Document Printing London

Sheets, sides and what actually drives the price

Document printing is costed per printed side rather than per document, which is why the single most useful thing to settle before quoting is whether the job runs single or double sided. A 200-page report printed double sided is 100 sheets; the same report single sided is 200. That difference shows up three times over: in the print cost, in the thickness of the finished document, and in whether it can be bound at all at the extent you have in mind.

Colour is costed the same way. A 200-page document with twelve colour charts is priced as 188 mono sides plus twelve colour ones, not as a colour document throughout. Silver Image London can detect the colour pages from the file, but if you already know which they are it is worth saying, because a page with a single coloured logo in the footer counts as colour and is often not intended to.

Sizes can be mixed inside one document. An A4 report with A3 drawings folded in is a normal job rather than an exception, and so is an A4 bundle with A5 inserts. What matters is that the file says which is which, because a document supplied as a single A4 PDF with the drawings scaled down to fit has already lost the detail that made them worth printing at A3.

Paper, binding and the margins that decide them

90 gsm is the standard copy stock at Silver Image London and is what most reports and bundles print on. It is heavy enough that double-sided text does not show through at normal ink coverage and light enough that a long document stays a sensible thickness. Covers are normally printed on card rather than the text stock, which stops the first and last pages curling in a bag.

Binding choice drives the artwork more than most people expect. The rule for a wire bound document is simple: leave at least 15 mm of clear inside margin on the bound edge. That is the figure to design to. The reason behind it is that the punch itself bites roughly 12 mm into that edge, so a document built with a 10 mm margin comes back with the text punched through, and 15 mm leaves a working margin beyond the holes. Getting this wrong is the single most common reason a document has to be re-exported.

Page order matters too. Supply single pages in reading order rather than reader's spreads: Silver Image London imposes the document, which means working out which page prints next to which on the sheet, and a pre-imposed spread has to be taken apart first. On an overnight job that is time spent undoing work rather than printing.

Stapling, punching and the limits that matter

Stapling runs to around 200 sheets at Silver Image London, corner or along the edge, whichever suits how the document gets read. Wire binding goes further: 300 sheets, which is 600 pages printed double sided. Past that a document has to be split into volumes, and it is worth deciding where the break falls yourself rather than leaving it to the bindery.

Hole punching is your choice of 2-hole or 4-hole. Position follows the paper: 4-hole runs along the long side on A4, and along the short side on A3, which is what lets an A3 drawing fold into an A4 binder the right way round. Say which you want when you send the file, because punching happens after printing and before any binding.

Confidential documents, collection and delivery

Legal bundles, board papers and tender submissions are handled as confidential work at Silver Image London. An NDA is signed before any file is opened where you ask for one, and confidential jobs are not left out for collection: they are packed and held for the named person collecting or for the courier booked to carry them.

We arrange same-day and overnight courier delivery across London. We frequently deliver to EC1–EC4, W1, WC1–WC2, E14 and SW1, but these postcodes are examples of our most common delivery areas, not the limit of our service. Overnight work is normally couriered to arrive before the office opens rather than at some point during the morning, because a bundle that arrives at 11am has usually already missed the meeting. Collection is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week; tell us when you are coming and the work is finished, checked and packed for that time.

The heaviest runs repeat week after week: court bundles to chambers and firms around Holborn and Fleet Street, where the deadline is a hearing rather than an office hour, and board papers into the City of London, where the meeting usually starts before nine and the overnight courier is the only thing that makes it.

Beyond the legal work: tender submissions and board papers from Clerkenwell, and reports and board packs for the riverside offices at Hammersmith, both printed overnight for a morning start.

Binding sheets you have printed yourself

Silver Image London binds documents printed elsewhere as well as documents printed here. If you are supplying the sheets, bring them collated — already in reading order, one complete set after another. That single thing is the difference between a job that can be turned around tonight and one that cannot.

Uncollated sheets can be collated here, but it is chargeable and it adds time, and on a same-day job the time is the part that hurts. A thousand loose sheets in page order is minutes of work; the same thousand sheets stacked page-by-page is an hour before binding even starts.

Artwork specifications

Bleed, margins, colour, resolution, file format

Artwork requirements for document printing.

