Printing and paper guide

At 'i do' it yourself we want your special day to be just that - 'YOUR' special day. So with this in mind we have designed our stationery and DIY projects to be easily printed at home. Just cut to the size you want and decorated to your hearts content. Add your own special touch, unleash your creativity, have fun - and save money!

Not sure your home printer is up to the task? Don't worry; we can supply all our files for professional printing at no extra cost. For more information on printing and paper check out our handy guide below:

• Home Printing

• Professional Printing

 

 

Home Printing

All 'i do' it yourself stationery has been designed to be printed at home, and just about any colour home printer in good repair will give you a great result. It's so easy, just hit print! But for those who want a little more detail, read on...

 

Cost: The cost of home printing depends on a few factors; mainly how many copies you need to print. A bonus of home printing is no minimum orders; if you only have 30 guests - just print 30 copies. When a product shows "printable file" that is the cost for the custom computer file, so you can print as many copies as you need for the price shown.

Ink: The second factor to consider is ink. Some designs will use more than others, the ink usage for the default colour choice is shown in the product details. Big solid blocks of dark colour will generally use more ink. If the default colour option is high ink usage you can simple choose to swap it around as In the example below. Or if your hearts set on a heavy ink usage design just take the file to a professional printer.

Home printers with separate ink cartridges for each colour are always better for ink usage, you don't have to replace ALL the colours just because one runs out. Check your printers inks 'page yield' which is the number of pages that you can print with that cartridge. It's probably around 200-500 pages.

 

Paper size: To keep costs down, all home printed items are supplied on sheets of either A4 or Letter sized paper, depending on where you live. 

A4: Most countries including Australia, New Zealand and UK 
Letter: USA and Canada

This means we can fit two-three invites to a page or three-four postcard sized designs. Why is this better? Generally the smaller the paper, the higher the unit price. And most importantly because most home printers can't print right to the edges of the paper. This means if you buy precut postcard sized paper, you would be left with a small white border around the edge. It's much easier to print a few designs onto a larger sheet and then trim. 

Some products such as the bigger versions of guest book trees, will need to be taken to a print shop unless you have access to a large format printer.

 

Paper colour: We suggest printing on white or off white paper. Remember, there is no such thing as white ink, if you see white in a design that is simply an area where there is nothing printed at all. None of our designs require special coloured papers, its all in the file.

 

Paper style: There is a huge range of paper choice out there from plain white to high gloss, recycled to shimmer and textured effects. The choice is totally up to you! Most importantly we recommend using a quality thick paper for all stationery and accessories. A card stock around 200-250gsm is great, that's about 140lbs.

Art and craft shops will stock good ranges of paper, also try your local office supply store.

 

Professional Printing

If you don't feel like printing at home yourself, just give it to a professional. There are plenty of great online printers that you can simply upload the file to, or pop it onto a USB stick and take it to your local printer or copy shop.

A large choice of print methods are available which you may wish to consider, the look and feel and the difference in price can be extreme. Here are a few of the most common professional printing methods...

 

Digital: Fast and inexpensive, many modern invitations etc are now produced with digital printing. For an affordable price you get better ink coverage, sharper images and more vivid colours than a home printer. You can also choose heavier weight papers. The text and image are printed onto the page at the same time. 

Offset/flat printing: A traditional printing technique where a plate is made of each colour used then the ink is transferred to the paper, one colour at a time, and set to dry. A variation of this process is thermography.

Thermography: Thermography has a raised effect achieved by sprinkling the ink with a special powder after it's been printed. Heat is applied and the ink rises up. 

Letterpress: A very old and involved process but one that achieves a beautiful vintage look. A plate is made from the original artwork, inked, and then stamped into the paper.

 

Not all processes with work with all designs, if you are interested in using something other than home or digital professional printing, talk to us first so we can advise if the design you would like to purchase will work.

 

Comparison

The table below will give you some idea of the costs involved in home and professional printing. Based on a standard single sided invitation on nice mid range paper. Please note this is a very rough guide because there are so many factors involved.

	iDIY design	home printing			professional printing with ink and paper included
no. copies		ink estimate	paper estimate  	total  cost	total digital printing	total offset printing	total letter press
50	$30	$10	$25	$65*	$90*	NA**	$880*
100	$30	$25	$40	$90*	$130*	$420	$980*
300	$30	$70	$140	$240*	$200*	$450	$1450*

 * Intended as a guide only. Costs will vary depending on printer model or method, paper and design chosen.
** Minimum order number of around 250 for offset printing