Question white UV ink pricing

[CC-CMYK]

Hi everyone! We recently got a flatbed UV printer and I am still figuring out my pricing.
Do you charge more for designs that use a white underbase?
Thanks!

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

Yes. if you have staggered heads to allow white to be printed on same pass, not much. If it requires its own pass, much more.

 

[Superior_Adam]

yes white ink cost more than CMYK and will slow the printer down.

 

[signheremd]

Yes. Have to figure for the printing taking longer to print and you may have anywhere from 1-4 layers of white to get the desired effect

 

[Grizzly]

For us most of the products that require white ink are naturally more expensive. We mostly use white ink for acrylic photos and so we charge a premium for those anyway.
Our white ink is also almost double the cost of the color ink.

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

We use aftermarket ink, so it's like $45/liter, white, clear or CMYK. Since we're mostly a Mimaki shop, all the printers tend to have 2+ channels dedicated to white, so we can get a good thick pass and color on one go, it tends to be about a 20-30% up-charge. Then again, I just price stuff off the cuff and as of late, more jobs are fixing other people's printers than printing with them. So, my pricing may be way out of touch.

On some items, where it's full bleed, and we might have issues with adhesion, white spray or roll on paints are used instead.

 

[czar2178]

For us most of the products that require white ink are naturally more expensive. We mostly use white ink for acrylic photos and so we charge a premium for those anyway.
Our white ink is also almost double the cost of the color ink.

I completely agree with this perspective. In our experience, white ink is typically used on high-value items. For example, we often apply it to mirrored acrylic, usually for high-quality photo prints. Early on, when we first got our flatbed printer, we overanalyzed pricing for white and clear inks. However, we eventually simplified our approach by significantly increasing the rate for custom materials to account for the higher ink costs.

Now, we keep our pricing straightforward by charging $XX per square foot, including the material. Of course, additional charges apply for specific add-ons, but this base pricing method has streamlined our process. Just to clarify, I’m specifically referring to printing here.

 

[Pauly]

This should be common sense.

if the print takes longer = you should be charging more.
otherwise your shop is now making less per hour.