FAQs

We are based in Devon, in between the rolling hills of Newton Abbot, Totnes & Torquay, ideally situated next to the New South Devon Link Road making for the best transport links in and out of South Devon.

Our new online design module is software that allows you the customer to design directly here on our website. Depending on the product you have chosen the software will allow you to choose a pre-defined template and adjust or make changes as you see fit or the software also allows you to create a new bespoke unique design from scratch. The facility to upload your own images and store them on our servers. You will be able to select elements such as fonts from a pre-defined list.

This software not only will streamline the design process it will allow you the customer to cut out the middle man designer. The software natively outputs a PDF file ready for use when printing with us.

All designs created by you will automatically be saved for later use when returning.

We help your business by offering an efficient print portal with competitive pricing. This teamed up with the online design module streamlines the processes involved in purchasing print. Our level of customer service and turnaround times means you are always ahead of the competition in support and service.

We print in CMYK, so we recommend you uploading all images and artwork to us in CMYK!

Everything printed on paper will have a CMYK colour profile. Anything designed for on-screen viewing will have an RGB colour profile. If you were to leave your images in RGB and then we printed them, the printer will automatically convert them to CMYK during the printing process. The best-chosen preset for cmyk colour in print is Europe General Purpose 3, converting to this profile will adjust your ICC profile to the Coated Fogra39 profile for CMYK images, which is what we then use when we are printing.

The conversion from RGB to CMYK may slightly alter the balance of the image colour due to the difference in colour formats, resulting in a less vibrant image than you were expecting. CMYK does have a slightly less vibrant outcome compared to rgb, so we would advise to make tweaks to the image vibrancy / brightness & contrast before saving. Once you have followed the above steps, the printers will then not have to make colour conversions, giving you a truer print!

Please note that when you convert the files in Photoshop, you will need to 'save as' a jpeg file rather than 'export as' a png file. Images must be uploaded into the system in a converted jpeg file in order for the colour error messages to disappear.

Printed proofs are always recommended before placing a bulk order so you can check you are happy with the colours and content of the calendar. Please note that online previews are NOT a check for colour, only content! So if colour is critical in your artwork, please order a printed proof.

You can make simple changes to your images using Photoshop to ensure that they are correctly formatted. This can be done by a few simple steps.

If you have access to Photoshop, you can follow the below steps:

1. Go to the EDIT menu (this is in Photoshop - NOT the Design Studio)

2. Choose ‘Colour Settings’

3. In the ‘Settings’ section, the best-chosen preset is Europe General Purpose 3 – this will adjust your ICC profile o the coated Fogra39 profile for CMYK images which is what we then use when we are printing

4. Once you have completed the above, you need to open all your images

5. To convert them, use the image menu header and choose > Mode > CMYK, by selecting this, your images will then be converted to the correct colour for printing.

6. You will then need to adjust your colours and balance / saturation and what you then see on the screen will resemble what gets printed

If you then save all your images in a JPEG format, you can use these in your design online. JPEG format assists in keeping the file size down for creating your calendars on our website. You can also upload your images in PNG files; however, any other files may not be suitable to upload.

If you do not have Photoshop, we offer a cmyk conversion service where we can convert your images for you. The cost for this is £10.00 and covers all your images / logos. Please message us through our online ticketing system so we can raise an order for you. Please note that a printed proof will be required once images have been reuploaded before proceeding with a full print run.

DIGITAL PRINTING - What you need to know...

We are a digital printer and use the latest technology CANON printers. These are 'toner base printers' which is then 'fused' to the paper.

The colour is made up of 4 colours (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black) toners which are applied on top of the paper then get a hot roller process to 'fuse' the toners to the paper. This results in a more vibrant print - some people may say this is oversaturated, however, it is not, it is simply because there is no 'dry-back' to the paper like you would get with traditional wet ink printing method. Because there is no dry-back with digital print, your prints stay lush and vibrant.

