How long will my order take to print?
We offer two production speeds:
Standard Production - 50 calendars or less takes 5 working days (1 week) to print. 51 calendars or more takes 10 workings days (2 weeks). Orders over 1000 units may take up to 3 weeks.
Express Production - available for orders less than 500 units - we speed up production from 2 weeks to just 1 week. Express production carries a 25% uplift in price, calculated automatically if chosen.
Production lead-times start from point of order placement and full payment receipt. Orders received after 2.00pm will be actioned on the following working day.
How do you despatch my order and how long will that take?
Orders less than 2Kg are despatched via Royal Mail 1st class post. All bulk orders are despatched via overnight courier for delivery on the next business working day and will require a signature. The cost of despatch is calculated at checkout.
What file type should I supply?
Currently we can only accept hi-res PDF files to be uploaded to the website. If you would like to supply your artwork as a different file type then please continue to place your order online which will generate an order number. Please then email us your artwork referencing your order number in the subject line.If your artwork is too large to email (anything over 10 MB) we recommend that you send us your files via www.WeTransfer.com (please enter orders@teamcalendars.co.uk as the recipient address).
CMYK or RGB?
We can accept files in RGB (Red/Green/Blue) or CMYK (Cyan/Magenta/Yellow/Black) format. Our presses use a CMYK ink set so all RGB files will be converted to CMYK before printing. RGB has a wider colour gamut (can encode for more colours) than CMYK so colours outside of the CYMK spectrum may appear duller than the file supplied. These colours tend to be very intense blue, green, red and oranges. If you're concerned how these colours will convert we would advise that you convert the colour to CMYK before supplying the files so you can manage the conversion.
What resolution should my images be?
To get the best quality print your images should be 300dpi (dots per inch) at the size they appear in the calendar. This is absolutely crucial to the professionalism and visual appeal of your print materials, and while a lower resolution file may seem acceptable on-screen, the difference in quality makes a great difference when physically printed.
Do you require bleed?
A ‘bleed’ of at least 3mm should be included around the edges of all artwork. Bleed is the extra area around your artwork that will later be trimmed, which is needed to allow the ink to run naturally without affecting the quality of the print-work. i.e. save the PDF with 6mm added to each measurement (i.e. for A4 usually 210mm x 297mm, save as 216mm x 303mm). Crop marks may be included if you wish. If your artwork is supplied without bleed we may not always be able to add it on for you and you may have to amend and re-supply the artwork.
Can I supply Microsoft Office files?
If you are creating a PDF from a MS Publisher or Word file, care must be taken to ensure colours are created correctly in your original documents. Do not set to RGB (Red, Green, Blue) colours as they cannot be printed as such, as mentioned above they won't appear as bright when printed.
How do I create a print ready PDF?
When creating a PDF in Acrobat Distiller, there are job options which must be set for commercial printing. These include default resolution, compression settings and font embedding. Where possible ensure a 300dpi PDFx1a 'print' or 'press ready' PDF is outputted. Please include a 3mm bleed, crop marks and supply as single pages.
Please ensure you choose high resolution. Compression settings for colour and greyscale should be down sampled to 300dpi with "auto compression" set on high. Bitmapped (monochrome: i.e. line art) images should be set at 600dpi. Font embedding should be set to "embed all fonts."
Shall I impose my files?
Please do not supply imposed pages or "printers pairs" because our workflow includes imposition software to impose correctly for our printing processes.
Shall I include fonts?
Include all fonts you have used in the file. Whilst we have an extensive font collection, there is no guarantee the version you have used matches ours. This can create problems with line lengths and spacing of the type.
How much space shall I allow for wire binding?
Please bear in mind the method of binding when producing the artwork for your calendars. For all wall style calendars there is a thumbcut (half-moon shape) at the top of the calendar to allow the wire hanger to be inserted and sit flush. This extends 11mm into the calendar so will cut away any imagery/text placed into this area. With this in mind we could allow a clear space of 15mm from the head for any important elements. For calendars that are wiro-bound without the thumb-cut (such as the Desk A5 style) please allow 10mm clear space to any important elements to avoid the standard binding holes.
Do you supply discounts for charities?
We offer a seasonal discount structure aimed to encourage early orders. We have also designed our prices to offer massive savings for bulk orders. Our web prices quoted on the site are our best prices.
Do you supply proofs?
We will email a proof to you once we have checked your files. If you would rather have a hard copy proof please order just 1 calendar and then place a re-order if you're happy to proceed. Alternatively you can order a sample pack which includes samples of stocks that we print the calendars on.
Do the calendars come with envelopes and or cello bags?
No, we bulk pack your calendars in secure brown cartons but a range of additonal packaging options are available to order upon checkout, including paper and card envelopes and cello bags with and without headers. The cost of the packaging options can be viewed in the packaging tab here.
What machinery do you use to print your calendars?
We use high specification Digital (Konica Minolta KM1085) & Litho (Heidelberg CD74) presses. Digital presses are used to print smaller quantities (usually 500 units or less) and larger runs are produced on our Heidelberg litho presses with inline coating & IR driers. We are commercial printers and are very proud of the quality of our production!
Do you print on environmentally friendly paper?
Yes all of our papers are FSC certified and part recycled. If you would like fully recycled paper just let us know and we will provide you with a quote. We are a fully FSC certified print company and we hold the Internationally recognised environmental quality standard ISO14001 and 9001.
