How we work
Design. Sampling. Production.
Every job runs through the same three stages, in the same order, whether it is 500 cartons or 50,000. The middle stage is the one that matters — it is where mistakes are caught while they are still cheap.
Most printers describe how to place an order. This page describes how the printing actually happens — the technical steps that sit underneath those three words, and what each one decides about your job.
Design
Nothing is cut until the dieline is right.
Everything that goes wrong later is cheapest to fix at this stage. It ends with two things agreed: a file that will image correctly, and a dieline that will fold correctly.
You get An approved print-ready file and a confirmed dieline.
4 steps in this stage
Quantity, flat and folded size, substrate and GSM, colour count, finishing, construction and deadline. These answers determine both the price and the process — which is why our quote form asks for them rather than asking what you would like it to look like.
None of them is a preference. Each one closes off some options and opens others, and two of them together often decide the process on their own: a short run with a hard deadline is a digital job whatever else is true.
| Variable | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Quantity | Decides offset versus digital, and the unit cost |
| Flat and folded size | Drives the sheet layout and how many ups fit per sheet |
| Substrate and GSM | Board type — duplex, SBS, kraft, corrugated flute — and paper weight |
| Colours | CMYK process, spot and Pantone inks, or both |
| Finishing | Lamination, UV, foil, emboss, window, varnish |
| Construction | Tuck-end, crash-lock, rigid, mailer, sleeve |
| Application | Food contact, pharmaceutical, export, retail shelf |
| Deadline | Determines the press slot, and whether digital is needed |
For packaging we draw the dieline first: cut lines, creases, glue flaps, bleed and safety margins, dimensioned to your actual product and adjusted for the caliper of the board. Thicker board needs wider creases; a dieline that ignores that produces boxes that crack on the fold.
Cut, crease and perforation live on separate layers, because each becomes a different rule in a physical tool. The glue-flap allowance has to suit the gluing method too — a flap sized for hand assembly will not run through a folder-gluer.
This is the most expensive thing in packaging to get wrong, because the die is steel. That is why it is signed off before anything else happens.
The flat. Solid navy is every line the die cuts; dashed sky is where the board is creased so it folds without cracking.
Any corner, magnified. Artwork runs out to the bleed; the knife falls on the trim; text and logos stay inside the safety margin.
In the glossary Dieline Crease Glue flap Bleed Safety margin Perforation
Our studio designs from scratch or adapts your brand artwork to the dieline. Supplied files are converted and checked before they go anywhere near a plate.
What “print-ready” actually means
- CMYK colour mode, not RGB — converting RGB to CMYK late is where “the colour changed” complaints come from
- Spot or Pantone colours defined wherever the brand colour has to be exact
- Images at 300 dpi minimum, measured at final printed size rather than on screen
- Fonts outlined or fully embedded
- 3 mm bleed, with a safety margin held inside the trim
- Black text set as 100% K, not as a four-colour black that will fringe if the press moves
- Rich black defined deliberately for large solid areas
- Overprint and knockout set on purpose, not left to whatever the file happened to carry
In the glossary CMYK Spot colour Pantone Bleed Rich black Overprint
This is the step that separates a press from a copy shop, and the one every competitor leaves out of their process page. Six things happen here, and all six of them are cheaper than a reprint.
The six prepress steps, in plain English
- Preflight
- An automated check for missing fonts and images, low-resolution assets, the wrong colour space, insufficient bleed, hairlines, and spot colours that were supposed to be process.
- Colour separation
- The artwork is split into one channel per printing ink — four for CMYK, plus one for every spot colour. Each channel becomes a plate, which is why adding a fifth ink adds a fifth plate.
- Trapping
- Adjacent colours are given a tiny deliberate overlap. Paper moves fractionally as it travels through a press; without trapping that movement shows up as a thin white line between two colours. With it, the overlap simply becomes slightly narrower and nobody ever sees it.
- Screening
- Continuous tone is converted into a grid of halftone dots, because a press can only put ink down or not — it cannot print a half-strength colour. Dot shape and ruling are chosen for the substrate: coarse kraft cannot hold the fine screen that coated art card can.
- RIP
- The Raster Image Processor turns the vector PDF into the high-resolution bitmap the platesetter actually writes. It is also the last place a file can fail — which is precisely why it happens before plates are made and not after.
- Imposition
- Your job is arranged on the press sheet: how many copies fit, in what order and orientation, with crop, fold, registration and colour-bar marks. Fitting one more up on the sheet reduces the sheet count, and that saving comes off your invoice rather than ours.
