Utterly Printable Glossary

Designing and personalising stationery online is at the very core of what Utterly Printable does. We have developed and honed our in-house software to enable you to design and personalise all of our printed stationery products right here on our website. You can edit fonts, layouts, add photos and icons to anyone of our digital templates. So, whether you’re creating a beautiful wedding thank you card, a traditional christening invitation, or a modern wedding invite for WhatsApp, you can be sure that the design is exactly as you want it to be.

Also known as ‘correspondence cards’ or ‘personalised notecards’, traditional desk stationery cards are a printed product people use you send messages and notes to loved ones. We print ours on a range of 3 premium, uncoated card stocks so they can be easily written on and will stand up to being sent through the post. All you need is a pen.

Our digital invitation products represent a modern take on traditional stationery. We have created a range of digital wedding invitations, digital funeral invitations and digital christening invitations specifically for sending out by smartphone. In other words, we have designed a range of electronic invitations for WhatsApp, text message and SMS. The digital invite templates are sized to the format of an average smartphone screen and can be ordered alongside our RSVP link service. What could be easier?

Digital printing is the method we use to produce all of our printed stationery products. As a process, digital printing has revolutionised the print industry over the past decade. It has made the printing of relatively small print jobs – such as those for wedding invitations, birth announcements, order of service etc. – an economical and fast process. Prior to this, it was more common to rely on lithographic printing. Lithographic printing was incredibly expensive for small print runs because the setup cost was so expensive…4 plates (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) had to be ‘engraved’ for just one colour design. However, for digital printing the digital information held within your personalised design template is converted into a print map which dictates where the ink from the printer lands on the page. The setup costs are substantially lower, so small order sizes are economically viable. Which is nice.

To go alongside out range of announcements and invitations for WhatsApp and text message, we have developed a digital RSVP service. What is this exactly? Well, once you’ve finished personalising your template online, you will be given the option to put together your RSVP. You can give your guest information about you event (accommodation, transport etc.) and select questions you would like to ask them, such as attendance, dietary requirements, correspondence address etc. The RSVP comes in the form of a link which you can send out along with your digital invitations. We think it’s a great way of staying on top of your event’s admin.

Also known as ‘DIN Long’ or ‘designated long’, DL is a standard paper size common to the ISO paper classification. You have probably seen it many times before but just not know the name. So what size is DL? It is a third of a sheet of portrait A4, with the strip taken horizontally. It measures as 99mm x 210mm, so it is a tall and thin page format.

The majority of the DL-sized designs on our website can be found in our collection of tall wedding menus. They are perfect for slipping inside folded napkins on your wedding breakfast table.

Also known as ‘saddle stitching’, double stapling is the binding method we use during the order or service printing process. When a printed booklet has 8 pages or 12 pages of content, it is necessary to hold the loose spreads together in some way. By inserting 2 staples through the spine of the booklet, the page are held firmly in place.

We double staple our classic wedding order of service booklets, and well as our order of service for funerals. Swing by to take a look.

We have a whole host of stationery items on our website ready for you personalise and print with us. However, we’re flexible as a company and we just want to make sure that you have access to great designs in whatever form that might take. So, what we have done is make every one of our designs available on a download-only basis. What that means is that instead of having the design printed with us, you can opt to download a high-resolution PDF of the design instead. With your PDF template, you can choose to print your design at home, have it printed with a print supplier you know and trust, or use the design to send out by email. Our download-only service gives you a world of options…for just £19.50.

What is DPI? What does DPI stand for? Why should I care about DPI? All good questions!

DPI stands for “Dots per Inch”. And by ‘dots’, it means the elements that make up an image. In printing terms, this means the number of dots of pigment that fit into one square inch. For digital artwork and photos, it is the number of pixels. In essence, DPI relates to the quality of an image: the more dots in an inch, the sharper that image will be. We here at Utterly Printable print our invitations, cards and announcements at a crisp 300 dpi which means you get excellent clarity in the final product.

It’s worth bearing in mind that a lot of our products can hold photos. For example, our baby thank you cards, and wedding thank you cards with photos. If you are ordering a photo card with us, it is worth checking to see whether your photo has a resolution of 300DPI or higher. Anything lower than that, and you run the risk of the photo being blurry when printed.