Script Printing London
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.
Script printing for film, TV and theatre, produced in London overnight. Full drafts and revision pages on the industry-standard colour order, punched and bound with brass brads; call sheets and A5 sides for the morning; wire-bound prompt books for the rehearsal room. Printed on A4 or true US Letter so Final Draft page counts survive, with per-recipient watermarking for tracked drafts — and an NDA signed on request before any file is opened. The workshop runs all night, which is the whole point. Overnight script runs mostly serve the production and post houses around Fitzrovia — sides and call sheets ready before the crew call.
Every job is quoted on its specification. Send the page count, copies and call time and we will come back with a firm figure.
What production printing is, and why it runs at night
Scripts change after wrap. A director’s evening rewrite becomes revision pages that fifty people need in their binders before the next call time; the call sheet locks late and needs to be at unit base early; sides for the day’s scenes are printed fresh every shooting day. Production printing is not a print product so much as a rhythm — and it only works with a print shop whose night shift is a working shift, not an answering machine.
That is the fit here: the workshop is staffed through the night every night. Files with approval by 21:00 are guaranteed ready for the morning; a rewrite that lands at midnight gets a phone call and an honest yes or no against your call time, decided by capacity rather than a cut-off. Finished sets leave in sealed opaque packaging by courier to unit bases, stage doors and production offices across London — the standing runs are the production offices and post houses in Soho and the stages and unit bases out at White City — or are collected from the counter at any hour, which is how runners on a dawn call actually do it.
Who orders: features and TV drama — shooting drafts, coloured revision pages, call sheets and sides to unit bases and studio stages; West End and fringe theatre — rehearsal scripts, prompt books and cue sheets that lie flat on a stand; commercials and music videos — one-day call sheets, storyboards and shoot books; and table reads and pitches — clean bradded scripts that look like the business they are for.
| Draft | Paper colour | What it means on set |
|---|---|---|
| Production draft | White | The full script everyone starts from |
| 1st revision | Blue | First set of changed pages, swapped into the white script |
| 2nd revision | Pink | Second round of changes |
| 3rd revision | Yellow | Third round |
| 4th revision | Green | Fourth round — a script deep in production |
| 5th revision | Goldenrod | Fifth round, usually during principal photography |
| 6th–8th revisions | Buff, salmon, cherry | The late rewrites — at this point everyone checks the colour before the scene number |
Formats, bindings and the US Letter question
The binding follows the department. Bradded scripts — three holes, two brass brads — for cast and production, because pages must come in and out as revisions land. Two-hole punching for productions that live in lever-arch binders. A5 sides, stapled small enough for a coat pocket, printed fresh each shooting day with the call sheet. Wire or comb bound prompt books with card covers for stage management — wire opens 360 degrees and lies flat on a music stand, which is exactly what a prompt desk needs.
Formats deserve one minute of attention: screenwriting software paginates for US Letter, which is wider and shorter than A4. Forced onto A4 without care, line breaks shift and the page count moves — a quiet disaster when one page equals one minute of screen time and the whole crew schedules by page numbers. Say which format your PDF was built for and it prints true, on US Letter stock or A4; 12 pt Courier stays 12 pt Courier, never scaled.
Confidentiality runs on the same arrangement as this workshop’s legal work: an NDA is signed on request before any file is opened, unreleased material is treated as confidential by default, and spoiled sheets from the run are destroyed rather than binned. For tracked distribution, per-recipient watermarking prints each copy with its owner’s name as a diagonal semi-transparent overlay on every page — one PDF and a name list in, a traceable set out.
Turnaround and delivery
The overnight rhythm is the product: files and approval by 21:00 are printed, collated and bound on the night shift, guaranteed ready for the morning. Later than that, the night shift is still at the machines — call, and you get a straight yes or no against your call time, decided by capacity, not a cut-off. Daytime jobs run same-day the way the rest of the building does: a script approved in the morning is normally bound by the afternoon.
Delivery goes by courier across London — unit bases, stage doors, production offices and hotels — typically within 1 hour of dispatch in Central London, packed in sealed opaque wrapping. Collection from the counter is available around the clock; productions on a dawn call send a runner at 5am and the sets are waiting. Revision pages ordered against a distribution list arrive collated per recipient, ready to hand out.
File specifications
Format, margins, revision pages, watermark list
| Requirement | What we need | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Page format | Say whether the PDF is US Letter or A4 | Screenwriting software paginates for US Letter; printed true, the page count survives. Guessed, it drifts. |
| Binding margin | 35 mm on the punched edge | Three-hole punching takes a real bite; Final Draft’s defaults already respect it — do not shrink the left margin to save pages. |
| Revision runs | The changed pages as their own PDF, plus the colour in the sequence | Only the changed pages print, on the right colour, ready to swap into existing scripts. |
| Watermarking | One master PDF plus a name list (spreadsheet or plain text) | Each copy prints with its recipient’s name across every page for tracked distribution. |
| Call sheets and sides | PDFs as they lock — even late | They are printed on the night rhythm with the scripts; laminated call sheets for wet exteriors on request. |
| Typography | Courier 12 pt, never scaled | One page = one minute of screen time only holds if nobody “fits” the script to the paper. |
Before you upload
- State copies, binding (brads, two-hole, wire) and the call time
- Name the revision colour — or tell us which round this is and we take it from the sequence
- Send the watermark name list with the master PDF
- Ask for the NDA first if you need it — it is signed before any file is opened
Q&A
Can you print script rewrites overnight for a morning call time?
Yes - overnight is what this service is built for. Files with approval by 21:00 are printed, collated and bound on the night shift, guaranteed ready for the morning. The workshop is staffed through the night, so a rewrite that lands later than that is not refused: call, and you get a straight yes or no against your call time, decided by capacity, not by a cut-off.
Why are screenplay scripts bound with two brass brads instead of three?
Film tradition, with a practical core: scripts are punched with three holes but bound through the top and bottom holes only. Two brads let the pages turn more freely, and they come out in seconds when a cast member needs to swap coloured revision pages into their copy on set. We fit the middle brad if your production wants it - but nobody asks.
What is the difference between A4 and US Letter script printing?
Screenwriting software like Final Draft paginates for US Letter, which is wider and shorter than A4. Force that PDF onto A4 and line breaks shift, which quietly changes page counts - a real problem when one page equals one minute of screen time. Tell us which format your PDF was built for and we print it true, on US Letter stock or A4.
How does recipient-specific script watermarking work?
You supply one script PDF and a list of names. Each copy is printed with its recipient's name as a semi-transparent diagonal watermark across every page - for example CONFIDENTIAL - CAST COPY - J. SMITH - so a photographed page identifies its source. One file in, a tracked set of individual copies out.
What are script sides?
Sides are the day's scenes extracted from the full script, printed small - usually A5 - so they live in a coat pocket next to the call sheet. They are reprinted every shooting day as the schedule moves, which is why they are ordered together with call sheets on an overnight rhythm.
Do you sign NDAs before receiving scripts?
Yes. An NDA is signed on request before any file is opened - the same arrangement under which this workshop handles confidential legal work. Unreleased scripts are treated as confidential material by default, watermarking is available for tracked distribution, and spoiled sheets from the run are destroyed, not binned.
Often ordered with this
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.
Send the page count, copies and call time
Pages, copies, binding, format and when the runner arrives — that is the whole specification. We come back with a firm figure, and the NDA first if you want one.
Open 24 hours, 7 days a week. Call before you set off after 8pm so we have your scripts ready at the counter.
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