Short-Run Printing in St. Cloud, MN
The print shop that says yes to a hundred pieces. No minimums on most of what we do, no order you have to talk your way into, and nobody trying to sell you four times what you need.
Small orders are hard to place. They shouldn't be.
Most commercial printing is priced and staffed for volume. Call a large shop about a hundred flyers and you get a polite no, a minimum you can't reach, or a price plainly built for a job ten times bigger. Go online instead and you fight a template, upload into a black hole, and wait on shipping from three states away — with nobody to call when the file turns out to be wrong.
Crown Press is built the other way around. We're a family-owned shop in Sauk Rapids running digital presses that need no plates and no long make-ready, which is exactly what makes a hundred-piece run sensible rather than insulting. The same person quotes your job, proofs it, and hands it across the counter when it's done.
That isn't a limitation. Offset presses, bindery, wide-format and a full mailing operation all sit in the same building, so a short run can grow into a real campaign without you ever changing vendors. It just means small orders are a category we actively want — not one we put up with.
The smallest order
we’ll take, by product.
No asterisks and no “call for details.” Where a genuine minimum exists, it says so — and further down we explain whose rule it is.
| Product | Smallest order |
|---|---|
| Business Cards | No minimum |
| Brochures & Flyers | No minimum |
| Menus | One season at a time |
| Postcards & Direct Mail | Small mailings welcome |
| Business Forms | Short runs welcome |
| Raffle Tickets | No minimum |
| Letterhead & Envelopes | Order a box, not a pallet |
| Booklets & Catalogs | Short runs welcome |
| Wedding Invitations | Print your guest count |
| Announcements | Print your guest list |
| Banners & Posters | One is a real order |
| Labels & Stickers | Short runs welcome |
| Promotional Products | Supplier minimums apply |
| Graphic Design | One file is fine |
| Copy Center | One copy |
How we make short runs work
Six things that let a small order get treated like a real one.
No minimum on most products
Business cards, flyers, copies, banners, labels, invitations, forms — order the quantity you actually need. The honest exceptions are named further down this page rather than buried in a footnote.
Digital, so the math works
Digital presses skip plates and make-ready, so the cost of starting a job is small. That's the whole reason a hundred-piece run can be priced sensibly instead of carrying a big-press setup you didn't use.
A real proof, every time
Nothing goes on paper until you've seen it and said go. On a short run there's no margin for a wasted print, so the proof matters more, not less.
Reorder without starting over
Once your file is set up here, ordering the same thing again is a phone call. Print what this quarter needs and come back — you don't have to over-order to protect yourself against setup.
One person, start to finish
You talk to someone who knows your job, not a queue. On a small order that's the difference between it getting done and it getting deprioritized behind something bigger.
Straight talk about the exceptions
Where a minimum genuinely exists we say so up front and tell you whose rule it is. You'll never discover one after you've committed.
Where minimums genuinely do exist
- Promotional products. Branded apparel, drinkware, pens and totes carry minimums set by the manufacturers, not by us. We can't wave those away — what we can do is steer you toward the items with the lowest ones. See promotional products.
- Bulk and EDDM postage. Printing a small mailing has no minimum. Qualifying for USPS bulk or Every Door Direct Mail rates does, and those thresholds belong to the Postal Service. We'll show you exactly where the break points fall so you can decide whether it's worth reaching one. See direct mail.
- Very large quantities. The opposite problem, and worth saying: past a certain point digital stops being the cheap option and offset takes over. If your run has crossed that line we'll tell you and quote it the cheaper way, even though it's a different press.
Questions small customers actually ask.
More in the general printing FAQ, or call (320) 240-8880 and ask a person.
Am I too small to bother you?
No — and it's the question we hear most. A hundred business cards for someone going out on their own, one banner for a fundraiser, a couple of pads of work orders, fifty copies of a proposal: those are ordinary orders here, quoted properly rather than brushed off. Small businesses and one-person operations are a large share of who we print for.
Is a short run more expensive per piece?
Yes, and that's true at every printer — it's arithmetic, not a penalty. The cost of setting a job up gets divided across however many pieces you print, so a hundred costs more each than a thousand. What matters is the total: paying a bit more per card for a hundred cards beats paying for a thousand you'll throw away when your phone number changes.
Why can't you just publish a price for 100 business cards?
Because that one number would be wrong for most people who read it. Stock, finish, one side or two, and turnaround all move it. We'd rather ask four quick questions and send you an itemized number that's actually right — usually within one business day. How printing is priced explains what drives it.
Can I reorder the same job later without setting it up again?
Yes. We keep your file, so a reorder is a phone call and a confirmation. That's what makes printing small quantities practical — you're not over-ordering to avoid a second setup.
What if the next order is much bigger?
Then it runs offset instead of digital and the per-piece price drops. Same shop, same contact, same file — nothing to move and no new vendor to vet. A lot of our long-term clients started with a hundred of something.
Tell us how small
Whatever the quantity, we’ll quote it properly — usually within one business day, and with no attempt to talk you into more.
Rather just talk?(320) 240-8880Where small orders start
A hundred pieces is a real order.
Tell us what you need and how many. We'll send an itemized quote, usually within one business day.