Custom Size Posters, Ordered at Six and Delivered by Half Nine
020 3375 6674 info@silverimagelondon.com Open 24 hours, 7 days a week — call or email and we will tell you what is possible today.
A restaurant group emailed at 18:04 on a Saturday asking for menu posters at 520 × 1080 mm — a size that is not A0, not A1, not anything on a standard sheet chart. Quoted six minutes later, confirmed at 18:31, and delivered to W2 in Paddington the same evening — urgent poster printing, start to finish in under three and a half hours.
Written by Maciej Antosz, Production Manager at Silver Image London ·
This is an account of one job, not a turnaround promise. Send us yours and we will come back with a firm figure.
Twenty-seven minutes from enquiry to a confirmed order
The times below are as they sit in the email thread. It was a Saturday evening, which matters only because most of the trade was shut.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| 18:04 | Enquiry in with the artwork attached and one line of specification: 520 mm width 1080 mm height, need urgently. No paper named, no quantity, no deadline hour. |
| 18:10 | Quoted, with two options rather than one: ready for collection at 21:00, or delivered at 21:30 the same evening. Courier priced separately so the choice stayed with them. |
| 18:15 | Reply: one poster, delivered today, to a W2 postcode. |
| 18:28 | We came back with the part nobody enjoys sending: the minimum order for delivery is £95. One poster plus a courier does not reach it. |
| 18:31 | “Let’s have two, but we need a guaranteed delivery today.” The second poster cost less than the shortfall, so two was the cheaper way to get one. |
| 18:49 – 18:55 | Invoice out, invoice paid, job on the floor. |
| 21:30 | Delivered to W2, as quoted at 18:10. |
Written up from the email thread. The restaurant group and the person on the thread are not named, and no figures are published except the £95 minimum, which is on every page of this site anyway.
520 × 1080 mm is a trimming decision, not a printing one
Most people ask for A1 or A0 because those are the sizes they have seen on a price list. The sheet in the machine is not A1. It is a roll or a large sheet that gets cut down after printing, which means the finished size is whatever you ask for, as long as it fits inside the sheet.
So a tall narrow poster at 520 × 1080 mm costs the same to print as the rectangle it was cut from. What it saves you is the thing that actually matters in a restaurant: it fits the space you have. A menu board in a window or a pillar wrap between two doors is never A-series. Ordering A1 and trimming it yourself with a knife gives you a wavy edge and a poster 80 mm shorter than the gap.
The one rule worth knowing: tell us the finished size, not the nearest standard size. We will say whether it fits the sheet, and it almost always does.
Why we quoted collection and delivery as two prices
The print was ready at 21:00 either way. Collection at 21:00 and delivery at 21:30 are the same job with a bike added, so quoting them separately lets the customer decide whether the courier is worth it — instead of receiving one number and assuming we are expensive.
In this case it went the other way and is worth being honest about. Delivery has a £95 minimum, and one poster did not reach it. Rather than quietly adding a fee or refusing the job, we said so. They ordered a second poster, which was cheaper than the shortfall and left them with a spare. The order went up, the customer paid less per item, and nobody discovered a surprise on the invoice.
What made a Saturday evening possible
Artwork arrived print-ready as a PDF at the right dimensions, so there was nothing to redraw. The size fitted the sheet, so there was nothing to re-plan. And the specification did not change after the invoice, which is the usual reason an evening job becomes a next-morning job.
The printing itself took a fraction of the three and a half hours. Everything else was answering questions quickly.
If you are ordering posters at a non-standard size
- Give the finished size in millimetres, width first. Not “a bit smaller than A1”. The number decides whether it runs tonight or tomorrow.
- Measure the space, not the poster you are replacing. The old one was probably also the wrong size, which is why you are reprinting.
- Send the artwork built to that size. A file set up as A1 and scaled to fit a different ratio either crops the menu or leaves white bands down the sides.
- Ask for collection and delivery as separate prices. At the wrong hour the courier can cost more than the print, and you may have somebody passing anyway.
- Check the delivery minimum before you order one of something. Two of a thing is often cheaper than one of a thing plus a shortfall.
Sizes, papers and finishes are on the same day poster printing page. For runs that have to be finished inside the working day, see same day printers, and for restaurant work specifically, menu printing.
Related services
Send us the job
Tell us the size, the quantity and when you need it. We come back with a firm price, and we check the artwork before anything goes on press.
Open 24 hours, 7 days a week. Same-day and overnight delivery across London.
SAP Business Network member registered member
