Exhibiting at a trade fair in Rome: what to print, and where

If the fair is in your own city, the question does not arise. If you are coming from abroad, it pays to split your materials in two: what travels well and what does not.

• Roll-ups travel badly. It is an object about a metre long, it goes in the hold, and a banner with damaged edges stays damaged. Printing it in Rome removes the problem: you collect it ready to set up, in its own bag.
• Catalogues and flyers are heavy. A few hundred copies are a suitcase of their own. If you already printed them at home, bring some and print the rest in Rome once you know how many you really need.
• Business cards are the exception. They weigh nothing and fit in a pocket: if you have them, bring them. If they run out, we reprint them the same day.
• Brand colours. If they are critical, send a previous print or the colour references along with the file: we tell you what to expect before printing.

What works best is to send the files before you leave: we check them, give you the price and collection time in writing, and the materials are ready when you land. You can also order the roll-up online, and before paying you see the day and time it will be ready. We speak English at the counter and write quotes in English.

The simplest way not to arrive at the fair empty-handed is to plan backwards: start from set-up day and work back, putting the slowest jobs first.

The times below are those of our counter and count opening days only, Monday to Friday. They start from the approved file, not from the first message: a file that needs fixing pushes everything back.

You do not need everything. You need one thing that is seen from a distance, one to put in people's hands and one that stays in their pocket. The rest depends on the stand.

• Roll-up (from € 150, frame and bag included). This is what makes the stand recognisable from the aisle. 85 × 200 fits anywhere, 100 × 200 gives the artwork more room on a larger stand. One is enough to be found; two if the stand is open on two sides.
• PVC banner (200 × 80 cm from € 90). For the front of the counter or a wall: up to 107 cm high, as long as you need, with grommets to fix it. Measure the counter before ordering, not the stand.
• Business cards (100 from € 15 single-sided, € 20 double-sided). Traditional, on coated paper. One set for each person on the stand, each with their own name.
• Flyers (100 for € 26, 1,000 for € 160, 150 gsm coated paper). For people who walk past without stopping: one message, one offer, one QR code.
• Brochure or catalogue (saddle-stitched, from € 0.20 per page in A5 colour). For people who stop and want to understand: products, prices, contacts.
• A1 or A0 poster (from € 11 and € 15). For a price list, a product map or a message read standing still. Collection in store only.

There is no right number for every fair, but there is a way to get it less wrong: count people, not days.

Estimate how many people you expect to stop on a good day, multiply by the days of the fair and keep a reserve. For business cards the count is per person on the stand; for flyers it covers the whole stand, because they also go to people who do not stop.

Price helps you decide. With flyers, 100 cost € 26 and 1,000 cost € 160: per piece that goes from 26 to 16 cents. Order the quantity you are sure to use first and keep the file ready: if they run out mid-fair, flyers can be reprinted the same day.

The exception is the catalogue. It is priced per page and it weighs a lot in a suitcase: bring enough for the people who genuinely ask for one, not for everyone walking by. Walkers-by get the flyer.

These are file mistakes, not print mistakes, and they have one thing in common: on an office screen you cannot see them.

• The logo at the bottom of the roll-up. The bottom 10-12 cm stay inside the base once the banner is up. Logo and contacts belong higher, and the main message between 120 and 180 cm from the floor, at eye level. The details are in the roll-up file guide.
• Artwork stretched from one size to the other. 85 × 200 and 100 × 200 are not proportional: moving between them without redoing the layout either distorts the image or crops the sides.
• The QR code nobody tested. Scan it with a phone from the distance a visitor will be standing at, and check that it leads to the right page, not the home page.
• No bleed. Business cards, flyers and brochures need 3 mm of bleed, with text kept away from the trim edge. How to prepare them is explained in the business cards guide.
• A PDF that is not a print PDF. High resolution and embedded fonts. If all you have is a PowerPoint file or an image, send it anyway: we tell you how it will come out before printing, not after.

We are closed on Saturdays and Sundays. Many fairs open on a Saturday or end on a Sunday: if set-up is on Friday, Friday at 7 pm is the last chance to collect. Weekend reserves need to be picked up beforehand. Roll-ups can be ordered online at the weekend too, but production starts when we reopen on Monday.

If you cannot come to the shop, we ship with DHL to the address you give us: the fair, your hotel or your office. Shipping is charged on top of printing and is already in the quote. Before choosing it, ask the organisers how and when they accept exhibitor parcels. This applies to everything except posters, which are collection only.

We are in Rome's Prati district, at Via di Porta Castello 29, between St Peter's and Castel Sant'Angelo. We are not next to Fiera di Roma, which is about twenty kilometres away towards Fiumicino: exhibitors there usually collect on their way through the centre the evening before, or have the materials shipped to the fair. At the counter we speak Italian and English.

Times, prices and the train route from the fairground are on the page Urgent printing for Fiera di Roma.