As a recommendation we always say if colour is important to you then get a printed proof - this can save a lot of money in the long run if you are conscious of how your artwork/images are going to be printed and the colour output.

Colours viewed on screens are produced using light (RGB – Red, Green, Blue), while printed materials are created using inks (CMYK – Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black). Because these two systems generate colour in fundamentally different ways, it is not always possible to achieve an exact match between what you see on screen and the final printed result. While we take great care to ensure colours are as accurate and consistent as possible, slight variations between digital previews and printed products are normal and should be expected.

In addition, colours can vary depending on individual screen settings such as brightness, contrast, and calibration, meaning the same image may appear slightly different from one device to another. Printing variables, including paper type, finish (e.g. matte or gloss), and the printing process itself, can also influence how colours are reproduced.

We strongly advise everyone to order a printed proof with their bulk order to check for any potential colour issues before proceeding with the printing of a bulk order to prevent having to produce a reprint.

Our Proofing Options

We mention it all the time how important proofing is and how much we recommend getting a printed proof on bulk orders to check everything has been designed correctly and that you are happy with the printed colours. Whilst an online proof is great for checking through content, it does not give a true representation of the colours as there are screen glares which will affect the look of the image. We offer a few different levels of printing which are listed below:

1. No Proof (I accept the printed result)

This option is without any proofing at all, you create the design, place the order and then it goes straight for printing without any final checks done by you. You must know that if you place your order without proofing and then realise once you have received the order that there is a mistake such as a spelling, we are unable to do anything about this because you chose to not have this extra step in the process.

Online proof

We will update your design to your order and send it to you to be approved in your account panel. You can then go through each page and review your design. You can then make any changes and we can update this onto your order. You can get as many online proofs as you need to make sure your design is perfect, and it is completely free of charge!

Email Proof

If you choose this option, we will download a compressed version of your file and send this to you via email for you to review the PDF. It is worth noting that this proof option is low resolution to be able to fit into an email and will not appear as clear as it will when printed. This is a good way of checking spellings and that images are in the right places and is completely free of charge!

Unbound Printed Proof

We will print each page of your calendar and send it out to you. This is for you to be able to review all the content on each page, check spellings and images whilst the calendar is in front of you so that mistakes and issues with the calendar are clear to you. This will NOT be punched or bound, this is literally the printed sheets before any production has happened! This is paid for proof and can be added when you choose the product specification.

Fully Bound Printed Proof

We send you 1 copy of your calendar as it would look when printed, it will be punched and bound allowing you to see what the final product would look like. We recommend these proofs to check that you are happy with the colours of your images and that no important parts of text or images get cut off by the binding or punching holes. Please note that this is a paid for proofing option.

We print in CMYK, so we recommend you uploading all images and artwork to us in CMYK.

Everything printed on paper will have a CMYK colour profile. Anything designed for on-screen viewing will have an RGB colour profile. If you were to leave your images in RGB and then we printed them, the printer will automatically convert them to CMYK during the printing process. The conversion from RGB to CMYK may slightly alter the balance of the image colour due to the difference in colour formats, resulting in a less vibrant image than you were expecting.

If you make the colour conversions from RGB to CMYK before uploading images into the studio, the printers will then not have to make colour conversions, giving you a truer print.

CMYK does have a slightly less vibrant outcome compared to rgb, so we would advise to make tweaks to the image vibrancy / brightness & contrast before saving.

Please note that when you convert the files in Photoshop, you will need to 'save as' a jpeg file rather than 'export as' a png file. Images must be uploaded into the system in a converted jpeg file in order for the colour error messages to disappear.

Printed proofs are always recommended before placing a bulk order so you can check you are happy with the colours and content of the calendar. Please note that online previews are NOT a check for colour, only content! So if colour is critical in your artwork, please order a printed proof.

Resolution refers to the quality of the file you are going to print. we always recommend your files to be at 300dpi of their intended print size.

All professional software will output a PDF file at this high quality resolution however if the images you are using in your documents ARE NOT set at 300dpi before you put them in then they will not magically then become 300dpi when you output your files...

