Recommended UK commercial printers

It takes time to find a reliable commercial printer, so here’s a head start — UK print companies vouched for by some of the UK’s top designers and studios.

Helen Jones of The Partners recommends:
Orchid Print, London — 020 8986 8969
Screaming Colour, London — 020 7549 3400

Katie Morgan of (the late, great) 300million recommends:
Gavin Martin Colournet, London — 020 8985 0805
“Not only do they provide an excellent, consultative service, but they also have a great resource called the ‘Print Lounge’ where you can go and browse through all the print they have done — a fantastic source of inspiration.”

Steven Willis, creative director at B&W Studio, recommends:
Harrogate Print, Harrogate, North Yorkshire — 01423 523449
Teamprint, Littleborough, Lancashire — 01706 370092
“Simon at Team helped us out when we first established B&W Studio nearly six years ago. We still enjoy a great relationship with them today and they’re always up to the task whatever ridiculous specification or timeframe we throw at them. Their quality and attention to detail is exceptional.”

Blair Thomson, creative director at Believe In, recommends:
Generation Press, Brighton — 01273 857449
“Proper printers who understand print and know no boundaries. Attention to detail at every level. The designer’s printer. Tip-top environmental credentials.”
Kingfisher Print, Totnes, Devon — 01803 867087
“Local printers with great value and a high-quality service. These guys know their stuff and print some great work.”

Paul Ellerker, director at Branch, recommends:
Wellington Press, London — 020 8558 9290
“They’re really responsive, competitively priced, and generally very nice people.”

David Hyde of Studio Hyde recommends:
Dayfold Print, Verwood, Dorset — 01202 812203
“For high-quality printing from a company that specialises in working with and for designers.”
Park lane Press, Corsham, Wiltshire — 01225 815010
“For high-quality environmental (waterless) printing.”
Indigo Press, Southampton, Hampshire — 0800 652 7299
“For ‘package price’ print (good for stationery).”

Tom Lancaster, creative director at Stylo Design, recommends:
Dayfold Print, Verwood, Dorset — 01202 812203
“They’ve been super reliable and produce quality results.”

A second thumbs-up for Dayfold.

Lee Newham of Good People recommends:
Kopykat Printing, London — 020 7739 2451
“They’re excellent. Eco printers, FSC certified, use vegetable-based inks, etc. I can’t recommend them highly enough.”
Hot Metal Press, Barnsley, South Yorkshire — 01226 740498
“They print hot metal as the name suggests, are incredibly helpful, and good at what they do. Also very reasonable.”

Jamie Wieck of Airside recommends:
Principal Colour, Paddock Wood, Kent — 01892 835005
“Competitive, inventive, and above all recognise that what they produce ultimately impacts the environment.”
Calverts Co-operative, London — 020 7739 1474
“The quality of their work is legendary, so they tend to be a tad more expensive than other printers, but you get what you pay for.”
Jigsaw Colour Printers, London — 020 7394 2799
“Excellent at handling massive quantities of print work and are set up to take on your biggest projects without batting an eye lid.”

Alan Anderson of Blue Tube Design recommends:
Minprint Ltd, Belfast, Northern Ireland — 028 90705205
“Always a high standard of work, accurate and competitively priced.”

Simon Hutchings of Visualise Graphics recommends:
Wincanton Print, Wincanton, Somerset — 01963 33643
“They’re a wealth of knowledge, great value and offer a superb service — highly recommended.”

James Greenfield of Proud Creative recommends:
Push Print, London — 020 7231 1166
“Great print and quality service.”
Generation Press, Brighton — 01273 857449

A second vouch for Generation Press.

Steve Bell of Zavial Design recommends:
Remous, Sherborne, Dorset — 01963 250920
“We’ve been using Remous for seven years. High quality and reliable.”

Andrew Kelsall recommends:
RCS, Retford, Notts — 0800 328 5064
“Not only do they have all the latest printing technology, they also have a smashing print catalogue that is reprinted and updated every year. If you go to their site, you can get a free copy if you’re in the design trade.”

