the difference is in the cover

Why our benchers cost more — and why that’s exactly the point.

When you compare benchers, the price difference can look puzzling at first. Two booklets, same prayers, very different cost. The answer isn’t the printing inside — it’s how the cover is made. That single difference is what separates a true keepsake from something your guests leave behind on the table.

Finished Cohen Printing bencher with a full-color botanical garden cover
A finished Cohen Printing bencher — full-color cover, clean keepsake binding.

full color, not foil stamping

Most benchers on the market are foil stamped — names and a date pressed onto the cover in metallic foil. It works fine for a few simple lines of text, which is why nearly every one looks the same: big, bold Helvetica, no real design. Foil can’t reproduce heavy graphics or detailed artwork. If you want special artwork foil stamped, it requires making a custom plate — which takes extra time, costs more, and still doesn’t come out looking good.

We skip foil stamping entirely. We print your cover in full color — your artwork, your colors, your design, reproduced exactly as you see it, with no limits on detail. And we print it on a substantial 130 lb soft cover, not the thin, glossy stock everyone else uses.

a real new cover, not foil on the old one

Every bencher starts as a stock booklet from the publisher, with a thin 67 lb glossy cover. From there, there are only two ways to personalize it — and they are not equal.

The common way is to foil stamp onto that existing cover. The results are rarely sharp: because the foil is pressed again and again, the letters clog and become hard to read. Some go even cheaper and run the cover through a copy machine, then staple it onto the existing booklet — staples and all.

We make a brand-new cover instead — printed full color on heavy stock, bound cleanly with no staples showing. We want your bencher to be a souvenir your guests keep, not a giveaway booklet that gets handed out and tossed.

67 lb thin glossy stock cover
everyone else uses
130 lb heavy full-color soft cover
we build for your event

The standard bencher

  • Foil-stamped text only — no full-color artwork
  • Thin 67 lb glossy cover that bends and curls
  • Pressed foil clogs letters and is hard to read
  • Cover stapled or foil-stamped onto a stock booklet
  • Feels like a promotional handout

A Cohen Printing bencher

  • Full-color printing on a 130 lb soft cover
  • A brand-new cover built for your event
  • Your artwork reproduced exactly, with full detail
  • Bound cleanly — no staples showing
  • Feels like a finished, giftable keepsake

so why does it cost more?

We’ll be straight with you: printing a brand-new full-color cover, choosing heavier materials, and finishing every booklet with a clean binding takes more time, more skill, and better stock than foil-stamping a few lines onto an existing cover.

That extra cost isn’t markup — it’s the actual difference between a souvenir and a throwaway. You’re not paying for more pages. You’re paying for the finish that makes it worth keeping.

a souvenir, not something tossed in a closet

Think about what a bencher really is at your event. It isn’t a supply to be used up — it’s the small, personal thing each guest carries home with your names on it.

A thin, glossy bencher gets glanced at and forgotten in a drawer. A beautifully built one stays on the shelf, gets opened at the next Shabbat table, and quietly reminds people of your day every time. That’s the whole point of a keepsake.

You’re investing in something unique and special — a memento of a once-in-a-lifetime moment — not just another bencher to be thrown in the closet.