We have experience of handling a vast range of print jobs - from billboard advertising, to credit-card sized concertinas, from brochures and stationery to vehicle livery. Over the years we have built strong relationships with a national network of litho, digital and large format printers. We will select the most suitable printer for your job to assure that the job comes back exactly how we envision it, and on deadline.

In any project which requires print, regardless of size or quantity, we will get you to sign off the artwork prior to it going to the printers. This means that you know exactly what will be printed and for future reference there can be no confusion over what was the final version. Once this is signed off, the artwork is prepared and supplied to our printers.

Once the printer has prepared the artwork, we receive a set of colour proofs which we will check over with you. This allows us to double check that no fonts or images have been corrupted by the print preparation. The job is then printed, checked on receipt to us and finally delivered to you.

Options

There are a vast range of options available in all print jobs; paper stock, binding, colours and special finishes to name but a few. You could write a book on the subject but we have summarised some of the more major points for you to have a think about.

Stock

The choice of paper stock on which your job is printed will make a massive difference to the look and feel of the final job. We've all been handed business cards which feel as substantial as a post-it note and a good design can be made to feel cheap by a wrong stock choice. We will advise you every step of the way to avoid this and give you the various options which would be most suitable.

Gloss - Glossy stock has a bad name at the moment. Commonly used for nightclub flyers and promotional leaflets, it is usually seen on lightweight stock and can come across a bit tacky. If used on a heavier stock though, with good use of images, it can give a strong photographic feel. For speed of turnaround, gloss is sometimes used as it dries quickly.

Uncoated - An uncoated, natural stock can give a classy feeling of quality, it also bulkier than gloss and silk so can feel more substantial. The textured surface has greater character than gloss or silk, so a simple design can work well, letting the stock do the talking. However, as the surface is more porous, the ink soaks in and can do this in a bit of an uneven way. Therefore, if the design relies on large areas of solid colour or fine detail, uncoated may be unsuitable.

Silk (or Satin) - This is by far the most common choice as it takes positives from both of the above. It is quick drying and gives good colour and detail definition, whilst not giving the brash glossy effect which can sometimes come with a gloss.

To help you to visualize how your document will appear when finally printed, we can arrange for a one off 'dummy' to be mocked up in the chosen stock before the job goes to print

Grammage

The density of all types of paper and paperboard is expressed in terms of grams per square metre (g/m²). This is often referred to as grammage or the weight of the paper. Grams per square metre is usually shortened to 'Gsm' and to put this into context, typical office paper is 80Gsm and a business card 350Gsm

Paper sizes

Below are the paper sizes which are industry standard for finished sizes. The height/width ratio is always (1:1.41). Meaning an A4 sheet is half the size of an A3. An A5 sheet is half the size of an A4 etc etc. A4 is used for office documents. A6 is used for postcards.

• A0 - 1189mm x 841mm
• A1 - 841mm x 594mm
• A2 - 594mm x 420mm
• A3 - 420mm x 297mm
• A4 - 297mm x 210mm
• A5 - 210mm x 148mm
• A6 - 148mm x 105mm
• A7 - 105mm x 74mm

As most jobs are printed onto large sheets and then guillotined, with certain jobs, the slightest reduction in the dimensions of a job can allow another row of, say flyers, to be fitted onto a sheet. We will always make you aware when this is the case.

Finishes

Matt lamination - Often used for business cards and for covers of brochures. The application of a transparent laminate to the printed job gives the finished job a smooth, high quality feel. The lamintion prevents you from writing on the surface with a ball point pen but helps protect the document, especially if printed in pale colours.

Gloss lamination - As above but rather than a smooth satin finish, this lamination gives a highly glossy, magazine-cover style finish.

Spot UV - Best used in conjunction with a matt lamination, a Spot UV gives a shiny varnish to any chosen areas (usually on the covers) of a document. This has the affect of highlighting and drawing attention to that part of the design, whether it be a logo, title or section of an image. Embossing - Again, a finish which adds quality and another dimension to a design (usually a cover). Dies can be made to any shape ie to highlight text, an image or logo and can be embossed onto most types of paper.

Debossing - The same process as above but, in this case, creating depressions rather than the raised impressions found in embossing.

Foiling - As with embossing, a bespoke block can be created to allow the application of a foil to an area of the design. Foils come in a range of colours beside the typical gold and silver and when used with an emboss or deboss can be really impressive.

Duplexing - If a job requires a really heavy stock (outside of industry standards), duplexing is the process of laminating 2 boards together ie two 270Gsm boards would give a finished weight of 540Gsm. The good thing about this process is that the two boards don't necessarily have to be the same colour, and its often better if they aren't.

Finishing

Saddle stitching - One of the simplest and most common binding techniques. The pages, which have to be in multiples of 4, are placed over a "saddle" and then stapled along the spine. Usually used for booklets, brochures and newsletters, this process is for documents with a page count of between 8 and approx 40 (any more and you move into Perfect Binding territory - see below).

Perfect binding - This is a form of adhesive binding where the pages are gummed into a spine (similar to paperback novel binding or think National Geographic). Commonly used for brochures, annual reports and manuals it gives a substantial feel to a document with the advantage of a printable spine. As the pages are affixed into a spine, there is a minimum number of pages required to make this process possible (ie 32 pages depending on stock).

Bespoke binding - The above binding techniques are by far the most common but we are always keen to experiment with new, bespoke solutions, whether these involve ribbon, twine or any other way of binding paper together!

Folding - Single sheet leaflets, which don't need to be bound, can be folded a number of times in a number of ways. These include the roll-fold, gate-fold and concertina fold, all giving different effects and encouraging the reader to read them in different ways.

Once the job is complete, we can also handle shrink wrapping or envelope printing and mass distribution if required.