What Happens to Your Print Job After You Click Order?

Quick answer: Once you place an order with Print Studio Scotland, your job goes through seven stages: 1. we confirm the order and specification, 2. a person checks your artwork, 3. we send you a proof to approve, 4. the job is scheduled and printed on our own presses, 5. it's cut, folded, bound or finished, 6. it's quality checked and packed, and 7. it's delivered or ready to collect. Your turnaround starts when you approve your proof, and most brochures and leaflets are ready within two to three working days of approval.

To most customers, print is a bit of a black box. You upload a file, pay, and a few days later a box arrives. What happens in between is invisible, and that's exactly where most of the questions come from: When does my turnaround actually start? Why do I need to approve a proof? Who checks my file? What if something's wrong?

So here's the whole journey, stage by stage, exactly as it happens in our studio in Paisley.

Stage 1: Your Order or Quote

There are two ways a job starts with us:

• Ordering online. Our most popular products can be priced and ordered on this website at any time. You choose the size, paper, quantity and finish, upload your artwork, and pay at checkout.
• A bespoke quotation. For anything outside the website options, such as larger quantities, special papers, bespoke sizes, mixed stocks or design and print together, we prepare a quote.

Either way, the first thing we do is make sure the specification makes sense for what you're trying to achieve. If you've ordered a stitched brochure with more pages than stitching can handle, or a paper that won't suit the job, we'll tell you before we go any further.

What's in a quotation?

We send everything in one email, through a single quotation link, so it's all in one place and there are as few steps as possible. Here's a real example: a Christmas brochure we designed and printed for a local hospitality client, with their details blurred out.

Every quotation sets out:

• The exact specification: size, pages, paper, finishing and quantity, with the price per copy.
• Any artwork time: in this case, four hours of design and alterations.
• Your artwork proof, attached right inside the quote.
• An approval checklist of the details to check before you approve.
• Colour critical: whether your job needs to match a printed sample, and our colour matching terms.
• Production timescale: the estimated completion time and your collection or delivery date.
• Delivery or collection, and the total, with VAT shown clearly. In this example, VAT applies only to the artwork, because printed brochures are zero-rated.

You can add comments or your own order reference, then accept the quote online in one click.

How payment works

When a quoted job is approved, we send you a payment link, which you can pay by card or bank transfer, or in person if you're collecting. The majority of our clients pay on approval. It helps us keep our pricing simple and our production running efficiently, which is part of how we keep turnaround times short.

Credit accounts are available at our discretion for regular clients spending £5,000 or more a year, subject to credit checks.

Stage 2: A Person Checks Your Artwork

This is the step online printers usually leave to software, and it's one of the most important. Every file we receive goes through a free pre-flight check by a member of our team. We look at:

• Size: is the file set up at the finished size of the product?
• Bleed: do backgrounds extend 3mm past the edge, so there are no white slivers after trimming?
• Safe area: is important text at least 5mm inside the trim?
• Image resolution: will your photos print sharp, or come out soft and pixelated?
• Colour: RGB and spot colours are converted to CMYK for print, and we note any colours likely to shift.
• Fonts: are they embedded, so nothing changes between your screen and our press?
• Page order: for brochures, are the pages in the right order and a multiple of four?

Simple fixes, like colour conversion and embedding fonts, are done as standard at no charge. If a file needs more work, such as resizing artwork supplied at the wrong size, we'll let you know first. That's charged at £35 per hour in 15-minute blocks, so a typical quick fix is £8.75 + VAT. If you'd prefer to fix it yourself, that's fine too.

What we can't check is your content. We don't know that your phone number has changed or that the event is on the 14th, not the 15th. That's where the next stage comes in. Our guide to the most common print mistakes explains what to look out for.

Stage 3: Your Proof

Once your artwork has been checked, you'll receive a proof: a preview of your job exactly as it will print, after our checks and any corrections. For quoted jobs, the proof sits right inside your quotation, next to the approval checklist, so you can check it, approve it and accept the quote in one go.

Before approving, check each of these, one at a time:

• Email addresses and website addresses
• Telephone numbers
• Names
• Prices
• Dates
• Quantities and product descriptions

We'll also point out anything we think you should know, such as a colour that will shift when converted from RGB, or an image that's on the edge of being too low-resolution.

Two things are worth knowing about proofs:

1. Your job is printed exactly as approved. Once you approve a proof, that's what we print. That includes any wording we've typed or amended for you, so please check everything, not just your own changes. If there's a typo on the approved proof, it will be on the finished job, and correcting it means a reprint.
2. Your turnaround starts when you approve. Our turnaround times run from proof approval, not from when you first get in touch. The quicker you approve, the sooner your job goes to press.

For colour-critical or image-heavy work, you can also ask for a printed hard-copy proof, printed on the actual paper your job will use. We charge only for the materials and postage.

Stage 4: Scheduling and Printing

Once your proof is approved, your job joins our production schedule. We plan the day's work so each job runs on the right machine and the right stock, and so deadlines are met.

Brochures, leaflets, business cards and stationery are printed on our Konica Minolta AccurioPress digital presses. Banners, posters and display graphics are printed on our Epson and HP wide format machines, then laminated, mounted or cut to shape on our digital cutting table.

