Welcome to Crouser Guide for Digital Printing


Why this program rather than a printed book? Well, first, this program contains over 13,000 printed pages which would be impossible to provide in a printed book. Second, there are a number of interactive features which can only be done within a program (search, highlight, copy/paste, as well as move instantaneously between prices based on different papers, price levels and calculation methods). And third, we are able to provide you interim Internet updates that would not be feasible in book form. However, please note that all pages you select are printable by you should you choose.

What is the Crouser Guide? The Crouser Guides provide Logical Selling Prices for commercial print providers based on a combination of cost plus and market value approaches. These price guides are ready to implement either as stand-alone pricing programs or as a guide in developing prices in your estimating system.

Overview: following is a summary of issues and operations of this program. Should you wish more details about an issue or operation, click on the Drop Down menu in the top horizontal navigation bar and you may jump to the appropriate chapter.

Support: Should that not answer your question, please feel free to contact support by emailing clark@crouser.com or call Clark Workman at (304) 965-7100 between the hours of 9 am and 4:30 pm Eastern time.

How Prices are Established: Prices in this Guide are established based on market surveys of key price points and cost factors among printers throughout the United States and other public information available such as other surveys. This information is also updated throughout the year (to join our National Panel on Prices, Wages and Costs without cost or obligation, go to www.crouser.com).

This information is then compared with the cost of manufacturing utilizing cost models we have developed and apply base markups which yield an adequate return on investment and effort based on typical costs. This forms a floor under which the retail price should not fall. Then we compare the market value with the cost plus approach and allow the suggested price to rise to market assuming market exceeds cost plus. If not, the cost plus value forms a floor for prices.

Once armed with this information, we develop a rational price structure with variations for the cost of paper and second side pricing, for instance. For the long answer, see Chapter 5, How Prices Are Established under the Instruction Tab of the main program.

To use the Guide:


Step 1: Tabs—Select a category of your choice from among the tabs indicating the imaging types such as 8.5x11 text/offset (coated and uncoated) or 12x18 card/cover (coated or uncoated).

Step 2: Choose Paper Cost—select the paper cost (without markups) of the stock you are imaging from the drop down menu.

All Crouser Guides use three price levels: X for low; Y for middle; and Z for high. You may choose to use the price level that comes closest to your current price or your desired price (for more info on X, Y and Z price levels, see Chapter 5: How Prices were Developed as well as Chapter 1: Which Price Level Should I Use). You may, at all times, change between price levels using the Price Level drop down menu in the upper horizontal navigation bar (see Chapter 1: Which Price Level Should I Use for more details).

In addition, there are two methods of pricing the Second Side in this Digital Price Guide: Market or Take-away (see Chapter 7: Market or Take-Away for details on Second Side Pricing).

All values are only a click away at all times so you may easily switch between them by changing the drop down menus in the horizontal navigation bar.

Specific Help Chapters


Please consult the following chapters in the Drop Down Chapter Menus for more details on the following subjects

01 - What Price Level Should I Choose
02 - General Forms, Views and Sides-Overview(also Chapter 06)
03 - Customizing Bookmarks and Favorites
04 - Technical Supports and Updates
05 - How Prices Were Developed
06 - Form Views and Sides—Detailed
07 - Second Side Market or Take-Away
08 - Paper Stocks
09 - Printing (printing specific price pages for your use)
10 - Calculating Your Price (calculating your customer’s retail price)

TIP: Mix and match your prices between price levels by bookmarking individual pages for instant recall and create your own customized price list. See Bookmarks or Favorites later in this document for details.