Schools print more than most companies
A typical Singapore secondary school or junior college gets through an astonishing amount of print in a year: orientation booklets in January, CCA recruitment posters in February, sports day banners, the mid-year exam papers, Racial Harmony Day backdrops, open house collateral in the second half, and the graduation yearbook and certificates at the end. Add the parents' support group, the alumni association and every student-led initiative, and the school is effectively a mid-sized print buyer with a hundred different people placing orders.
This guide is for teachers, admin staff and student leaders who end up in charge of one of those jobs. It covers the items that come up most often, the specifications that work, the timing around the school calendar, and how to get a job approved and printed without it eating a week.
The recurring jobs and how to spec them
Orientation and handbook booklets
A5, saddle-stitched, 16 to 48 pages, 100 to 128 gsm inside with a 250 gsm cover, one per student plus 10 percent for late admissions. Print in colour only where it matters (the cover, the map, the timetable) and keep text pages mono to bring the cost down on a run of 400 or more. Have the final PDF ready a week before school starts; December is when most schools send this job, and a late order competes with every other school's.
CCA and event posters
A3 on 200 gsm gloss or matte is the standard notice-board poster. A2 for the canteen and the foyer. For anything displayed outdoors or near the field, use synthetic or laminated stock so the humidity does not curl it in a week. Include the CCA name, what, when, where and who to contact, in that order; a poster that is mostly logo gets ignored. Our guide to digital poster printing covers sizes and stocks.
Banners and backdrops
Sports day, National Day observance, Teachers' Day, speech day and the open house all need a stage backdrop, typically 3 x 2 m or 4 x 2.5 m on PVC banner material with eyelets, or fabric if the school has a frame. Add a pull-up banner or two for the registration table. Check the stage or wall dimensions before ordering: schools often have a fixed backdrop frame from a previous year, and matching it saves cable ties and gaffer tape on the day.
Yearbooks and graduation booklets
The most involved school print job. A4 or 210 x 210 mm square, perfect bound for anything over 60 pages, gloss or silk 128 to 157 gsm inside, laminated 300 gsm cover or a hardcover for the yearbook. Budget six to eight weeks from final artwork to delivery for a hardcover, three to four for a perfect-bound softcover. The artwork always arrives late because class photos and student quotes trickle in, so agree the print date first and work backwards to the artwork deadline.
Certificates, name tags and lanyards
Certificates on 250 to 300 gsm textured or linen stock, A4, with a space for a signature; most schools print the names separately on an office printer, so leave the name area unprinted. Name tags for camps and orientation on 300 gsm card at 90 x 55 mm with a slot for a lanyard clip. Order lanyards well in advance; they are imported and a custom-printed batch takes two to three weeks.
Exam papers and worksheets
Mono, A4, 80 gsm, stapled or loose, in sets. This is a copy job rather than a print job, and the cheapest way to do it is a single PDF per paper with clear instructions on quantity and collation. For sealed exam papers, ask for shrink wrapping per class set.
The school calendar and print lead times
| Period | Typical jobs | Send artwork by |
|---|---|---|
| Early December | Orientation booklets, student handbooks, timetables | Mid-November |
| January to February | CCA recruitment posters, welcome banners | First week of January |
| March to April | Sports day banners, camp name tags | Two weeks before the event |
| July to August | Racial Harmony Day, National Day backdrops, open house collateral | End of June |
| September | Teachers' Day cards, prelims papers | Mid-August |
| October to November | Graduation booklets, yearbooks, certificates, prize day | September for hardcover, early October for softcover |
Two things distort this timetable. Chinese New Year shuts most print shops for several days and jams the weeks either side, so a February job needs to be in before the holiday. And the year-end school holidays are when every school wants everything, so December is not the quiet month it looks like.
Approval, purchase orders and payment
Government schools buy print through approved processes: for small amounts a staff member may be able to claim, for larger jobs a purchase order or a quotation from a registered vendor is required, and some items go through the school's appointed supplier. Before designing anything, find out from the admin office which route applies and what the cap is. A print shop that has worked with schools will know how to issue a quotation in the format the school needs, will accept a PO and invoice on 30-day terms, and will be registered for GST, which is what the finance office will ask about first.
For student-led projects, the usual arrangement is that a teacher-in-charge signs off the artwork and the quotation. Get that signature before the print shop starts, because a reprint of 400 booklets due to a missing school crest is not a cost anyone wants to explain.
Practical points that save reprints
- Use the official school crest file from the admin office, in vector form. A crest copied from the website prints blurry on a banner.
- Check names on certificates and yearbooks against the official class list, not against what students typed into a form.
- Agree a single person who approves the final proof. Committees produce late changes.
- Ask for delivery to the general office with the job name and the teacher's name on the carton label; school security will not accept an unlabelled delivery for "someone in the science department".
- Keep the print-ready files. Next year's committee will thank you, and a reprint from the same file is the cheapest print there is.
School printing with us
We work with schools, PSGs and student groups across Singapore and know the paperwork: GST-registered, quotations in the format school finance offices need, POs accepted, delivery to the general office with the teacher-in-charge named on the label. Booklets, posters, backdrops, certificates, name tags and yearbooks are all standard jobs, and we keep each school's crest and previous files on record for repeat orders.
If you have a date but no artwork yet, send us the event and the quantity and we will tell you the artwork deadline that keeps it on schedule. The full range is on our printing services page, and for the fast jobs that always come up in a school year, see our urgent printing options or contact us directly.