Certain software will not output your files as high res 300dpi, for instance Microsoft Power Point is a screen only application and not recommended to be used as a print application.

If you are in any doubt contact us here for advice, or send us a file so that we can check the quality of the file you are looking to print. If you have any hesitation in the quality you want to print, then we always recommed selecting a printed proof where available to ensure you are happy with the final outcome.

We print with both Offset (traditional lithographic) printing and Digital printing. We term ourself as a 'digital printer' as our Offset machinery has Direct Imaging technology. This means we image directly to the printing presses negating the need for the traditional plate making methods and the chemical processes associated with these traditional methods. The majority of our print however is achieved using the latest Digital Presses from CANON UK.

This makes us very environmentally friendly with a very low carbon footprint. Our offset press also runs without a water feed (most offset printing presses have a direct constant water feed) and with vegetable-based toners is one of the most ecological printing presses on the planet.

Our digital print equipment is the latest Canon graphic production units, we run multiples of these machines that can handle short to high run print on demand providing near offset printing quality. By running multiple machines we guarantee a 99% uptime which means we do not let our customers down.

There is no limit to the amount of items you can order with us! We do have some capped maximum order quantities on products and we do also have some minimum order quantities (such as x25 as a minimum design quantity on greeting cards). The minimum and maximum quantities are listed on all products within the price calculator pages.

There are up to three options for supplying or designing and customising a product. On every product page you are presented with these available options:

1. Custom Design: lets you create a bespoke design from scratch. Click it to open the design studio and use multiple tools to create your own design from a blank starting point

2. Upload Design: using this option, you can upload your own JPG, JPEG, GIF, PNG, EPS, AI, PDF and PSD images - use this option when supplying already designed - Print Ready Artwork (Also called Camera Ready)

3. Browse Design: If the product has pre-defined templates available for use, then select this option to choose from our pre-loaded templates. Work on them or customise them through our design studio.

The type of paper used for difference purposes is expressed in weight. In the countries following the European system, it is grammes per square metre (gsm or g/m² or simply g) and in the US system it is Pound (lb).

The paper used for writing/printing (letterheads and such stationery) is generally between 60 to 120 gsm (20 to 70 lb) and is called the paper or text stock. Anything heavier than this is considered the card stock, i.e. the paper used for business cards, postcards, greeting cards, etc.

We offer three main paper types in varying weights..

The first of this type is Gloss paper - a triple coated paper with a high sheen - the whitest paper point making it ideal for colour reproduction and vibrancy. This paper as it is triple coated with a gloss finish, provides a refraction of light and shows a highlight.

The second being Silk Paper - a coated paper that is slightly off-white - ideal for business documents or where the resulting finish is desired to be flat and smooth. Under a microscope silk paper has 'ridges' that soak up the light and therefore no refraction occurs.

The third being Matt Paper or often referred to as Uncoated or Bond - This finish of paper has no coating at all, has a high white starting point. As the paper is not coated, offset printing (wet ink) can dry back into the paper making the print appear duller. Digital printing uses toner and is fused on top of the paper, so although the colors are still vibrant the white areas of the print have no coating. This paper is used as standard for items such as letterheads and compliment slips.

All of our paper is sourced and purchased from FSC accredited suppliers.

We use the DPD next day delivery network to fulfill all of our deliveries. We have found these to offer the best all round service, not only including looking after your parcels during transit but also offering the best tracking method available

Every order has delivery tracking where you are given the name of the driver, shown his current route and you are given your delivery time to within the hour!!

All prices on this website are plus VAT at the current chargable rate unless the product is VAT exempt. To get a final VAT price for any item, simply add your items to the shopping cart - here you will see the final price you will be paying for your items. Any delivery charges will also be shown at the shopping cart and checkout stage.

Our dynamic price calculation system allows you to configure each product and see the pre-VAT price right on the product page before adding to the shopping cart or checkout stages.