Ebi Atawodi recommends:
ist printing, Beith, Ayrshire — 01505 500 000
“I’ve just done some foil blocking with Ian. Very cheerful/friendly and a great quality printer.”
Copytech Digital Print Solutions, Tunbridge Wells, Kent — 01892 538280
“Highly recommended, especially for short run bespoke work.”

Chris Skelton of What Creative recommends:
Team Impression, Leeds — 0113 272 4800
“Amazing service. Top quality.”

Simon C Page recommends:
Ripe Digital, Corsham, Wiltshire — 01225 815033

Morag Malloy of (the late) Fission Creative recommends:
CCB, Glasgow — 0141 891 4700
Hay Nisbet Press, Glasgow — 0141 959 3325
J Thompson Colour Printers, Glasgow — 0141 429 1094

Rebecca Owen of Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners recommends:
Face Creative Services, London — 020 7713 9797
Pearl Print Management, London — 020 8875 9160

More resources for designers.


Comments

41 responses to “Recommended UK commercial printers”

  1. Actually David, I forgot to send you the details of “HOT METAL PRESS”. They print hot metal as the name suggests, they are incredibly helpful and good at what they do. They are also very reasonable. http://www.hotmetalpress.co.uk/

    Don’t be put off by their website!

  2. For Northern Ireland I cannot recommend MinPrint in Belfast highly enough. I’ve been putting print work through them for the past 8 years and my Dad, a desktop publisher, has been using them for many many years before that. Always a high standard of work, accurate and competitively priced.

  3. I’ve used Wincanton Print in Somerset for the past 8 years both for the three companies I’ve worked for and my own freelance work. They’re a wealth of knowledge, great value and offer a superb service – highly recommended.
    http://www.wincanton-print.com

  4. What a great resource thank you!

    As a graphic designer who will be relocating to the UK within a year, these will certainly come in very handy to me.

  5. Thanks for the recommendations. I’ve added them to the map, and included your own site links in the post. Much obliged.

    Vanessa, I hope your plans come together well. Is it a permanent switch from SA?

  6. We’ve been using Remous for 7 years and they’re a really good, high quality and reliable printer. Located in Dorset.
    http://www.remous.com

  7. Thanks for the resource David.

    The printers that I have used for a few years are RCS, who are based in Retford. Their website is: http://www.rcs.plc.uk/

    Not only do they have all the latest printing technology, they also have a smashing print catalogue that is reprinted and updated every year. If you go to their site, you can get a free copy if you’re in the design trade, etc. Anyone can also just download it from their site, too (but obviously, you dont see the print quality and paper stock).

    The print catalogue shows examples of their printed works, and is printed onto various paper stocks that they offer; they even have printed examples of Metal FX inks and Hexachrome.

    No, I’m not on commission, but RCS are a worthy choice 🙂

  8. Steve, Andrew, I’ve included your recommendations, too. Cheers guys.

  9. I’ve just done some foil blocking with Ian at http://www.istprintingservices.co.uk/ very cheerful/friendly and great quality printer.

    Principal colour are also good and I’ve heard only good things. Some of the catalogue magazine work is just superb and great comment of paper types.

    Another great find for me, came highly recommended, especially for short run bespoke work is Copytech – http://www.copytech.com. They have a part of the business called http://www.yophotobespoke.co.uk/ definitely recommend as well and worth checking out.

  10. I would recommend Ripe Digital, http://www.ripedigital.co.uk, really amazingly helpful, good people, brilliant quality, more than competitive prices and speedy. Can’t say enough good about them!

  11. Ripe Digital in Bath (www.ripedigital.co.uk) – a great bunch of guys who do excellent work! Very highly recommended indeed.

  12. Ripe Digital is an amazing printers based in Corsham, Wiltshire. Top quality work and very reliable.

    Check ’em out here:

    http://www.ripedigital.co.uk

  13. Been using Ripe Digital http://www.ripedigital.co.uk for about 5 years commercially (and also as a student) Based in Corsham, they are just such brilliant printers and also a very knowledgeable, friendly, helpful team.

