Monday to Friday 08:30 until 17:30

(except for public holidays)

£50. We are a trade printer only.

Yes. Please call us on 01293-616848

We offer products to cover most environmental concerns. We use FSC certified papers and water-based inks.

We reduce and recycle waste and are IS14001 Certified.  All print equipment is low energy certified and our HP Indigo is certified carbon balanced. For more information, check out our Green Choices page.

We typically turn most jobs round in a few days depending on workload. We prioritise around demand and can often deliver in just a couple of days for most urgent jobs.

You can pick up from us on Manor Royal in Crawley by arrangement during normal working hours. We may be able to arrange collection outside of these hours in some circumstances.

Yes.

Print ready PDF with crop marks and 3mm bleed.

Packaged Illustrator Ai / EPS or packaged Indesign files with links and fonts included.

The term “print-ready”, refers to a file that has all the specifications needed to produce a high-resolution print product, without requiring any additional alteration or intervention from our studio.

Our print studio team charge for print ready design and any major tweaks to artwork received as PDF or in Canva for example.

Our studio team always check artwork prior to print and proof back to you prior to print. This also serves to check errors in layout and spelling. Whilst our teams do check spelling, it is not always easy to check industry terminology for instance.

Noted here is a list of common factors that prevent a file from being Print-Ready:

1. Document is sized incorrectly.
2. Colours set to RGB (red, Green, Blue) instead of CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key (black).
3. Spot colours are not properly defined.
4. Client has not allowed ample margins (putting information or borders closer than 3mm from any trimmed edge).
5. Image resolution not high enough (should be minimum 300 dpi at 100% size).
6. Bleeds not set up correctly (artwork should extend at least 3mm past crop marks).
7. Crop marks missing or incorrectly placed.
8. Missing fonts or images.
9. Poor contrast between text and background.
10. Spelling and grammar errors.

The file type is also important, it’s required to be a print ready PDF which includes crop marks and at least 3mm bleed.  We do accept files in other formats such as packaged Ai/EPS (Adobe Illustrator), Psd/Jpeg (Photoshop) or Indd (Indesign). The term packaged refers to the source file being collected along with all images files and sometimes fonts

Files created with Microsoft programs – like Word, Publisher or PowerPoint – often require some level of intervention and conversion to make them Print-Ready. The file may output to your desktop printer just fine, but these types of software are rarely well-suited for output on a commercial printing press. As noted, while we will often tweak free of charge, we reserve the right to charge studio time to correct anything preventing the items going to print. We will always chat with you first about this.

If you have additional questions about Print-Ready files, just speak to the team.

With a team consisting of decades of print experience, we can answer all your questions.

To do so, download your design in PDF Print format first. When designing for print, we suggest using CMYK colours to help ensure your design is printer friendly.

Yes, we need the work to be print ready. This means that we need to receive a Vector, PDF (etc) file with 3mm bleed. We reserve the right to charge for tweaks to artwork to make them print ready. We will inform you of the cost prior to carrying out the work.

We use a variety of paper stocks all of which are FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified. This ensures that the environment is protected, and further trees are planted to make our work sustainable.

We are also ISO14001 certified, so you can be assured that we are doing all we can to protect the planet.

Paper weight selection.

The type of paper we used is selected by appropriate weight. We use different types of weight of paper depending on what our clients want to use the finished print items for.

Paper stocks are measured in gsm (grams per square metre). The higher the weight, the higher the perceived quality. Copier paper for example is around 80-90 gsm.

Selecting the right paper stock is important to the perceived quality of the finished items. For instance, for leaflets for letterbox drops, we would select at least 170gsm to stop the leaflets folding or being destroyed while being posted.

Some print companies will use lower quality (low gsm) paper to hit a price point. This can make the product not fit for purpose.

A benchmarking for paper stocks:

• 90gsm:  Uncoated and ideal for large quantities of text, so ideal for books, printing documents and headed paper.
• 130gsm: Best used with a matte or gloss finish making it ideal for printing posters, magazines, brochures, and flyers.
• 170gsm: Used for thin paperboard. It’s a versatile type of paper, available in recycled versions, coated, matte, gloss and even satin. It’s used primarily for catalogues, presentations, certificates, and posters.
• 350gsm: Ideal for business cards, covers and invitation cards as it’s a semi-rigid paperboard.
• 380gsm: One of the heaviest paper types, 380gsm is best used for folders, packaging, rigid book covers, product tags and display covers.

As noted, these are only a guide. Our team are always on hand to discuss your print requirements and ensure that the product meets with your expectations.

Coated papers are papers that are coated with glossy, semi-gloss, or matte finishes.

