map printer like Eureka.

Tried to find the pricing at Gamer Printshop and when u click on the order page, Page Not Found comes up. Same for the Contact Us Page. :/

 

[Noumenon]

I think Gamer Printshop is setup more to deal with individuals looking to print campaign maps and cutom battlemaps for home use, as opposed to publishers looking to mass produce books for sale

That excuse doesn't work. Morrus' example is for an individual who bought one adventure path and bought one copy of each map. So whether they are good at mass producing or not isn't an issue -- the pricing is not individual-friendly either.