A pdf pattern is almost all profit. A well known seller of patterns can sell thousands of pdfs in one day like Missouri Star Quilt Company so even a special of $2 a pattern, it makes money. A paper pattern has to be printed, packaged, and shipped. Not as much profit per pattern and usually it's spread out over time as orders come in. I bought a $99 dollar printer that one cartridge will print 2500 pages. I haven't ran out of ink since I bought it about three years ago. It doesn't do color but I can send all pdf files to my Kindle and that is like having a full color pattern in my hands. I keep all pdfs on a memory stick and all are in the cloud storage so I can access them from any device anytime.