In the glossary Preflight Trapping Screening RIP Imposition Registration
Sampling
Nothing is printed until you approve the sample.
This is the stage the competition skips, and it exists to move the risk off you. Everything that can be checked physically is checked physically, while there is still no plate in the building.
You get A physical sample you have approved, and a signed proof held against the job number.
3 steps in this stage
Not every job needs the most expensive sample, and we would rather tell you that than sell you one. The four levels prove different things, and the right one depends on what you are actually worried about.
| Sample | What it proves | Colour accuracy | Cost | Turnaround |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Digital soft proof (PDF) | Content, layout, spelling, barcode placement and dieline fit | None — a screen cannot represent CMYK ink on board | Free | Same day |
| Structural mock-up | Size, that your product fits, board rigidity, opening action and shelf presence | Unprinted, or indicative only | On request | On request |
| Digital printed sample | Full appearance on the production substrate, cut and assembled | Indicative — the digital press is not the offset press | On request | On request |
| Offset pre-production sample | The exact process, substrate, inks and finishing | Exact — the only genuinely colour-accurate sample | On request | On request |
The offset pre-production sample carries a cost because plates and make-ready are involved. We charge for it because it is real production, and we would rather be honest about that than pretend otherwise.
Pantone is matched against physical swatch books rather than against a monitor.
The same ink prints differently on coated, uncoated and kraft board — the surface changes how much ink sits on top and how much sinks in. We will show you that difference on your substrate rather than describe it.
How colour is agreed
- Pantone and spot colours matched against physical swatch books
- The proof is viewed on the production substrate, not on paper that happens to be nearby
In the glossary Pantone Spot colour Delta E (ΔE) CMYK
Written approval before plates are made. This is the point of no return and we say so clearly rather than burying it in terms.
Once plates are imaged, a change means new plates, a new make-ready and a new run — the cost of a correction stops being an afternoon and starts being a reprint. That is why nothing goes to plate without a signature against one specific proof, and why we would far rather spend an extra day here than a week afterwards.
If you produce regulated packaging
This is also the mock-up stage DRAP guidance expects to be considered at review, so the same physical sample serves your regulatory file and our print approval at once.
Pharmaceutical packagingIn the glossary Proof Printing plate Make-ready
Production
Nothing ships until QC signs the batch.
Ten technical steps, in order, every one of them run against the sample you signed. This is the part every competitor summarises as “then we print it”.
You get The finished job, counted, checked against your approved sample and delivered.
10 steps in this stage
The approved file is written by laser directly onto aluminium plates — one per colour. Four plates for CMYK, one more for each spot colour. This is why colour count drives offset cost.
There is no film and no manual exposure. The plate then works on oil and water repulsion: imaged areas become ink-receptive, non-image areas water-receptive, and the press exploits the difference thousands of times a minute.
In the glossary CTP (computer-to-plate) Printing plate Spot colour
Ink transfers plate → rubber blanket → substrate. Make-ready sets registration and ink density; colour bars are monitored throughout the run against your approved sample.
The image is “offset” through the blanket rather than printed straight off the plate. That extra step is what protects plate life and gives clean transfer onto textured board.
Make-ready — mounting plates, setting ink keys, registration, running up to colour — is a fixed cost per job that does not care how long the run is. That single fact is the entire reason short runs are dear on offset and cheap on digital.
In the glossary Offset lithography Make-ready Registration
No plates and no make-ready, so it starts instantly. That makes it right for short runs, prototypes, versioned artwork and variable data — serial numbers, QR and DataMatrix codes, personalisation.
It is slower per sheet and dearer per unit at volume. The two processes swap places at a break-even quantity rather than one simply being better, and we will tell you which side of it your job falls on.
In the glossary Digital printing Variable data printing
Solvent, eco-solvent and UV printing, roll-to-roll and flatbed, for panaflex, vinyl, one-way vision, backlit and rigid substrates — with plotter cutting for contour-cut stickers and vinyl lettering.
