These hints and tips are to help you through what can sometimes be a stressful time for both you and your printer!

ENGRAVED INVITATIONS:

1. As the lettering is cut directly onto the copperplate (backwards and upside down!) it cannot be changed without making a new plate. It is therefore particularly important that once the proof has been agreed, no changes are made.
2. Before printing your invitations a "female force" has to be cut (with a scalpel) to exactly marry with the engraved copperplate. This is a very skilled job that takes considerable time. It is therefore sensible to order a few extra invitations to save the cost of a reprint.

THERMOGRAPHIC INVITATIONS:

1. The lettering on a thermographic invitation will be slightly darker and just a little bolder than on an engraved invitation.
2. Please be cautious not to under order, as reprints for additional cards are expensive.
3. Proofs provided will be merely to show layout and a check for spelling. They will not be in raised print.

Please note that the thermographic process does tend to curl paper and cards just a little. This is due to the heat process taking moisture from the paper when the printing is done. Thermographed stocks will normally flatten out once subjected to the outside air but a small amount of curl may on occasions, remain.

ORDERS OF SERVICE:

1. If possible, please send us copy in Microsoft Word by e-mail to design@piccolopress.co.uk
2. Our standard hymn settings are taken from the 1931 edition of "Songs of Praise", published by the Oxford University Press as a national collection of hymns. If you wish to use other words or settings, please let us know.
3. We have most of the "standard" hymns on file. Special readings or more obscure hymns should be written out in full.
4. Layout has to be a compromise between good typography and what is possible in the space available, coupled to the demands of being readable often in a dark church! We have many years of experience in this.
5. Our normal practice is to follow the Book of Common Prayer and the Bible, where lower case initials are used for pronouns representing the deity. (Thus "his" and "thy")
6. Please get your Vicar, Minister or Priest to agree your copy BEFORE it is sent to us.
7. ONE set of proofs will be provided free of charge and any genuine mistakes made by us rectified and a further set of proofs sent. However, changes to text and layouts that were not clearly advised in your original instructions and require a second set of proofs, will be charged as "author’s corrections".
8. Our published prices are for a "standard" amount of typesetting. Extra pages, special sizes and designs will incur an extra charge.
9. It is our experience that Orders of Service take much longer to compile and get agreement from all parties than might be expected. To save both yourself (and us) unnecessary stress, please leave good time for all this to be done so that the printing and delivery can be achieved without undue rush.
10. Good Luck

Piccolo Press also has a range of cards with ornamental borders which are particularly attractive for some order of service and menu cards. Please ask for details and costs.

It is always sensible to order a few extra cards over and above the number you have calculated will be required. A later order of a small number of additional invitations will be very expensive.