    Moved to London in the last 2 years but despite the distance I still send work back to them, not found a better printer in London. They’re so good at what they do, I trust them, along with the fact their printing accuracy means I barely ever bother getting proofs printed. Perfect every time!

  14. I do a lot of brochures of all shapes, sizes, perfect bind, ring bind with all sorts of print finishes, and so I can go on. I can highly recommend http://www.printhouse.co.uk in London (020 8963 0123) – but I am sure they will deliver anywhere. Not just your average pizza flyer corner print shop. But specialise in high end print jobs and focus on quality.

  15. Nicole Rugman Avatar
    Nicole Rugman

    Hi David,

    I can thoroughly recommend Mid Wales Litho as my absolute favourite printers in South Wales.
    I have requested spot varnishing, silver coating, wavy die cutting, ridiculous paper folds and all manner of weird printing tasks and they have never failed to produce wonder results. Very personal, very experienced and always lovely print results. Some of my best work has come back from these printers. Exceptional.
    http://www.mwl.co.uk

  16. Graeme Avatar
    Graeme

    Hello All,

    What a great idea to start this discussion. Is there anyone who can recomend a printer in the North East of England, Durham area?

    Thank you,

    Best wishesw
    Graeme

  17. Hi everyone,
    Thanks for these printer suggestions, its a brilliant post (and FAB website David!). I’m also currently looking for a reasonably priced printer (in the UK) and have requested many samples from varies companies.

    I’m really struggling though in finding one which will do smaller print-runs (0-100) with a variety of quality papers (I am trying to start up a wedding stationery business). All the ones I find are pretty standard paper stocks. Does anyone have any advise or tips?

    I’d love to get into letterpress printing when im a bit more established, but one step at a time! Just to find a good printer to send my invites off to would be wonderful!

  18. Great. I’ve added quite a few new recommendations. Thank you all.

  19. Great post David. I have used Face Creative for digital short runs for the past 7 years and never had a bad job from them: http://www.face-creative.co.uk

    I use Pearl Print Management for litho work and again, couldn’t recommend them highly enough. Ask for Jess: http://www.pearlpm.com

  20. Daniel Avatar
    Daniel

    Printing.com are great for non specialised printing, affordable, full colour and fast turnaround.

  21. I can certainly recommend Taylor Bloxham based in Leicester. Excellent commercial printers with high definition printing facilities and a wide range of finishing options. They specialise in high quality commercial print and excel in high-end brochure printing. Everything they have done for us has been gorgeous and the staff are incredibly helpful. I cannot speak highly enough.

  22. Shelli Avatar
    Shelli

    I would just like to comment that Team Impression “amazing service, top quality” are in my experience anything but. I used them a few years ago and yes they have very slick account handlers who promise the world but the first job they printed for me had to be reprinted 3 times due to their poor quality printing and bad finishing. They promote themselves as pushing printing capabilities but really need to focus on their finishing quality and back-end customer service. Oh, and they can’t deliver on time as promised. I would highly recommend ProCo print in Sheffield, excellent customer service and great print quality – they have great digital facilities.

  23. @Penny, alot of printers mentioned above and in general will order papers in on your behalf. Always nice to have them in stock but anything can be ordered in really. Not sure what aspect of stationery you are looking to do but if you’re in wedding business might want to look into letterpress “printers”? I took a workshop at Harrington and Squires – http://www.harringtonandsquires.co.uk and it was brilliant. You can also pay the workshop fee of £150 to go in for the day and work on your own projects, they use mostly 540gsm colourplan which is pure joy to me. Definitely worth checking out.

  24. @Rebecca, I’m on the fence with Face Creative – http://www.face-creative.co.uk I met one of the guys at a freshbusinessthinking event and they had some amazing amazing work on display. Lots of large format books/portfolios. The guys there are cheerful and will work with whatever you through at them. However I had a job done and it came back with lots of blotches, not sure what happened and never got an explanation but now I’m a bit paranoid.