Magazine papers are typically coated. A paper does not have to be “glossy” though to be considered as coated.

Coated paper has an agent added to its surface to improve brightness, smoothness, or other printing properties. Once coating is applied to the paper, rollers help to “polish” the paper.  It fills in the tiny pits and spaces between the fibres, giving it a smooth, flat surface.

What does this coating do for the print? First, it makes the printed material shinier and brighter, which is why it is typically used for brochures, glossy photos, booklets, and more. Second, the coating restricts how the paper absorbs ink, helping to prevent the ink from bleeding. This is a desirable trait for complex designs or images that must be sharp. Finally, coated paper is more resistant to dirt, moisture, and wear, which will help it to last longer.

Coated paper lets the ink settle on the surface, this ensures that the colour is deep and vibrant. Uncoated paper absorbs the ink, which can make the colour slightly dull and not as prominent. The difference will be minor but nevertheless noticeable for light colours.

Fact – China Clay was used to make coated paper – The Eden project in Cornwall UK is built in a reclaimed China Clay pit.

Uncoated paper does not have a coating to fill in between the fibres. It is generally rougher than coated paper and tends to be more porous, which makes it very absorbent.  Images printed on uncoated paper will be softer and less crisp. Uncoated papers are great options for novels or books that you will be writing in.

The rough texture of uncoated paper is a great option for some art books too.

When people talk about Pantone colours, usually they’re referring to the colour specified in the Pantone Matching System (PMS). This is a proprietary, standardized colour system used across many industries in manufacturing, which describes colours by an allocated number (e.g. “PMS 125”). The Pantone system is the standard language for colour communication from designer to manufacturer to retailer to customer. The word “Pantone” comes from the company that invented the system, Pantone Inc. The Pantone system is now largely accepted and relied upon by printers, manufacturers, marketers, artists, designers, and others.

Saddle stitching and perfect binding for brochures.

Wire binding, spiral binding and ring-bound for all other types of documentation.

Yes, we install internally and externally. We are a registered Safe Contractor too and our team are trained for working at heights.

Yes.

Mostly A4, and A5. A6 is also an option.

A4, A5 and A6 (pocket size).

Our standard machines will print up to 1500mm.

We can print up to 3000mm on our larger machines however the lead times increase by 1-2 days.

Yes, we have an experienced in-house design team who work from our studio. They can create from your ideas or brief. It’s good to talk and discover what your expectations and needs are.

What is a vector file?

Vector files use mathematical equations, lines, and curves with fixed points on a grid to produce an image. There are no pixels in a vector file. A vector file’s mathematical formulas capture shape, border, and fill color to build an image. Because the mathematical formula recalibrates to any size, you can scale a vector image up or down without impacting its quality.

What is the difference between raster and vector files?

Raster and vector files are the two most popular formats used for visual content. They represent images in very different ways, so there’s a lot to consider when deciding which one to use. Some of the main differences between raster and vector include:

Resolution

One of the main differences between raster and vector files is their resolution. The resolution of a raster file is referred to in DPI (dots per inch) or PPI (pixels per inch). If you zoom in or expand the size of a raster image, you start to see the individual pixels.

Raster files display a wider array of colors, permit greater color editing, and show finer light and shading than vectors — but they lose image quality when resized. An easy way to tell if an image is raster or vector is to increase its size. If the image becomes blurred or pixelated, it’s most likely a raster file.

With vector image files, resolution is not an issue. You can resize, rescale, and reshape vectors infinitely without losing any image quality. Vector files are popular for images that need to appear in a wide variety of sizes, like a logo that needs to fit on both a business card and a billboard.

Uses

Digital photographs are usually raster files. Many digital cameras automatically shoot and save photos as raster files — and the images you see online are often rasters, too. Raster files are also commonly used for editing images, photos, and graphics.

Vector files work better for digital illustrations, complex graphics, and logos. That’s because the resolution of vectors remains the same when resized, making them suitable for a wide variety of printed formats.

Some projects combine both raster and vector images. For example, a brochure may use vector graphics for the company logo but raster files for photography.

File sizes

Raster files are generally larger than vector files. They can contain millions of pixels and incredibly high levels of detail. Their large size can impact device storage space and slow down page loading speeds on the web. However, you can compress raster files for storage and web optimization to make sharing faster and easier.

Vector files are much more lightweight than raster files, containing only the mathematical formulas that determine the design.

Compatibility and conversion

You can open raster files in many different apps and web browsers, making them easy to view, edit, and share. Vector files aren’t as accessible — many vector file types require specialized software to open and edit the files. Though it can present some challenges, it’s possible to convert vector files to raster or raster files to vector when needed.