Printing questions, answered

Digital vs offset printing

What is the difference between digital and offset printing?

Digital printing puts toner or ink straight onto the sheet with no printing plates, so there is no setup cost and every sheet can be different. Offset printing transfers ink from etched plates via a rubber blanket onto the sheet — there is a real setup cost per job, but the cost per sheet then drops away sharply as quantity rises.

	Digital	Offset
Setup cost	None	Plates and make-ready per colour
Economical quantity	1 to roughly 500–1,000	Roughly 1,000 upwards
Turnaround	Fastest	Longer
Variable data	Yes — names, numbers, codes	No
Spot / Pantone colours	Simulated in CMYK	True spot inks available
Stock range	Good, some limits on very heavy or textured stocks	Widest — heavy, textured and specialty stocks
Large flat colour areas	Can show banding on some stocks	Very even

Which should I choose for my job?

Quantity decides it in most cases. Under about 500 pieces, digital will be cheaper and faster. Over about 1,000, offset usually wins on price and pulls further ahead as the run grows. In the 500–1,000 band it depends on the stock, the finishing and how many colours are involved — we quote both.

Three things override the quantity rule: you need a true Pantone spot colour (offset), you need every piece personalised (digital), or you need it tomorrow (digital).

Is offset better quality than digital?

Not meaningfully, for most work. Modern digital presses are close enough that the average recipient cannot tell. Offset still has an edge on large solid areas of flat colour, on very heavy or textured stocks, and where a specific Pantone must be exact rather than simulated.

Where digital sometimes shows itself is a full-bleed solid colour across a large sheet, where slight banding or a subtle sheen difference from the toner can appear on uncoated stock. If your design is a deep solid colour edge to edge, mention it and we will advise which way to go.

Paper stocks & GSM

What does GSM mean?

GSM is grams per square metre — the weight of a single square metre of that paper. It is a proxy for thickness and stiffness, so higher GSM generally means a heavier, more substantial stock. Standard office copy paper is 80 gsm; a typical business card is 350 gsm.

GSM measures weight, not thickness, so two stocks at the same GSM can feel different — a bulky uncoated stock will be noticeably thicker than a dense coated one at the same weight. That is why we keep sample stock on the counter: a number tells you less than five seconds of holding it.

What GSM should I use for each product?

As a working guide: 100–120 gsm for letterhead and flyers, 130–170 gsm for brochures and booklet pages, 250–300 gsm for postcards and booklet covers, 350–420 gsm for business cards, and 300–400 gsm for presentation folders.

Product	Typical GSM	Notes
Letterhead, with-compliments slips	100–120 gsm	Must feed through office printers — avoid heavy or heavily coated stocks
Flyers, mailbox drops	115–170 gsm	150 gsm is the everyday sweet spot for feel vs cost
Brochures (folded)	130–200 gsm	Over about 170 gsm, folds need scoring
Booklet internal pages	115–170 gsm	Heavier pages make a thicker, stiffer booklet that resists lying flat
Booklet covers	250–350 gsm	Usually laminated
Postcards, invitations	250–350 gsm
Business cards	350–420 gsm	Or duplexed for a heavier, premium card
Presentation folders	300–400 gsm	Needs to hold its shape when full

What is the difference between coated and uncoated stock?

Coated stock has a clay-based coating that sits on the surface, so ink stays on top and colours stay bright and sharp. Uncoated stock has no coating, so ink soaks in slightly — colours look softer and more muted, but you can write on it and it has a natural, tactile feel.

Coated (gloss, silk or matt art) suits photography, brochures and anything where colour punch matters. Uncoated suits letterhead, notepads, forms, and brands going for a natural or premium-understated look. Be aware that the same file prints noticeably darker and flatter on uncoated — if colour fidelity is critical, ask for a proof on the actual stock.

Do you print on recycled or FSC stock?

Yes. Recycled and FSC-certified stocks are available across most product types. Recycled stocks tend to be slightly warmer in tone and less bright white, which softens colours a little — worth seeing a sample if brand colour precision matters.

What is a duplexed business card?

Duplexing is bonding two sheets of stock together to make one much thicker card, often with a coloured core layer visible on the cut edge. It is how you get a 600–700 gsm card, and it is the standard route to a genuinely premium business card.

Finishes

What print finishes are available?

The common ones are gloss and matt celloglaze (laminate), soft-touch or velvet laminate, spot UV, foil stamping, embossing and debossing, letterpress, edge painting and round-cornering. Most add both a look and a durability benefit.

