Same-day Poster Printing London · Any Size, Any Material, Any Quantity
Walk into Mayfair or Camden with your file. Leave with your poster the same afternoon.
Paper, vinyl, fabric, canvas, backlit film, rigid board. A5 to 2.4 metres wide. No cutoff time. No minimum quantity.
“Miller Harris shopfront. UCL fabric A0. Finished in-house, every job.”
Two London studios. Three generations. Walk into Mayfair (8 Avery Row) or Camden (23-27 King's Terrace) with a USB and leave with your poster the same afternoon. US brands and overseas teams running London events ship files in and collect from either studio.
Six material categories, sizes from A5 to 2.4 metres wide, any length on roll. Other printers stop at A0 and offer paper in two or three finishes. We do not.
Print, mount, laminate, frame, finish. All in one workflow, in one building. No outsourced lamination. No three-day mounting delay.
Which poster material should I choose?
Six material categories. Paper for most jobs, vinyl outdoors, fabric for travel, canvas for art, backlit film for lightboxes, rigid substrates for permanent signage. Choose by where it lives, not by the price.
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Paper is where most jobs start. Gloss, silk, satin, matt, uncoated, textured, watercolour. We stock Conqueror, Colorplan, GF Smith, Mohawk and Fedrigoni, plus photographic paper for museum-grade colour. 80gsm through 550gsm digital. Most London printers cap at 350gsm. One thing to know: paper under 200gsm curls within days in humid environments. For posters that need to hold flat on a retail wall or exhibition board, start at 200gsm or laminate. We tell you this before you order, not after.
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Vinyl handles everything paper cannot. UV and solvent inks on vinyl are outdoor-durable, weather-resistant and fade-proof for 6 to 12 months depending on sun exposure. Contravision for see-through window applications. Blackout for complete opacity on hoardings and partitions. Crystal clear for glass without obscuring the view behind. Self-adhesive for shopfront displays. If it needs to survive a London winter, vinyl is the right choice.
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Fabric is built for travel. Polyester substrates fold flat, resist creasing and machine wash. No poster tube. If you are flying to present your research, fabric is the only sensible option.
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Canvas stretched or rolled for art reproduction and photo enlargements. We stretch canvas in-house, same day. Other printers send stretching out and add two to three days.
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Backlit film is translucent polyester printed with UV-cured inks, designed to sit inside a lightbox. Scratch-resistant, waterproof, rich colour under constant illumination. See our lightbox printing page for full fabrication and installation.
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Rigid substrates via our UV flatbed: wood, acrylic, metal, foamex, foam board, MDF, Dibond. If it is flat, we print on it. Property developers and exhibition builders use this for signage and dimensional graphics that need to be part of the architecture, not propped against it.
Not sure which material suits your project? Call 020 7495 0421 or email post@cityimages.co.uk and we will recommend based on where it is going and how long it needs to last.
What size posters do you print?
A1 poster printing, A2 poster printing, A3 poster printing and A4 poster printing always in stock, alongside A5 and A0. Custom dimensions up to 2,400 mm wide on roll materials, any length.
After the print
Mounting, finishing and outdoor specs handled in-house. One workflow from press to wall.
We print and mount in one workflow in-house. A poster goes from press to board without leaving the building.
Foam board for lightweight indoor displays. Foamex for heavier-duty retail and outdoor panels that need to survive handling and weather. MDF and Dibond for permanent signage where the board is part of the architecture. Strut backs for freestanding tabletop and floor displays. Grommets and eyelets for secure hanging. Magnetic strips for interchangeable systems where graphics rotate weekly. CNC die-cutting for circles, arches, profile cuts and any non-rectangular shape.
Custom poster printing on boards in any size and substrate, finished same day. Most London printers outsource mounting. That adds a day and a handoff where colour and trim can drift. We do it in-house, alongside the print, in a single quality-checked workflow.
Laminated poster printing in gloss, matt or soft-touch adds scratch resistance and UV protection. Extends display life in high-traffic environments: lobbies, corridors, waiting rooms. Encapsulation seals the poster fully for wipe-clean durability in kitchens, hospitals and schools. Both available same day on standard stocks.
