Digital printing

Our wide-format machines print in a single continuous piece up to roll width, which covers the overwhelming majority of jobs — banners, wall graphics, exhibition panels, window film and display boards all come off in one piece with no join.

Beyond that width, a graphic is tiled into panels and butted together on site, which is normal practice for large wall coverings and hoardings and is planned into the artwork so the joins fall somewhere sensible rather than through a face or a logo. Length is rarely the constraint. If you tell us the finished dimensions and where it is going, we will tell you straight away whether it is a single piece or a panelled job.

We print with latex inks, which have far better UV stability than the solvent inks they replaced. On exterior work with a suitable over-laminate, expect three to five years before any noticeable fade, and often considerably longer on a north-facing or sheltered position.

Position matters more than the print itself. A south-facing banner in full sun all day works much harder than the same graphic under a canopy. Reds and some blues shift before other colours do, which is worth knowing if your brand depends on one. If a graphic is genuinely temporary — an event, a promotion, a six-week campaign — say so and we will specify something cheaper rather than selling you durability you are not going to use.

No. One panel is as straightforward as fifty, and single one-offs are a normal part of the week here. There is no setup charge waiting to catch you out on a small job.

Digital printing has no plates and no origination cost, so the economics are quite different from screen or litho printing. The per-item price does come down on longer runs because handling and finishing get more efficient, but a single sign is a perfectly sensible thing to order and we will not push you towards a quantity you do not need.

Vector artwork is ideal — a PDF, EPS, AI or SVG with the fonts converted to outlines. Vector scales to any size without losing quality, so the same file works for a business card and a building wrap.

For photographic images, send the largest original you have, straight from the camera or the stock library rather than pulled off a website. A picture that looks fine on screen at 800 pixels wide has nothing left to give at two metres. If all you have is a logo lifted from an old website, tell us — redrawing it as clean vector artwork is a small one-off cost and it means every future job prints sharply. We check every file before it goes on the machine and come back to you if there is a problem, rather than printing something we know will disappoint.

Yes. Alongside self-adhesive vinyl and banner PVC, we print onto foamex and PVC board, correx, aluminium composite and acrylic, and we can mount printed vinyl to almost any rigid substrate.

The material is chosen for where the job is going. Correx is fluted plastic — cheap, light, weatherproof and the obvious choice for site boards and estate agency work. Foamex is rigid and clean for interior panels and short-run display. Aluminium composite is what goes on the building and stays there. If you are not sure, describe the position — indoors or out, how long it needs to last, whether it will be handled — and we will specify it rather than making you choose from a list.

We finish them. Cutting to size, contour cutting to shape, laminating, mounting to board, hemming and eyeleting banners, taping and applying to substrates are all done here, so what arrives is ready to put up rather than a roll you have to deal with.

Contour cutting is worth mentioning specifically: graphics can be cut to the outline of a shape rather than left as a rectangle, which is what makes wall graphics and window figures look deliberate rather than stuck on. And if it needs installing rather than posting, we can do that too — the same people who printed it.