Ordering From instantprint for the First Time

Updated: August 2024

If you’ve just started up your own small business, or you’re a freelancer looking for a way to market your service, online printing is an excellent choice for getting things off the ground. 

We get that new isn’t always easy to begin with, so to help you get to grips with ordering your own print online, we’ve created this quick and simple guide. And, remember: if you get stuck, we’re happy to help at any time. 

How Does Online Printing Work?

At instantprint, the first step is to pick your product. This might be A5 flyers, or premium business cards – or even an exhibition stand! Once you know the size of each print product, you’ll be able to set your artwork file up, or choose a free template. You’ll add your product to the basket before uploading your artwork.

Once we’ve received your order along with the artwork, our team of print specialists perform a 10 point check – which is our rigorous testing process to make sure your artwork will print perfectly. 

If your artwork looks great, we’ll send it straight to print – which, for most products, takes around 1 working day for us to print, and another to deliver. 
If we spot an error in this proofing process, we’ll send an email explaining this and how to resolve it.

We’re here to help every step of the way – so don’t be shy if you’re struggling. We want to make online printing as easy as we possibly can for you.

How to Order Print with instantprint

Here’s a more in-depth, step-by-step guide to ordering print with us.

Picking Your Print

1. On our homepage, hover over All Products to see a drop-down list of our product categories.
2. Click on a category to see the full range of products in that section plus size and price information to help you compare.
3. Alternatively, you can also click ‘All Products’ at the bottom of the list to see an extensive list of everything we offer.

Choosing the Right Product

What you want to achieve with your print will determine your entire decision. Flyers are great for spreading awareness in your local area, whereas menu printing is ideal if you’ve just started a café, restaurant or bar business. 

There are also loads of customisation options to pick from too if you really want your designs to stand out from the crowd. Here are some of the options we offer on different products:

• Paper – we offer a range of paper types to suit every business’ budget. Gsm just means how heavy, or thick, the paper is: the higher the number, the thicker the paper.
• Printed sides – some of our products can be printed as double sided. This means you’d have to supply more than one page of artwork, but in the same file.
• Finish – our different lamination options allow you to add an extra coating to make your product feel a certain way. Matt is smooth and creates a professional look, gloss is high-shine and velvet is soft and ever-so-slightly fuzzy.
• Spot UV – some products will let you add an extra layer of Spot UV if you chose matt lamination. This creates a raised glossy area and can be used to make your logo or contact details stand out. 
• Foiling – create stunning patterns with gold and silver foil, make logos stand out.
• Printed Pages – on our booklets, you’ll be able to pick how many printed pages you’d like. ‘Printed pages’ refers to how many pages you’d design, rather than actual sheets of paper. So, a greetings card has four printed pages for example.
• Cover Type – you can also ‘mix and match’ the type of paper you use for the cover and for the inner pages of your booklet. For example, you can pick a lightweight 115gsm for the inside pages and a card-like 350gsm for the cover.

Adding Your Product to the Basket

Once you’ve chosen your product and applied any customisation options to it that you want, the only thing left to do is add it to your basket and upload your artwork. Here’s how:

1. Click Add to Basket.
2. For most products, you’ll see a popup window asking how you’d like to supply your artwork.
3. You can upload a design from your computer or customise/create your own with our free design tool.
4. You can also continue shopping and add artwork to the basket later.
5. Once you’ve added your artwork, we’ll send you a proof.
6. Download the proof and view it through Adobe Reader or Acrobat.
7. Click Approve if you’re happy with the final piece, or upload new artwork if you want to change it.

No popup window?

Some of our products require a little bit more setting up, so you’ll need to send them directly to us. For booklets, presentation folders, flags and some banners, please place your order first without uploading any artwork. 

Then, send us your artwork in an email to artwork@instantprint.co.uk along with your order reference number so we can match it up to your order.

*Please note: if your file is over 200MB, you’ll need to send this to us via wetransfer.com rather than your standard email account, but it works in very much the same way.

We’ll then get back to you ASAP with a proof to approve – just reply to the email to approve and we’ll send it to print!

For more help with proofing your artwork including FAQs, check out our Proofing Journey Guide.

Delivery Times

This table shows the dispatch and delivery times* for each print product we currently offer. 

*Dispatch is how long it takes us to produce your print product and get it out of the door. Delivery is how long it takes to get to you once we’ve dispatched it from our production facility.

To find out how many working days it’ll take to receive your order, just add up both columns for that product. For example, business cards will be delivered in two days as standard.

Express delivery means you’ll get your print one day quicker. For example, some business cards are available for delivery next day.

Orders must be approved before 6:30pm for most products to be dispatched the next working day. For example, business cards ordered before 6:30pm on Monday will be dispatched Tuesday and delivered on Wednesday.
Working days are Monday-Friday.

If you’re stuck and would like some help – don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team! Give us a call on 0191 27 27 327, email us at office@instantprint.co.uk, or fire across a message on live chat and we’ll get back to you ASAP.