Thanks for stopping by and welcome to Ex Why Zed. We specialise in premium annual reports for listed companies, accountancy firms, local government departments, Universities and housing societies.
Our hassle-free ordering system is ultra efficient. Simply follow our artworking guides, send us your file then we will print and deliver your finished reports within a few days.
We appreciate you may never have printed before and that the terminology, jargon, amount of choices can be baffling. We have great experience of printing Annual Reports since we launched in 2006. Sit back and relax, we’re here to guide you through the process.
Ex Why Zed are specialist Annual Report and financial document printers who will work with you to take your artwork from screen to a wide range of printed outcomes. Our case studies will really expand your knowledge on the options available in print, our FAQ section answers all your questions and our file set-up guides will aid your designer in preparing print ready artwork.
We appreciate the report has to be delivered by a certain date so we'll deliver anywhere in the UK within a few days. Pssst...we don't even charge for delivery!
The key to the report will be portraying the information in a legible and easy to read fashion. White space can be key to guiding the eye around the pages. Financial charts and graphs are often numerically heavy so limit their use on pages to avoid challenging the reader. Space out charts and break them up with stock photography or images that are on brand. Use of colour can punctuate certain areas and draw the eye.
Size, number of pages and quantity are the factors that have the biggest impact on your price. Increasing or reducing these can stretch your budget.
Within these choices, there are almost infinite possibilities. However, the three basic choices for paper finish are silk, gloss or uncoated. Your inside pages will be between 100 and 170gsm with 130gsm being the 'standard'. For a thick cover choose 300gsm or for super thick, 350gsm. The best thing to do is look through our case study portfolio of previous reports. We have listed the print spec of each book so if there is something that will work well for your publication, note down the spec and we can quote on like-for-like.
Ultimately, the factors you need to choose are:
• What size is your report? (A4 is very standard for this type of publication)
• How many pages do you have?
• What kind of finish would work best with your artwork: silk, gloss or uncoated?
• What type of binding? The rule of thumb is Wire Stitching (stapling) for up to 40 pages, Perfect Binding for over 40.
• And finally how many copies would you like?
Our intuitive quote form will also guide you through the choices and help you get a quote.
We have been doing this a while now and have seen a lot of impressive publications come off our presses. To give you a head start with your annual report printing, here are three print specifications which work well (and photos of them, see right). Each has their own characteristics which have proven to be winning combinations from a production perspective, cost per unit and most importantly, have reader appeal.
If any of our showcase options would work for your project, take a note of the spec and jump on our quote form to receive your bespoke quotation. Or ping us an email on hello@exwhyzed.com if that is easier.
Showcase 1 - a stereotypical annual report and cost-effective to print:
A4 Perfect Bound Books
4pp Cover onto 300gsm Silk
Matt Lamination to outer.
96pp Text onto 170gsm Silk.
Four colour print throughout.
Showcase 2 - an option at a bespoke size with 60 smooth, silk pages of content to fill:
A4 Perfect Bound Books
4pp Cover onto 300gsm Silk
Matt Lamination to outer
56pp Text onto 130gsm Silk
Four colour print throughout.
Showcase 3 - a professional looking, stapled, tactile annual report for the company with less information to impart:
A5 Stapled Books
4pp Cover onto 300gsm Uncoated
Matt Lamination to outer
24pp Text onto 130gsm Uncoated
Four colour print throughout.
Amendments to these print specs that you could consider...
• Increasing the cover to 350gsm will make it very sturdy and impressive (but harder to open)
• Reducing the cover to 250gsm which also makes it more user-friendly and cheaper.
• Switch to gloss lamination for a shiny cover aesthetic.
• Decrease the size to A5 which will save you money on printing and postage.
• Increase the inside pages to 170gsm for high-end reports befitting of a FTSE 500 company.
• Add foiling or gloss spot UV varnish to make an immediate impact on a logo or important line of text.
Enjoy looking through our showcase of recent annual reports.
We have done our best to give you a huge wealth of information on this page and in our guides but if here are some frequently asked questions to help you get your work into print.
We have a smooth, no fuss ordering system. Use wetransfer.com to send us the print ready PDF and our eagle eyed pre-press team will give it a preflight check. You will then receive a final PDF proof to check on screen and once that is approved we’ll go to print. Easy!
We will aim to deliver the finished books in 4/5 working days after receiving your print-ready artwork. If you are working to a crucial hand in deadline then we strongly advise leaving more time in case there are any artwork issues with your files or courier problems with delivery.
Additionally there can be a day or two of amends required to the artwork before it's print ready which we're more than happy to help with but you'll need to factor that in to timings.
Remember, we’ll need a hi res pdf file with 3mm bleed and crop marks on each edge to go ahead please. Sending it over correctly first time means we can go straight to print. Do have a last check through our file set up guides to make sure all the boxes are ticked. <link>
The old print industry maxim is that it is possible to have two of these when you send a job to print. Stop Press! At Ex Why Zed we have changed the rulebook and are confident we can now offer all three! The highest quality printing, for the best prices and delivered when you need it.
We don't advertise our prices online because we prefer to open up a conversation with you and find out a little bit about the project. Your artwork is unique and bespoke, so in turn, we will provide you a unique and bespoke print quote for your job. I am sure you will take no fun in looking at a boring spreadsheet with rows of bemusing numbers so we don't put you though that.
Wire stitching is a little bit of print jargon for ‘stapling’. If you have an A5 booklet then we print it onto A4 sheets, fold them in and put staples along the left-hand edge to bind the sheet together. In some quarters, this is also known as ‘saddle stitching’. Let’s stick with stapling though if that’s easier 🙂
Your work does need to be a multiple of four pages to work as a stapled booklet. Why? Because when you fold a printed sheet in half, you get four pages of content - try it there and you’ll see what we mean 🙂
You will be familiar with this binding style from most books and larger magazines. Perfect binding will give your publication a square spine and professional looking finish. We need an absolute minimum of 32 pages for this to work but 40 pages or more is more effective and you can go as thick as 400 pages plus for really a formidable, coffee table book.
The maximum portrait size we can print and bind is A3 (420mm high x 297mm wide). The maximum square size is 297x297mm. The maximum landscape size is A4 Landscape (210mm high x 297mm wide). The minimum portrait size is A6, the minimum square size is 148x148mm and for landscape work we can print and bind from A5 upwards (148mm high x 210mm wide).
The short answer: when paper is printed, the ink sits on the surface. When it is then folded to make your cover, the ink can crack. While you should never judge a book by it’s cover, this cracking will look unprofessional. Lamination is a thin layer of protection which prevents the ink cracking. Win win. It comes in a matt or gloss finish.
