Digital retirement prints

Every other format on this site has a production window and a postal one, and between them they need up to nine working days. The digital version has neither, because there is nothing to make and nothing to post. What you are deciding is whether the gift has to be an object on the day.

6 of 6 in the gift itself

A laptop with a blank screen on a wooden desk at dusk, beside a lit oil lamp, an envelope and a notebook.
AI-made illustration.

A digital file is the cheapest way in, with nothing printed and nothing posted.

Last of the six pages in the gift itself. Two of the five before it matter most here: the choice between type and a photograph settles what the gift says, and the three finishes covers everything this page is the alternative to.

What actually arrives

You fill in the four lines as you would for any other format, and what you get back is an email with a download link to the finished artwork at full print resolution: the name print as an A4-size file at 300 dpi. The link stays live for 30 days, so the file wants saving somewhere, not left in an inbox. There is no parcel, no tracking number and no production wait.

What that leaves you holding is a file, which isn't a gift until somebody prints it. That is the part worth saying plainly: the digital version moves the work from us to you or to a local print shop, and it moves the framing there too.

When it is the only thing that works

Mostly when the leaving date is too close. Printing takes two to four working days here and UK delivery a further two to five, so anything inside nine working days isn't going to arrive in time, and a file has no such window.

The other case is an address problem. We deliver to the UK only, so a retiree who has moved abroad is reachable by email and not by parcel, and the same goes for anyone mid-house-move or being handed the gift somewhere other than home.

The name print on the A4 page of the digital download: HAPPY RETIREMENT above the name Margaret, then TEACHER · 35 YEARS and St Mary's Primary School, set in type. The Personalised Name Print From £9.99

Digital download

The same four typed lines as the printed version, delivered as a download link instead of a parcel.

What it costs, and what the printed version costs

The digital name print and the digital photo portrait each cost less than their printed versions, which come at A4, at A3, or framed at A3 with the framing already done. Delivery is free on the printed ones, so the gap between the file and the A4 print, both priced on the name print page, is the whole of what you save by printing it yourself.

Which is small enough to be worth saying plainly: buy the digital version because of the timing or the address, not to save five pounds.

Printing it once you have it

A sheet with a watercolour landscape coming out of a printer on a copy-shop counter.
An A4 file at 300 dpi prints cleanly at A4 or smaller.

The name print file is A4 at 300 dpi, so it can be printed at A4 or smaller with no loss. Any copy shop or online print service will take it. We can't vouch for what any particular one charges or how good the paper is, so if the finish matters more than the date, order the printed version instead.

If the date is not as tight as it feels, the keepsakes page covers what arrives finished, and the page on budgets puts the figures in order.

A few practical answers

What do you get with a digital retirement print?

An email with a download link to the finished artwork at full print resolution: the name print as an A4-size file at 300 dpi, a portrait as the complete artwork. The link stays live for 30 days. There is no parcel and no production wait.

Is the digital version cheaper?

A little. Both prices sit side by side on the name print page, and the printed A4 includes free UK delivery. The reason to choose the file is the timing or the address, not the price.

When is a digital retirement gift the only option?

When the leaving date is inside nine working days, when the retiree is outside the UK, since we deliver to the UK only, and when nobody is sure of the delivery address.

What size can I print it at?

The name print file is A4 at 300 dpi, so it prints sharply at A4 or smaller; for A3 or larger, order the printed version.