Poster printing and framing in-house alongside mounting and lamination. One supplier, one delivery, one quality-checked workflow.
Digital special finishes: neon, holographic, clear gloss, tactile coating and metallic toner on posters up to 330 x 960mm. For hot foil stamping and embossing, see our foil printing and embossing service. Hot foil needs one to two days for die preparation. We quote realistic timelines rather than promising same-day on a process that genuinely cannot be rushed.
Paper does not belong outdoors. Even laminated paper curls at the edges within weeks once rain and temperature swings get to it.
Vinyl is the starting point for any outdoor poster. Self-adhesive for window and shopfront applications. Blueback for billboards and hoardings where opacity matters. PVC for external signage built to outlast seasonal vinyl. Tell us where it is going and how long it needs to last. We will steer you to the right vinyl, not the cheapest one.
Same-day production on all outdoor substrates.
Specialist poster printing
Two options outside the standard catalogue. Backlit film for lightbox displays. Academic and scientific posters for conferences and departmental boards.
If your poster sits inside a lightbox, it needs translucent film and UV-cured inks. Scratch-resistant, waterproof, colours that stay rich under constant backlight without fading.
Retail lightboxes, restaurant menu boards, cinema poster displays, hotel lobbies, exhibition stands. Most London printers do not offer backlit poster printing. We print, trim and deliver same day.
For full lightbox fabrication and installation, see our lightbox printing page. Or call 020 7495 0421 with your lightbox dimensions and we will quote same day.
Our Camden studio sits a short walk from UCL, Central Saint Martins and SOAS. We know what a last-minute conference deadline looks like. A PhD student emailed their A0 research poster at 3pm, collected it on fabric at 4:30pm, and flew to Edinburgh the next morning.
Scientific poster printing and science poster printing on paper or fabric, same day. A0 poster printing and A1 always in stock. Fabric fits in a carry-on bag and arrives crease-free. Heavyweight card for departmental display boards and thesis presentations.
We check every file before printing. Common academic poster problems: PowerPoint exported at the wrong size, RGB colour mode, low-resolution images, missing bleed. All caught and corrected at no extra charge. We have printed for PhD researchers, entire departments and university print rooms that hit capacity the day before a deadline.
Call 020 7495 0421 if you need it today.
How we print your poster
Send your file
Email artwork to post@cityimages.co.uk or walk in with it on a USB drive, phone or laptop. PDF at 300 DPI is ideal. We accept any format.
File check
We open every file at full print size on a calibrated monitor. Resolution, colour mode, bleed, text safety margins. Problems caught and fixed before anything goes to press, no extra charge.
Material and finish
We confirm the right substrate for your application. If you are unsure, we recommend based on where the poster will live and how long it needs to last.
Paper and vinyl on our large format roll printers. Rigid substrates on our UV flatbed. Special finishes on our digital press. All in-house.
Finish and collect
Lamination, mounting, framing, die-cutting. Whatever the job needs. Walk-in collection at Mayfair W1 or Camden NW1, same-day courier across London, or next day poster printing dispatched UK-wide by tracked courier.
Standard turnaround on paper posters: 2 to 3 hours from approved file to finished poster. Volume does not slow us down. 200+ A0 equivalent runs are standard production, not special requests.
Every poster ships on 90% FSC-approved stock. City Images is committed to carbon-neutral operations by 2029 and recycles every reel core, edge trim and offcut through FirstMile. Digital printing leaves virtually no setup waste, no plates, no chemicals, no make-ready sheets. Posters and panels reach end-of-life through FirstMile, not the skip.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know before placing an order. Cannot find your answer? We pick up the phone.
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Call us directlyThere is no fixed cutoff. Most competitors draw the line at 2pm. We printed 10 A0 posters from a 5pm order and had them ready by 6:30pm. That was a Tuesday. Whether we can do the same for you depends on the file, the material and the finish. The later in the day, the more it helps to call ahead rather than email. Ring 020 7495 0421 and we will tell you straight.