Finish	What it does	Typical use
Gloss celloglaze	Shiny plastic laminate; boosts colour saturation, protects	Brochure covers, postcards, menus
Matt celloglaze	Flat non-reflective laminate; soft, modern look	Business cards, covers, premium flyers
Soft touch / velvet	Matt laminate with a suede-like feel	Premium cards and covers
Spot UV	High-gloss varnish on selected areas only	Logos and highlights over matt laminate
Foil stamping	Metallic or coloured foil pressed into the stock	Logos, invitations, certificates
Emboss / deboss	Raises or presses the stock into a shape	Logos, monograms, covers
Letterpress	Ink pressed into thick soft stock leaving an impression	Premium cards and invitations
Round corners	Cuts corners to a radius (usually 3 or 6 mm)	Cards, loyalty cards, tags
Die cutting	Cuts a custom shape or window	Shaped cards, folders, hang tags

What is spot UV and how do I set it up?

Spot UV is a clear high-gloss varnish applied only to chosen areas — typically a logo over a matt-laminated card, so the logo catches the light while the rest stays flat. It is applied as a separate pass, which means artwork needs a separate layer marking exactly where it goes.

Supply the spot UV as its own page or layer, in 100% black solid shapes on a white background, exactly registered to the artwork underneath. Keep it away from the trim edge — spot UV close to the cut can show registration variance. Very fine hairlines don’t hold well; treat it as a bold-shapes effect.

Will laminating change my colours?

Yes, slightly and predictably. Gloss laminate deepens and saturates colours — blacks look richer, colours look punchier. Matt laminate does the opposite, flattening and lightening the appearance by a small amount. Soft-touch laminate mutes colour the most.

If a job absolutely must match a previous print, tell us what laminate the original used. A matt-laminated reprint of a gloss-laminated original will not look the same even from an identical file.

Standard Australian print sizes

What size is a standard Australian business card?

90 × 55 mm is the Australian standard business card size. With 3 mm bleed all round, your artwork document should be 96 × 61 mm, with all text and logos kept at least 3–4 mm inside the 90 × 55 mm trim line.

Note that this differs from the US standard (3.5 × 2 inches, or 88.9 × 50.8 mm) and from the European 85 × 55 mm. Online templates default to the US size surprisingly often, which is why cards sometimes come back slightly the wrong shape. Square cards (55 × 55 mm) and slim cards (90 × 40 mm) are also produced regularly.

What are the standard A-series and DL sizes?

The A series halves at each step: A3 is 297 × 420 mm, A4 is 210 × 297 mm, A5 is 148 × 210 mm, A6 is 105 × 148 mm. DL is 99 × 210 mm — one third of an A4 sheet, sized to fit a standard business envelope.

Size	Dimensions (mm)	Common use
A0	841 × 1189	Posters, plans
A1	594 × 841	Posters, A-frame inserts
A2	420 × 594	Posters, A-frame inserts
A3	297 × 420	Posters, menus, calendars
A4	210 × 297	Letterhead, flyers, brochures, folders
A5	148 × 210	Flyers, booklets, invitations
A6	105 × 148	Postcards, handbills
DL	99 × 210	Flyers, brochures, with-compliments slips
Business card (AU)	90 × 55	Business cards, loyalty cards
With-compliments slip	99 × 210 (DL)	Stationery

Why is a DL that shape?

Because it is exactly one third of an A4 sheet — 297 mm divided by three gives 99 mm — which means an A4 sheet folded twice becomes a DL that slips into a standard DL envelope without further trimming. It is the most efficient flyer and brochure format in the A-series system.

Can I print a non-standard size?

Yes, though standard sizes are usually cheaper because they nest efficiently on the press sheet and use stock envelopes. A custom size that wastes a lot of each sheet, or that needs a custom envelope, will cost more per piece.

If you want something distinctive without the cost penalty, a square format or a trimmed-down standard size (for example a 210 × 210 mm square brochure cut from an A4 sheet) usually gets you there efficiently.

Folding & binding

What folds are available for brochures?

The common folds are half fold (two panels each side), roll fold or letter fold (three panels rolling inward), Z fold or concertina (three panels zigzagging), gate fold (two outer panels folding to meet in the middle) and cross fold (folded twice at right angles, as in a map).

• Half fold — A4 folded to A5, or A3 to A4. Simple four-page brochure.
• Roll / letter fold — A4 to DL. The most common brochure format in Australia. Six panels.
• Z fold / concertina — A4 to DL, but all panels the same width and every panel visible as it opens.
• Gate fold — dramatic reveal, good for premium pieces and menus.
• Cross fold — for maps and large single-sheet documents.

