FAQ's

Q: What sort of quality can I expect?

Here at Heatherbank, we pride ourselves on the quality of the work we produce. We know we aren’t the cheapest printers out there, but we believe ‘you get what you pay for’. Our reputation has been built on 3 important things, Quality, Value and Service and our 1000’s of customer are very happy with what we can offer. However if you still need convincing, please order yourself one of our free sample packs and have a look for yourself!

Q: Is my order subject to VAT?

This question is never easy, however here are the most common reasons for charging VAT.
If your leaflet is to be used as admission, or as a discount to a product or service. I.E. ‘Free admission with this leaflet’ or 10% off with this card. If your product has an area to be written onto, i.e a form or a notes page, that makes up 25% or more of the final design. You can find out more about VAT print rules & regulations from HM Revenue & Customs HM Revenue & Customs.

Q: What file types do you accept and how should I send them?

We prefer to receive files in print ready PDF format, as this speeds up the production process, but we can also accept Jpegs. If you are unable to supply your files in this format, we can convert it for you, please call us on 01302 986968 to discuss.

If you are not able to upload your files to our site then you can email any files under 10mb to info@heatherbankprint.com. If they are over 10mb then please send via any file transfer site

Q: What is CMYK?

CMYK is also referred to as ‘Full colour printing’ or ‘Four colour printing’ and is the most commonly used printing technique. The system uses 4 colour primary colours as its base – Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and blacK – with various combinations of these 4 it is possible to produce virtually every colour you can imagine!

Q: What is the difference between ‘Digital’ and ‘Litho’ printing?

Digital printing allows a job to go directly from a computer file, straight to the plate, eliminating the need for films. This makes digital printing very quick to produce.

Alternatively, lithographic or ‘litho’ printing is a process where a plate is specially coated so ink only sticks to dry areas of the plate. The inked image is then transferred, or offset on to a rubber blanket, which then makes an impression on the paper.

Q: What is bleed?

Bleed is required to ensure edge-to-edge colour on your final product. Any background colours or images need to expand your final size by 3mm on all sides to allow for any movement on the guillotine.

Q: What is the Safe Area?

The safe area is essential for making sure your print looks perfect once it rolls off the presses.

It's the area close to the trim marks, so your text or important design features need to stay clear! There's always a small amount of natural movement while your print gets finished, so keeping designs away from this safe area ensures they don't accidentally get trimmed off!

Q: What is creep?

If you’re printing Saddle Stitched Brochures and are using a paper weight over 120gsm or have anything over 12 pages, you’ll need to allow for creep in your document.

Creep is the technical name for what happens to the edge when you fold a stack of pages together; the outer pages appear shorter as they're wrapping around the large inner bulk.

This then creates the inner pages to "creep" and stick out slightly. We'll trim this down to give a nice, straight finish to the document edge, anything that is printed over this trim line - like text or page numbers- will be cut away.

To combat Creep, we recommend avoiding using images or text which go over a two page spread. The best way to set this up is to make sure that everything is 5-6mm away from the edges of your page; to avoid wonky page numbers, images or text.