Requirement	What we need	Why
Page order	Single pages in reading order, not spreads	We impose the document. A pre-imposed spread has to be taken apart first, which costs time on an urgent job.
Bound edge	Inside margin of at least 15 mm	The wire punch takes roughly 12 mm off the bound edge. Anything closer is punched through.
Bleed	3 mm on anything running to the edge	Most documents need none, because text sits inside the margins. It matters on covers and full-bleed charts.
Safe margin	Text 5 mm clear of the trim	Trimming moves by a fraction of a millimetre across a run.
Colour mode	CMYK, not RGB	RGB blues and greens sit outside the CMYK gamut and print duller than they look on screen.
Resolution	300 dpi at the finished size	Measured on the printed page. A logo pulled from a brand portal at screen resolution looks soft on paper.
File format	PDF preferred — but send what you have	We accept virtually any format and check every file before production. Word files are fine; we will flag anything that will reflow.

Before you upload

• Export as PDF, single pages in reading order
• Allow 15 mm on the bound edge if the document is being bound
• Say which pages are colour, if you already know
• Say whether it runs single or double sided
• Flag any pages that are a different size to the rest
• Check the page count is what you expect — covers are easy to forget

Send the file even where there is doubt about it. Silver Image London checks page order, margins, resolution and colour before anything goes on press, and where a fix is small it is usually just done.

On an overnight document this matters more than in daylight. A question that has to go back to you at 2am sits unanswered until morning, and by then the night is gone.

Q&A

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Key facts: ordering tonight

• Open 24 hours, 7 days a week, including Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays.
• Print production runs 24/7; the walk-in counter serves the day and evening, and the status bar at the top of the page shows live whether it is open right now.
• Files and payment received by 21:00 → overnight production for delivery before 9am the next morning, subject to that night’s capacity; we confirm at quotation whether the run fits.
• No fixed overnight cap: tell us the quantity and we say at quotation whether it can be done in time.
• Overnight jobs are normally couriered to arrive before your office opens; collection is arranged around your arrival time — call before you set off after 8pm so the job is bagged and waiting at the counter.
• No minimum for walk-in jobs during the day — one copy is a normal job. Out-of-hours collection or delivery carries a £95 minimum plus courier if required.
• Same-day and overnight courier delivery across London, most often EC1–EC4, W1, WC1–WC2, E14 and SW1.
• Exhibition delivery to ExCeL, Olympia, the Business Design Centre and other venues: send us the hall, your stand number, the named person on the stand and their mobile, and the build-day or opening time you need it by; we deliver to the stand.
• Send what you have: we check the artwork before anything goes on press and tell you what to fix; a print-ready PDF (CMYK, 3 mm bleed) is the fastest route.
• Quotes come with a secure payment link — Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal and Klarna; production starts once payment is in.
• Courier delivery within London is usually in the region of £35–45, depending on the postcode and which courier is free; the exact figure is on your quote and is added to the job price.
• A proof is available on request; when we design the artwork you always get a final proof to approve. Print-ready files are printed on site and our operator checks the run against a printed proof sample before it leaves.
• Before we accept an urgent job we look at what could go wrong with the file, the stock and the finishing, and plan so that a reprint would still fit inside your deadline.
• Every order has a dedicated member of staff and an agreed completion deadline; we do not run an e-commerce queue, so the time we give you is for your job.
• Bank transfer is accepted alongside the payment link: tell us when you have sent it — the job goes to production once accounts confirm it has arrived.
• Outside London and towards the M25 courier costs more: we check with the couriers and confirm the price with you before booking.
• Mono and colour printing are charged per printed side without a duplex rate adjustment, and binding is charged per document, with A3 wire binding priced at £12 regardless of page count.
• One copy can be printed, but after-hours collection or delivery carries a £95 minimum order plus courier charges where required.
• Brochure-style documents can use 130–170 gsm silk or matt text stock or 120–140 gsm uncoated text stock, with 250–400 gsm covers in silk, matt or uncoated finishes.
• For the same printed pages, size, stock and colour mix, double-sided printing reduces the sheet count and document thickness but does not reduce the printing charge, which is calculated per printed side.
• Timed hand-delivery to a named recipient with a signed proof of delivery is available across London — give us the name, mobile number and the time window.
• Print-and-trim work typically takes 2–4 hours during the day once the file and payment are in; binding or lamination adds a production stage — confirmed at quotation.