Why are the panels on a roll fold different widths?

Because the innermost panel has to tuck inside the others, so it must be a few millimetres narrower or it will buckle and push the fold out. On an A4 roll fold to DL, the inner panel is typically 2–3 mm narrower than the outer two.

This catches people out constantly when setting up their own artwork with three equal 99 mm panels. If you are building your own roll-fold brochure, ask us for the panel dimensions for your specific size and stock before you lay it out — the correction depends partly on paper thickness.

Do folds need scoring?

Anything above roughly 170 gsm should be scored — a crease pressed into the sheet along the fold line — before folding. Without it, the coating and fibres on the outside of the fold crack, leaving a white line through your printed colour.

Cracking is worst on heavy coated stocks with a dark colour crossing the fold. If you have a black or deep-coloured brochure cover, scoring is not optional.

Why do booklets have to be in multiples of four?

Because a saddle-stitched booklet is made of folded sheets, and each folded sheet produces four pages — front and back of two panels. So a booklet can be 8, 12, 16, 20 or 24 pages, but not 10 or 14.

If your content lands on an awkward number, the options are to add a blank or filler page, cut content, or expand it. Always count the covers as pages: a 16-page booklet means 16 sides including the front and back cover.

What binding options are there?

Saddle stitching (folded and stapled through the spine) for booklets up to around 64 pages, perfect binding (glued square spine) for thicker documents, wiro or spiral binding for anything that needs to lie flat, and case binding for hardcover work.

Binding	Page range	Lies flat?	Printable spine?
Saddle stitch	8–64 pages	Yes	No
Perfect bind	40+ pages	No	Yes
Wiro / spiral	Any	Yes, fully	No
Case bound (hardcover)	60+ pages	Partly	Yes

What is creep, and why does my page number move?

Creep — also called push-out — happens in thick saddle-stitched booklets. The inner folded sheets stick out further than the outer ones, and when the booklet is trimmed the inner pages lose a little more from their outer edge. Content near the outside edge on centre pages can shift or be trimmed off.

We compensate for creep during imposition, but you can help by keeping page numbers, folios and any content at least 8–10 mm from the outside edge on thick booklets. Below about 32 pages it is rarely noticeable.

Colour & proofing

Why doesn’t my print match what I saw on screen?

Because a screen makes colour by emitting light in red, green and blue, while print makes colour by absorbing light with cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink on paper. Some colours a screen can display — bright oranges, vivid greens, electric blues — simply cannot be mixed from CMYK ink.

Three practical things help. Build your file in CMYK from the start so you see the achievable colour while you design. Use Pantone references for critical brand colours. And ask for a proof if the colour matters — a printed proof is the only reliable preview. Note also that an uncalibrated laptop screen, especially at reduced brightness, is not a colour reference. More on RGB vs CMYK →

What is a proof, and should I get one?

A proof is a sample for you to approve before the full run prints. A digital or PDF proof confirms content, layout, spelling and positioning. A hard-copy proof, printed on the actual stock, additionally confirms colour, feel and finish. Get a hard copy proof whenever colour accuracy or stock choice really matters.

Read the proof properly. Once a proof is signed off, the job prints as approved — a typo spotted after the run is a reprint. It is worth having someone who has not been looking at the file for a week read it fresh.

Can you match a Pantone colour in CMYK?

We can get close, and for most colours close enough that only a side-by-side comparison would show it. Some Pantones — particularly bright oranges, vivid greens, deep navies, and any metallic or fluorescent — sit outside the CMYK gamut and cannot be reproduced accurately without a spot ink.

If a brand colour is genuinely critical, offset printing with a true spot ink is the answer. Otherwise expect a close CMYK build, and be aware that the same build will look slightly different on coated versus uncoated stock — which is why Pantone publishes separate C and U references for the same colour.

What is rich black and when should I use it?

Rich black is a black built from all four inks rather than black alone — a common build is C40 M30 Y30 K100. It prints as a deep, dense black. Plain K100 black on its own can look washed out and greyish across large areas.

Use rich black for large solid black backgrounds and oversized display type. Use plain K100 for body text and any text under about 20 pt — building small text from four inks means any tiny registration shift produces coloured fringing and fuzzy edges. Never use rich black for fine linework or small type.

What is the minimum text size for printing?

