Color vs black-and-white plan printing: what it costs and how to pay for color only where it matters
Color is the line item that surprises people. A set that costs $48 in black-and-white costs $114 in full color, and if you sent one PDF and clicked “Color,” you paid for color on twenty sheets that had no color on them. This post explains the prices and the fix.
The prices
| Sheet | B&W 20# | B&W heavy coverage | Color, line work | Color heavy coverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ARCH C 18×24 | $1.25 | $3.95 | $4.00 | $14.95 |
| ARCH D 24×36 | $2.00 | $4.50 | $4.75 | $19.95 |
| ARCH E 36×48 | $2.99 | $8.95 | $9.00 | $39.95 |
| 30×42 | $3.00 | $7.95 | $8.00 | $34.95 |
| Ledger 11×17 | $0.35 | $0.45 | $0.50 | $1.25 |
| Letter | $0.10 | $0.20 | $0.25 | $0.60 |
Two color rates, because color is not one thing. Line work is a drawing with color on it: color-coded MEP, red markups, a logo in the title block — a few cents of ink on a 24×36. Color heavy coverage is a page where ink covers 12% or more of the sheet, or that carries a rendering or photo about 3 × 3 inches or larger: a rendering, a colored house elevation, a landscape plan with filled beds, a site plan over an aerial. Those put $2–3 of ink on the same sheet, and they pay for it. The scan that runs after upload measures coverage on every page, so a 30-sheet set with two renderings pays the heavy rate on two pages, not thirty.
Two B&W rates, for the same reason. A full-page rendering sent as black-and-white still covers most of the sheet in ink; it just prints in grey. A page printed in B&W bills at B&W heavy coverage when it has grey-scale ink on 15%+ of the sheet — a rendering, photo or shaded presentation board. On ARCH D that is $4.50 instead of $2.00, still under the color line-work rate. Line-work plans, sections, details, notes sheets and hatched elevations stay at the B&W rate; a sheet printed over an aerial photo or with large solid fills can count. The same scan checks every page billed at B&W — every page of a B&W order, and the pages without color when you choose “color only where it appears” — whenever the file can be read in the browser, and looks at a borderline page again, in more detail, before it counts.
For comparison: Plans4Less publishes $3.75 for ARCH D color, a dollar under our line-work rate. What we do that almost nobody else does: we bill color per page. Upload a mixed set and every page is checked — the ones with color bill at the color rate, the rest at B&W. On a typical set where 20–30% of sheets carry color, that beats any flat color price. FedEx Office and Staples quote large-format color per store; typical figures we’ve been told by customers are $10–$20 a sheet.
Why color costs more
Ink. A B&W plot of a plan sheet on 20# bond uses a small amount of black pigment; a full-color plot lays down four inks and, on a rendering or a filled site plan, a lot of them — which is exactly why those pages have their own rate. A rendering printed in B&W is the same story in one color, which is why B&W has a heavy rate too. Color plotting is also slower per sheet, and a color-heavy sheet needs a moment to dry before it’s rolled. None of that is padding; it’s what the sheet costs to make.
Pay for color only on the sheets that have it
Most plan sets have between two and five sheets where color carries information:
- A rendered elevation or perspective for the owner or the planning board
- A site plan with colored zoning or wetlands overlays
- An MEP coordination sheet where each trade is a color
- A landscape or lighting plan
- A color-coded demolition or phasing plan
Everything else — floor plans, sections, details, schedules, notes — was drawn in black line and reads identically in B&W.
You no longer have to split the PDF to pay for that. Upload the whole set as one file and choose “color only where it appears”: the scan after upload finds the color pages and bills them at the color rate, and the rest at B&W. One line item, one box, one tracking number, one invoice. One line also keeps the whole set together for the volume discount; split the color sheets onto a line of their own and each line counts toward it separately.
| 24-sheet ARCH D set, 4 sheets with color | Cost |
|---|---|
| All 24 in B&W | $48.00 |
| Color only where it appears: 20 B&W + 4 color | $40.00 + $19.00 = $59.00 |
| All 24 in color | $114.00 |
Paying for color only where it is costs about a fifth more than all-B&W instead of more than twice as much. On three copies it is $159.30 (72 sheets, so the 10% volume discount applies) versus $307.80 for all-color — a $148.50 difference on a single permit submission. The math assumes the four color sheets are line work; a rendering among them (one about 3 × 3 inches is enough) bills at the color heavy-coverage rate, $19.95.
When all-color is right
Presentation sets for owners and planning boards. Marketing sets for a developer’s leasing office. Color-coded field sets where every sheet has trade colors. In those cases the color is the point, and you should price it in; a 24-sheet color-coded set at $114 is still less than $168 in B&W at a FedEx Office counter. A set that is all renderings bills at the heavy-coverage rate, $19.95 a sheet — and printed in B&W instead, renderings usually bill at B&W heavy coverage, $4.50 a sheet, not $2.00.
One file-prep note
If a sheet is going to print in B&W, make sure the PDF’s colored linework has enough contrast when converted to grayscale. Light yellow and cyan lines nearly vanish in B&W. Our file prep page covers the export settings.
More worked pricing on the pricing questions page.
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