Printing services
for Pittsburgh, PA.

Printing for the way Pittsburgh does business.

Pittsburgh is robotics, medicine, universities and a city that rebuilt itself on brains, and its businesses print like engineers.

Pittsburgh’s economy is healthcare and the largest employer in the region, two world-class universities and the robotics, AI and software companies that spun out of them, financial services downtown, and a food and craft culture in the neighbourhoods. Downtown and the Strip District carry the offices and the new tech; Lawrenceville and Bloomfield carry the restaurants, studios and shops; Oakland carries the campuses; the South Hills and North Hills carry the households.

Print in Pittsburgh should be precise and unfussy. A clean matte card for the tech and medical crowd, a gloss card for the trades, postcards and flyers for the neighbourhoods. Sales sheets matter for anyone selling into the hospitals or the labs, and the convention center keeps banners busy.

Where print earns its keep in Pittsburgh.

Print works differently in different parts of a city. These are the places in Pittsburgh where a printed piece tends to do the most work, and the piece that usually suits each one.

The Strip District and downtown. Tech offices, markets and restaurants. Cards for teams that grow monthly and postcards for openings.

Lawrenceville and Bloomfield. Restaurants, studios and shops. Flyers, postcards and rack cards with character.

Oakland and the medical campuses. Universities, hospitals and vendors. Sales sheets with real specifications.

The David L. Lawrence Convention Center. Conferences and consumer shows. A retractable banner and a sales sheet.

One clear purpose. The right piece of paper.

What Pittsburgh tends to order. Pittsburgh's economy prints in two very different registers, a hospital and research system that wants a specification-heavy sales sheet with room for data, and a startup and robotics scene that wants a minimal card handed over at a demo table. The universities add a steady need for postcards and rack cards around admissions and campus events. Financial firms downtown lean toward a card that feels traditional, and contractors on the hillside neighbourhoods rely on door hangers where a knock beats a mailer.

Put a readable name first, then one line about what you do, then the one contact route you want people to use. A finish should support that, never make it harder to read.

Make the whole set feel like your business.

A Pittsburgh note. Pittsburgh design is practical and quietly proud: black and gold if you must, otherwise clean type and one colour on a matte card. For the tech crowd, keep the card minimal and put the QR code on the back. For the trades, gloss and a big phone number.

A brand does not need every piece to look identical, only a consistent voice, a deliberate palette and type that works at several sizes. Bring your logo, or start from nothing: print product design is $97 and logo design is $250, set up for the product and finish you picked.

Plan around the day you need it in hand.

Work backward from the day the materials have to be ready, and leave room for artwork, the proof, production and shipping. Each product page states its own time on press: two to three business days for most cards and postcards once you approve your proof, three to four for soft touch and door hangers, seven to twelve for the XL banner. Shipping sits on top of that. Give us the delivery address and your date when you order, with a receiving name if it is going to a venue, a hotel or a shared office. If the date is fixed, say so and we will tell you whether it is possible before you pay.

Getting print into Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh's hills and rivers mean the map distance between two neighbourhoods is not the real distance, since a straight line often runs into a bluff or a bridge, so crossing from one side of a river to another can take longer than it looks. University mail rooms get busiest at the start and end of each term. Cold winters and occasional snow call for extra allowance on anything timed tightly, and high-rise offices downtown generally receive through a loading dock rather than the front door.

Mailing in Pittsburgh. For postcards by route, Squirrel Hill, Mt. Lebanon, Shadyside and Lawrenceville are neighbourhoods where a mailer reaches households and gets read.

Give the file your full attention.

Use the artwork guide on the product you picked, because the finished size, the bleed and the safe area are not the same for every format. Upload a PDF, PNG or JPG and the size, bleed and resolution are checked in your browser, then your proof arrives by email and nothing goes to press until you approve it. Read your own details out loud when it lands: names, numbers, web addresses, dates, spelling and which side is which. If there is a QR code, scan it yourself.