The print rep in Austin told me my $300 file setup was the cheap part, and he was right

Charles Black · 2026-10-19T21:05:04.204639+00:00

Went to a small print shop off Burnet to get 500 catalogs done for my hardware store. I figured the design file was the pricey bit since I messed with it for two weekends. The rep, a guy named Luis, looked at my PDF for about 10 seconds and said the setup fee would be $300 because my margins were too tight for the bleed and every page would need hand fixing. I almost walked out. Turns out he was doing me a favor, because the first proof came back with two pages cut off and he redid the whole run for free. Now I want to know if there's a service that checks your files before you send them, or do I just pay the $300 setup every time and call it insurance? Any print brokers you actually trust for small runs like this?

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The print rep in Austin told me my $300 file setup was the cheap part, and he was right | Business Services - The Community Guide