What Do Onsert Cards Cost to Produce & Other Production Questions

by Bernard Martin

We've spend quite a bit of time researching what are the optimal sizes that onsert cards can be produced and conform to postal standards that we have gotten approval.  We have developed the following set of guidelines.
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THE PAPER: 18pts C1S
For the purpose of providing some "standards' we recommend inserts be produced on 18 point cardstock.  This is the same cardstock that is commonly used for your business cards and postcards. “C1S” stands for Coating on 1 Side, uncoated on the other. The coated front provides more vibrant colors, while the back which is uncoated results in duller colors and is easy to write on. Thicker or thinner stock could be used and both sides could be coated, but in order to provide some costs below we need to establish what we believe would be the most commonly used paper stock to create onsert cards. 
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LENGTH & HEIGHT OF THE SAMPLE CAVITY
The simplest answer is that the sample cavity can be practically any size you desire.  But just because it can be produced does not mean that it is feasible for packing, shipping, postal delivery or fit in magazine racks.

With the myriad of magazine sizes on the market suffice to say the whether using a header style onsert card or a spine style onsert card the onsert cavity is the important aspect of the onsert card.  Here's some simple rules of thumb:

• Essentially, the back of the onsert card is the size of the magazine, you had the width of the cavity to the get your overall size.
• We recommend that the " thickness" mirror as closely as possible the thickness of your magazine.  By keeping the onsert thickness close to the magazine thickness samples won't get crushed when stacked or packaged in boxes,
• The length of the onsert cavity can be nearly as long as the length of the magazine.  However, to conform to postal regulations we need to encapsulate the sample inside the cavity so there has to be enough rigid area on the ends to accomplish that requirement.

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WIDTH OF THE SAMPLE CAVITY
As a general rule the width of the cavity should not be smaller than 1" wide. According to Glenn Marino, One inch  "is the smallest that we can produce. Even if we could make it smaller I dont think that it could be erected and function properly."

The width can be pretty large, but keep in mind that anything sitting too high in a magazine stand would require thicker paper than 18 pt to support the weight an don't "fall over"  So for the purpose of providing some ideas of standards we're going to make the following 'standard" sizes so we can give you some cost estimates.

The 3 sizes are:

• Small - 1" wide cavity
• Medium - 1 3/4" wide cavity
• Large - 2 1/2" cavity

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THE DIMENSIONS
The dimensions below reflect both a vertical cavity along the spine and a horizontal cavity along the top, head,  in all 3 sizes. As we explained about we are basing this on  using a standard magazine size of 8" x 10-3/4".

That means that the Onsert cards would be:
12.693" x 11.8125" flat folds to 8 ¼" x 10 3/8" with 15/16" sample cavity and finishing with a die cut, apply 15/16" x 4 ¾ window patch, fold and glue flat insert.

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