That’s not true, especially when the cost of printing a poster at TEID is compared with the prices charged by commercial poster printers in Berkeley. In fact, if you had a 3-foot by 4-foot poster and took it to one of three Berkeley shops, you could pay up to 50 percent more.

According to a survey conducted by TEID earlier this month, printing and laminating a 3-by-4 poster with archival quality costs $282 at one store in Berkeley and $255 at another. The cost for having TEID do the job? $188. All three businesses can do rush jobs, and while the two downtown vendors charge a 100 percent rush fee on time and materials, TEID only charges a rush fee on the materials – not the labor. (In the spirit of full disclosure, a third business, which prints at lower resolution and lower quality, charges $100, but won’t commit to rush jobs.)

“When you factor in the conveniences of our location, and not having to search for parking in Berkeley, we think we’re more than competitive,” said TEID head Jane Tierney. “If employees truly compare the cost of our service against other vendors of similar professional quality, we think they’ll realize that we are very cost-effective.”

Tierney said TEID is also developing more flexible approaches to help Lab employees get the materials they need while staying within limited budgets. “We realize that funding is becoming even more critical, so we’re eager to talk to researchers about how we can apply our expertise to solving their presentation problems,” Tierney said.