We came to funeral order of service printing the way many businesses come to the thing they do best — through personal experience. We lost someone close to us, someone who deserved more than a generic leaflet, and we set about making something that truly reflected who they were. When people saw what we had produced, the requests followed. That was in 2008. The business has grown from that beginning, but the approach has not changed: every order of service is designed for one person, by a designer who listens.
This is a guide to how we print — the materials, the process and the details that distinguish a quality piece of funeral stationery from something that simply does the job.
The paper and finish
All orders of service are printed on 350gsm silk-finish digital card. That is noticeably heavier than the standard for most print services — the difference is immediately felt when you pick one up. The silk finish gives photographs genuine depth and warmth. It holds colour well. It feels like something made to last, because it is.
Every cover is pre-creased before folding. This prevents cracking along the spine — a small detail that is easy to overlook and immediately obvious when it is absent. An order of service that cracks or splits on the fold does not give the right impression; one that opens cleanly and lies flat does.
For orders where an extra quality of finish is appropriate, we can offer dimensional printing — a slightly raised effect applied to text or imagery that gives the piece a tactile distinction. It is not right for every order, but when it is, it adds something significant.
Small quantities, full quality
Digital printing has removed the old commercial pressure to print large quantities in order to get acceptable quality. We can produce runs as small as 20 copies with the same result as a run of five hundred — which matters considerably for a funeral, where the quantity is determined by who is attending, not by what is convenient for a printer. If you need 35 copies, you order 35 copies.
We would always suggest ordering slightly more than you expect to need. It is far easier to have a few left over than to wish you had ordered more once the service has taken place.
Working with your photographs
Good photographs make an order of service. We understand that the images families provide are not always ideal — they may be old, scanned from prints, faded, or taken on a phone in less than perfect light. Our designers retouch photographs as part of the standard service: improving brightness and contrast, removing blemishes, cleaning up backgrounds, repairing creases or tears in scanned images. We do not charge extra for this.
Where a photograph has more significant damage — water damage, serious discolouration, physical deterioration — we can often restore it to a standard suitable for print. If you are uncertain whether an image is usable, send it to us and let us look before deciding it cannot be done.
Design and print together
Fitting Farewell designs and prints each order of service as part of the same service. You are not sending a ready-made file to a printer; you are working with a designer who will create the piece for you and then print it. That distinction matters because it means the design is made with the print in mind — the resolution of every photograph checked, the layout considered for how it will sit on the page when folded, the colours verified against how they will reproduce on silk-finish card.
It also means there is one point of contact throughout. The designer who takes your brief is the designer who handles the file that goes to print. There is no handoff, no risk of something being lost in translation.
From first conversation to delivery
When you contact us, you speak directly with your designer. You tell us about the person — their photographs, what they were like, anything that felt like them. We design the order of service around that, show you a proof, make any changes, and print once you are happy. We despatch by overnight courier; most orders arrive the next working day after despatch. From receiving everything we need from you, delivery is typically three working days.
If your timescale is tighter than that, call us. We will do everything we can to help.
You may also find our article on why the quality of what you print matters useful, and our guide to ordering explains the full process step by step.
Call us free on 0800 612 6484 or send us a message to start the conversation.