Around 6 pt for a clean sans-serif in solid black on white — below that it becomes difficult to read and starts to fill in. For reversed-out text (white on a coloured background), stay at 8 pt or above and avoid light or thin weights, because ink spread closes up the counters in the letterforms.

Specific products

Will your letterhead run through my office printer?

Yes, if it is specified for it. Letterhead should be 100–120 gsm uncoated stock with the printed areas kept clear of the margins your printer cannot reach — generally 5 mm all round for laser printers. Heavily coated or laminated stocks should not go through a laser printer.

Tell us if you use a laser printer and we will specify a laser-guaranteed stock. Full-bleed colour on letterhead looks great but limits your printer options and costs more, since it has to be printed oversize and trimmed.

What do I need to supply for a presentation folder?

Artwork laid out on the folder’s specific die line — the flat cutting template that shows where the folds, pockets, glue tabs and business card slits sit. Every folder die is different, so ask us for the template before you start designing rather than after.

Key things to watch: keep important content off the glue tabs and out of the pocket area that gets covered, allow for the spine width if your folder has one, and remember that the pocket front covers the bottom third of the inside panel.

Do you print NCR / carbonless books?

Yes — duplicate and triplicate books for invoices, quotes, delivery dockets, job cards and work orders, numbered sequentially, bound in books with or without perforation and a writing shield. Standard sets are white/pink and white/pink/yellow.

Can you print names or numbers on each piece?

Yes — that is variable data printing, and it is a digital press capability. Sequential numbering for tickets and raffle books, personalised names and addresses for mailouts, unique voucher codes, and individual staff details on business cards from one template.

Supply the variable content as a clean spreadsheet with one row per record and clearly named column headings. The cleaner the data, the fewer surprises — check for stray spaces, inconsistent capitalisation and blank rows before sending.

What works best for a mailbox drop?

DL and A5 are the most common sizes for unaddressed mailbox distribution because they are cheap to print, easy to handle in bulk and fit letterboxes without folding. 130–150 gsm gloss is the standard specification.

Print a few hundred more than the distribution quantity — distributors work in round numbers and you will want spares for the counter, the vehicle and the next enquiry. Also check whether your area has a high proportion of “no junk mail” boxes, which affects effective reach.

Do you print calendars and magazines?

Yes. Wall and desk calendars, magazines, booklets and newsletters are all standard work, including typesetting from supplied copy. Magazines and newsletters are typically saddle-stitched or perfect bound depending on page count.

Ordering, timing & reprints

How many should I print?

Enough to cover the campaign or the next 12 months, whichever comes first — and no more. The per-unit price drops with quantity, which tempts people into over-ordering, but printed material that goes out of date in a drawer is 100% wasted regardless of how cheap it was per piece.

Print more when the content is stable (business cards, folders, generic brochures). Print less when anything on it might change — prices, staff names, phone numbers, addresses, product ranges, or an ABN. If a rebrand or a move is on the horizon, print short.

How long does printing take?

Digital printing on standard stock is typically a few days from artwork approval. Offset runs take longer because of plate making and press scheduling, and any job with finishing — laminating, foiling, die cutting, binding — adds days for those separate processes.

The variables that stretch a timeline are specialty stock that has to be ordered in, external finishing processes, and artwork that arrives needing work. If you have a hard deadline, say so when you enquire rather than when you send the file — it changes what we recommend.

What is an over-run or under-run?

Offset printing traditionally allows a small tolerance either side of the ordered quantity — commonly plus or minus 5–10% on long runs — because sheets are consumed setting up and checking colour on press. Digital printing has no such tolerance; you get exactly what you order.

If you need a guaranteed absolute minimum quantity (for a specific mailing list, or an event with a fixed headcount), say so and we will build it into the order.

Can you reprint an old job? Do you keep my files?

Yes, we archive job files, and reprints from an existing job are straightforward and cheaper than starting over. Tell us roughly what it was and when, and we will find it.

Two caveats worth knowing. Stock and finishing options change over time, so an exact match on a very old job is not always possible. And if the original artwork was supplied by a designer you no longer work with, the archived file is what we can reprint from — we cannot always edit it if the fonts and links were not supplied with it.

What if I don’t have artwork?

We design it. Graphic design has been part of the business since 1989, and most of what we print we also designed — brand development, stationery, brochures, flyers and campaign material. You supply the content and the direction; we handle the rest.

If you have existing branding, send us whatever you have — logo files, an old brochure, a colour reference — and we will work within it. If your logo only exists as a low-resolution JPG, see why we will ask to redraw it.