Yes. Print and mount run as one job in-house. Foam board, foamex, MDF, Dibond. There is no outsourcing step and no handoff delay. One thing to note: mounted boards cannot be rolled or folded, so if you need delivery rather than collection, we send them flat via courier. Tell us the size, the substrate and the deadline and we will confirm before you commit.
Colour management is part of every job. We check your file at full print size on a calibrated monitor before anything goes to press. RGB-to-CMYK conversion, resolution checks, colour correction. If an image will not hold up at the size you want, we tell you before printing, not after. For the best results on photographic work, ask for our photographic paper or gloss stock.
Printing on translucent film (sometimes called duratrans) designed to glow inside a lightbox. UV-cured inks for scratch and water resistance. If you have an existing lightbox, send us the internal dimensions and we print to fit. If you need a new lightbox built, we handle fabrication and installation as well. See our lightbox printing page.
For any poster that has to travel, yes. Fabric folds flat, fits in a carry-on bag, resists creasing and machine washes. Paper works if the venue is local. Fabric works if you are flying or reusing the poster across several events. Most conference boards accept fabric with bulldog clips or Velcro tabs. We print same day on polyester that holds sharp colour and clean text at full A0.
We quote every poster individually because size, material, quantity and finish all affect the price. Setup is often the largest part of the cost, so ordering more does not always mean paying proportionally more. Email your spec to post@cityimages.co.uk or call for a quote. Quotes returned within minutes.
Yes, at both studios. Mayfair is our consultation and collection point for agencies, architects and corporate clients. Camden is the production hub where all large format work, mounting and finishing happens. If you need to see paper samples or discuss a complex job face to face, walk into either location. If you are collecting, we confirm which studio has your order ready.
PDF at 300 DPI for photographic quality, 150 DPI minimum for text-heavy posters. CMYK colour mode. 3mm bleed. But honestly, send whatever you have. We check every file and fix resolution, colour mode and setup issues at no extra charge. About half our clients need some level of file adjustment.
Yes. Same-day courier anywhere in London. Next-day tracked delivery to all UK postcodes and 99% of the EU. For international shipping beyond the EU, email us the destination and quantity. Collection is free from both studios, no appointment needed.
Yes. In-house designers handle everything from full poster creation to minor file adjustments. Agencies send finished artwork. Students walk in with a PowerPoint and a deadline. If you have a rough idea but no finished file, we can build the artwork from scratch. Custom sizes, custom shapes via CNC cutting, any material. See our design services for full creative support.
If a print comes out wrong on our side (colour off, trim wrong, finish faulty), we reprint at our cost, same day where we can. Walk it back to the studio you collected from or we send a courier. If the file you approved was the issue, we will say so straight and rerun at cost. You deal with the same team from order to remake.
Yes. Our in-house fitters handle poster displays, mounted boards, lightbox graphics and hoardings anywhere in the UK. Carpenters and electricians on staff for illuminated displays and complex builds. Few London printers offer print and installation under one roof.
Walk-In Poster Collection
Two walk-in studios in Central London. Both open Monday to Friday. No appointment needed. Walk in to discuss a job face-to-face with the people producing it.
Email usMayfair Studio (W1K)
8 Avery Row, London W1K 4AL
Walk-in welcome. No appointment needed. Nearest stations: Bond Street, Oxford Circus, Green Park.
Rated 4.9 stars on Google. Agencies in Soho and Fitzrovia send runners to collect same-day work. Architecture firms from Marylebone drop off plans for large format. Corporate clients across Belgravia, Westminster and Pimlico use us for event signage, presentation boards and branded displays.
Camden Studio (NW1)
23-27 King's Terrace, London NW1 0JP
Walk-in welcome. No appointment needed. Nearest stations: Camden Town, Mornington Crescent.
Production hub. All large format printing, mounting, finishing, framing and installation happens here. Students walk in from UCL, Central Saint Martins and SOAS with conference deadlines. Creatives and small businesses from Kentish Town, Islington and Bloomsbury collect display work. Researchers from Clerkenwell, Hampstead and Primrose Hill use us for thesis presentations and departmental boards.