Unlike gang-run printing, where many customers' jobs share one sheet and one colour setting, your job is printed as its own job. That means our print technicians can set it up for your artwork and your paper. If you've told us colour is critical, we match to the printed sample you've supplied, or to the one we already keep on file if you're a regular customer. Our RGB vs CMYK guide explains why a printed reference matters more than a screen.

Stage 5: Finishing

Printing is only half the job. The printed sheets then need to become the finished product, and this is where a lot of the craft happens:

• Trimming to the finished size on our guillotine, which is why bleed matters.
• Laminating covers, business cards and display graphics for durability and finish.
• Creasing and folding for leaflets and brochure covers. Heavier papers are creased before folding so they don't crack along the fold.
• Saddle stitching, where folded sheets are nested and stapled through the spine.
• Wire binding, where pages are punched and bound with a metal wire so they lie flat.

Saddle stitching and wire binding are done in-house here in Paisley. Perfect binding, the glued spine you see on catalogues and annual reports, is specialist work we produce with a trusted finishing partner. Sometimes we print in-house and send the sheets out for binding, sometimes the whole job goes to our partner, and either way we manage it from start to finish. Our binding comparison guide explains the difference between all three.

Stage 6: Quality Check and Packing

Before anything leaves the studio, it's checked. We look at the finished job against your approved proof: colour, trimming, folding, binding and quantity. If something isn't right, we deal with it before it reaches you, not after.

Then it's packed to travel, with heavier items and anything with a delicate finish protected so it arrives in the condition it left us.

Stage 7: Delivery or Collection

You have three options:

• Collect from our studio in Paisley, free of charge, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. We'll email you as soon as your order is ready to collect.
• Free local delivery within Renfrewshire, where we'll usually deliver it ourselves.
• UK courier delivery on a next-day service for £9.95 + VAT, allowing 48 hours for more remote areas. We'll email you the courier's tracking details so you can follow your delivery. Larger bespoke orders, such as pallet deliveries, are charged at the genuine courier cost, which is always set out in your quote.

How Long Does It All Take?

Here's how our standard turnaround times work, counted in working days from the moment you approve your proof:

Courier delivery is on top of this, usually the next working day. If you collect, or you're local to Renfrewshire, your job is ready as soon as it's finished.

Need it sooner? Our express service is charged at 15% on top, when it's possible for us to do it. We'll always tell you honestly whether we can hit your date before you commit.

What Can Slow a Job Down?

Most delays happen before a job reaches the press, and nearly all of them are avoidable:

• Waiting on proof approval. The clock doesn't start until you approve, so a proof that sits in an inbox for two days adds two days.
• Artwork that needs fixing. Missing bleed, low-resolution images or the wrong size all need sorting before we can proof. Our artwork guide shows how to get it right first time.
• Changes after approval. A new proof means a new approval, the turnaround starts again, and further changes may carry additional charges.
• Tight deadlines with no slack. Tell us the real date you need your print in hand, and we'll plan backwards from it.

And If Something Goes Wrong?

We're a small team and we take pride in getting it right. But we're human, and we'd rather be clear about what happens if something isn't right:

• If the mistake is ours, such as a printing or finishing fault that wasn't on your approved proof, we'll hold our hands up and put it right at our cost.
• If the mistake is on the approved proof, the job has been printed as approved, so a correction means a reprint. That's why we ask you to check every proof so carefully, and why we point out anything that looks like a potential problem before you approve.

Either way, you'll be talking directly to the people who produced your job, not raising a ticket and waiting.

Frequently Asked Questions

When does my print turnaround start?

Turnaround starts when you approve your proof, not when you place your order. Approving your proof promptly is the quickest way to get your job to press.

Do you check my artwork before printing?

Yes. A member of the Print Studio Scotland team checks every file for size, bleed, safe area, image resolution, colour and fonts before we send a proof. Standard fixes such as RGB to CMYK conversion and font embedding are free.

How do I approve a proof and pay?

For quoted jobs, your proof, specification, price and approval checklist all arrive in one quotation link by email, which you can accept online. Once approved, we send a payment link that can be paid by card, bank transfer or in person on collection. Credit accounts are available at our discretion for regular clients spending £5,000 or more a year, subject to credit checks.

What happens if I approve a proof with a mistake on it?

Jobs are printed exactly as approved, so any error on the approved proof will appear on the finished print and a correction means a reprint. Every proof comes with a checklist of details to check before approving.

Can I see a printed proof before my job runs?

Yes. For colour-critical or image-heavy jobs, a printed hard-copy proof on the actual paper is available, charged at the cost of materials and postage.

How long does brochure printing take?

Saddle stitched brochures take 2 to 3 working days after proof approval, wire bound 3 to 5 working days and perfect bound 5 to 7 working days. Express turnaround is available at 15% extra when possible.

Will I know when my order is ready?

Yes. We email you when your order is ready to collect, and for courier deliveries we email the tracking details so you can follow your parcel.

Ready to Start Your Job?

You can price and order our most popular products on this website, or get in touch for a bespoke quote. Not sure what to order? Our honest brochure price guide and our guide to choosing between an online and local printer are good places to start. Or call 0141 237 1924 and talk to the people who'll be printing your job.

Stuart Wilson, founder, Print Studio Scotland – 28 years in print