In the glossary Panaflex One-way vision Plotter cutting
Every one of these changes cost, lead time and how the job survives handling. They are not interchangeable, and picking one for the wrong reason is a common and avoidable expense.
| Finish | Effect | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Gloss lamination | High shine, vivid colour, scuff resistant | The default where colour has to carry the pack |
| Matte lamination | Soft, premium, non-reflective | Shows scuffs more; usually paired with spot UV |
| Soft-touch / velvet | Tactile, noticeably premium feel | Cosmetics and gifting |
| UV coating | High gloss, fast cure | Cheaper than lamination |
| Spot UV | Gloss varnish on selected areas only | Needs a matte base to read as contrast at all |
| Aqueous / water-based | Light protection | Food-contact options available |
| Drip-off | Contrasting matte and gloss texture | Two textures in a single pass |
| Anti-scuff | Protects dark solids | Dark matte boxes genuinely need it |
In the glossary Gloss lamination Matte lamination Soft-touch lamination UV coating Spot UV Aqueous coating Drip-off varnish Anti-scuff coating
Applied after printing, each with its own tooling
- Hot foil stamping — metallic gold, silver or holographic, applied through a heated die
- Cold foil — applied inline, which makes it cheaper on long runs
- Embossing and debossing — raised or recessed relief, formed between matched dies
- Window patching — clear film applied over a die-cut aperture
- Spot varnish, glitter and textured coatings
In the glossary Hot foil stamping Cold foil Embossing Debossing Window patching
A steel-rule die made to your approved dieline cuts, creases and perforates the printed sheet, and the waste is stripped out.
The die is a physical tool with a real cost. That is why the dieline is signed off back at stage one, and why a repeat order in the same size is cheaper than the first one was — the tool already exists.
In the glossary Die-cutting Steel-rule die Crease Perforation
Automatic folder-gluers for straight-line and crash-lock cartons; hand assembly for rigid boxes and complex constructions.
Rigid boxes are wrapped rather than folded, which is why their lead time is not comparable to a folding carton. Plan for that when you are quoting a launch date rather than discovering it afterwards.
In the glossary Folder-gluer Crash-lock
This is the part a pharmaceutical or export buyer is actually purchasing, so it is worth stating exactly rather than as a promise of care.
The checks on every batch
- First-off approval against the signed sample before the run continues
- In-process colour checks against the approved proof
- Registration, fold accuracy, glue integrity and crease cracking
- Barcode and 2D code scan verification
- Text and artwork version verified against the approved file
- Count verification before the job is packed
In the glossary Registration Proof
Counted, shrink-wrapped bundles, cartoned or palletised, with export packing where required. Delivered across Lahore, nationwide, or handed to your freight forwarder.
Next
Apply it to your job
The same three stages run behind every service and every box style. What changes is what gets specified at stage one and what gets checked at stage three.
Questions
Questions about the process
Anything not answered here, ask us directly — we would rather talk it through than have you guess.
Lead time runs from approved artwork and a signed sample, not from your enquiry — which is exactly why the middle stage matters. Design and prepress depend on how print-ready your files are; sampling depends on which level you choose; production depends on the construction and finishing. Rigid boxes are hand-assembled and take substantially longer than folding cartons. We confirm a firm date with every quote.
You can, and occasionally it is the right call on a repeat order in an existing die with unchanged artwork. On anything new we will push back, because the sample is what converts an expensive mistake into a free one. A reprint costs more than the two or three days sampling adds.
Set-up. Plates have to be imaged and the press made ready before the first good sheet, and that cost is the same whether you print 500 or 50,000 — which makes short runs expensive. It also cannot do variable data, so serialised codes or personalisation need digital. Above the break-even quantity none of that matters and offset wins on unit cost, colour accuracy and finishing range. Tell us the quantity and we will tell you which side you are on.
Paper shifts fractionally as it travels through a press. Where two colours meet, that movement would show as a thin white gap. Trapping gives adjacent colours a tiny deliberate overlap so the movement just makes the overlap narrower and nobody ever sees it. We apply it in prepress — you do not need to build it into your artwork.
On offset, each colour is a separate plate and a separate unit on the press. Four-colour CMYK is four plates; adding one Pantone makes five. That is a real cost in plates and make-ready before a single sheet runs. On digital there are no plates, so colour count barely moves the price — another reason the two processes suit different jobs.
It is caught against the sample you signed, because that is what every in-process check is measured against. First-off approval, colour checks through the run, and registration, fold, glue and crease inspection all compare the sheet in hand to your approved sample rather than to somebody’s memory of it. If a batch does not match, it does not ship.
Send us your artwork. We’ll quote today.
Quantity, size, substrate, colours and finishing — with those five details most jobs are quoted the same working day.
Or call 0327 2777728