  25. Oh I should also add that Copytech who I mentioned above also are behind http://yophoto.co.uk/ and http://www.yophotobespoke.co.uk/ and are one of the first guys in the UK to go the digital print route. Definitely worth adding that snippet as alot of people use the yophoto bespoke service (see portfolio).

  26. This sort of list is great, choosing a service definitely feels safer with recommendations. Though it is a shame that none have been recommended in Cornwall!

    How often do you find yourself dealing with screen printers, David? Would love to see a similar post for that.

  27. Ebi, Thanks so much for your recommendation for the letterpress workshop, will definitely look into doing that one day, would be a very interesting skill to learn. Also interesting to hear many printers will order stock in at your request too, i worked in a printers for a while and never heard that before, so will ask next time, thanks!

  28. Not often at all, Roy, so I can’t offer a recommendation, unfortunately.

  29. Printing.com all the way for me. Without doubt one of the finest production facilities in the UK printing industry.

  30. Hi David,
    A bit late to add my suggestion I know, but I can very highly recommend http://www.leyprint.co.uk
    I recently completed a rebrand requiring bottle labels and found their suggestions and advice brilliant, particularly as my client had to unexpectedly cut costs.
    I’ve recently moved to Belfast. Any local suggestions other than Minprint (as it’s already been mentioned).
    Thanks for your blog.

  31. Hy David,
    Loving your blog, it’s absolutely exceptional. I adore the way you share your knowledge with other designers.
    I browsed through the printing houses mentioned above but haven’t found any flexible printing. Is it just not popular in UK when it comes to packaging industry? I would be grateful if you could shed some light on that. Thanks.

  32. Thanks, Alex. No more local suggestions as yet.

    Renata, packaging production is an area I’m not so clued-up about. Thanks for the compliment. Sorry I can’t be of more help.

  33. Great work with your blog and getting such a useful list of design and print resources together.

    You’re a good read so I’ve added you to my bookmarks for identity brand designers.

    Check out our design/print blog print.quote when you get the chance.

  34. I also recommend:
    Copypoll for printing cartons. FSC registered, rally helpful and did a great job printing our design for Ilze’s Chocolat.
    http://www.copypoll.com

    I also recommend Lovely Packaging Ltd
    http://www.lovelypackaging.co.uk

    They make and print eco friendly biodegradable greaseproof, foodsafe paper. Really helpful and nice people.

  35. Here at Green 17 we have done work with MBA Group printers based in London we would highly recommend them,

    http://www.mba-group.com/

  36. John Saunders Avatar
    John Saunders

    I would highly recommend Angel Design & Print based in Hawkhurst, East Sussex. Just ask for Nick he has been a great help for us.

    http://www.angeldesignandprint.co.uk/

  37. Struggled to find a printers in Hampshire, eventually ended up using this one:

    http://www.hampshirepress.co.uk

    Really happy with the work they did for me. If you need a printer in Southampton then I would check them out.

  38. Nnenna Agu Avatar
    Nnenna Agu

    I was in dire need of a UK printer who could deliver my Firm’s corporate materials within a very short time and not compromise on the quality. In my desperation, I did an online search which led me to your blog. After seeing all the wonderful reviews by everyone, I decided to brave it and contact some of them.

    Richard, of Ripe Digital took a chance with my job, especially because I am a Nigerian, based in Nigeria and representing a Nigerian law firm. I am glad to say that the quality and turnaround time was quite astonishing and I was impressed. Highly recommended and very friendly company. They have my highest esteem.

  39. Hi guys,

    I recommend http://www.lichfieldprinters.co.uk for great service. I would say they are more of a print partner as they always go that extra mile for me.

    Useful to know if you are in the Birmingham area.

  40. Paul Begley Avatar
    Paul Begley

    I found CPI London to be on time at a good price.

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