Southern Forests Design + Print

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Southern Forests Design + Print Design, print, signage and packaging for the region's tourism, food, arts and commercial clients.

Local isn't a shopfront.We haven't got one, and we're not planning to. No counter, no window, a PO Box in Manjimup.What ...
29/09/2026

Local isn't a shopfront.

We haven't got one, and we're not planning to. No counter, no window, a PO Box in Manjimup.

What local actually buys you is this. The person doing your job has seen your business. Knows whether your menu lives on a table or on a wall. Knows the light in your front room. Knows the sign has to read from a car doing sixty.

And has to run into you at the shops afterwards.

That last part does more for quality control than any amount of process. It's the difference between sending a file off into the void and asking someone who's accountable to you in a town this size.

Ring anytime.

0467 511 867

You feel the card before you read it.Paper weight is measured in gsm or grams per square metre. It's the specification p...
24/09/2026

You feel the card before you read it.

Paper weight is measured in gsm or grams per square metre. It's the specification people think about least and notice first.

120 gsm is flyer weight. Fine for something folded and handed out. It won't stand up in a rack and it won't survive a wallet.

300 gsm is where most business cards sit. Solid, holds its edge, doesn't bend on the way across the counter.

400 gsm reads as considered before a word on it has been read. It costs a little more across a run and it's usually the cheapest upgrade available to a small business.

If you're ordering print off a website, the default is almost always the lightest option that fits the job. Worth changing on purpose.

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The same artwork, before and after. This is what "we'll check your file" actually means.On the left, a card as it arrive...
22/09/2026

The same artwork, before and after. This is what "we'll check your file" actually means.

On the left, a card as it arrived. The background stops dead on the trim line, the type sits almost on the edge, and the logo has been pulled off a website.

On the right, the same design, print-ready. Background extended past the trim, so a fraction of movement on the guillotine doesn't leave a white sliver down one side. Type pulled in to a safe margin. Logo swapped for the vector file.

Nothing about the design changed. It just stopped being a screen file and started being a print file.

Almost every file we're sent needs something. That's not a criticism, print asks for things a screen never does, and nobody ever tells you what they are.

Send us what you've got. We'll tell you what it needs before you spend anything.

[email protected]

Jobs go wrong at the handovers.Print rarely fails in the middle of a job. It fails at the joins when the designer sends ...
17/09/2026

Jobs go wrong at the handovers.

Print rarely fails in the middle of a job. It fails at the joins when the designer sends the file to the printer, the printer sends it on to whoever does the finishing, and each one assumes the last one checked something.

Nobody sets out to drop a job. It falls in the gap between two people who each thought the other had it.

Here the design, the proof and the print are one job, run by one person. There's no gap for it to fall into, and there's nobody else to blame if something's wrong.

That's most of what "local" is actually worth, in practice.

0467 511 867

That photo won't print that big.The most common reason a job stalls before it starts: the photo came off Facebook, or ou...
15/09/2026

That photo won't print that big.

The most common reason a job stalls before it starts: the photo came off Facebook, or out of a text message, or was saved from a website.

Screens need far fewer pixels than paper does. A photo that looks perfect on your phone can be four times too small to print at A4 and there's no software that puts the detail back.
Enlarging it just gives you bigger, softer pixels.

The rule of thumb is 300 dpi at the size it's being printed. An A4 flyer wants roughly 2480 × 3508 pixels. That photo off Facebook is probably 960 × 1280, which prints properly at about the size of a business card.

So: send the original. Straight off the camera or the phone, unedited, not shrunk to email.
Bigger than you think you need.

[email protected]

Why your logo goes fuzzy on a big sign.There are two kinds of logo file, and most people only have one of them.A JPG or ...
08/09/2026

Why your logo goes fuzzy on a big sign.

There are two kinds of logo file, and most people only have one of them.

A JPG or a PNG is a picture of your logo: a fixed grid of pixels. Blow it up for an A-frame or a banner and it often doesn't work, because you're not enlarging the logo, you're enlarging the pixels.

A vector file is the logo drawn as instructions instead of pixels. The same file works on a business card and on a three-metre sign, and the edge stays sharp at both.

If you've only ever been sent a JPG, go back to whoever built your logo and ask for the vector files: EPS, SVG, or a PDF with the type outlined. You should already have them. They're yours.

Not sure what you've got? Send it through and we'll tell you.

[email protected]

Something worth thinking about now, not in November.If your business gets busier over summer, new menu, new signage, bro...
03/09/2026

Something worth thinking about now, not in November.

If your business gets busier over summer, new menu, new signage, brochures in the racks, labels on the shelf, that print needs to be in your hands before the season, not during it.

Design takes time. Proofing takes time. Print takes time. None of it compresses well.

If summer changes anything about how your business looks, now's the time to sort it.

[email protected]
0467 511 867
sfdp.com.au

Something worth thinking about now, not in November.If your business gets busier over summer; new menu, new signage, bro...
03/09/2026

Something worth thinking about now, not in November.

If your business gets busier over summer; new menu, new signage, brochures in the racks, labels on the shelf, that print needs to be in your hands before the season, not during it.

Design takes time. Proofing takes time. Print takes time. None of it compresses well.

If summer changes anything about how your business looks, now's the time to sort it.

[email protected]
0467 511 867
sfdp.com.au

Why the colour on your screen isn't the colour on the page.Your monitor makes colour with light. Print makes it with ink...
31/08/2026

Why the colour on your screen isn't the colour on the page.

Your monitor makes colour with light. Print makes it with ink sitting on paper. A bright screen red has nowhere to go in CMYK so it comes back duller, and that's not the printer getting it wrong.

It matters most on brand colours. If your logo has to match across a sign, a card and a menu, that gets specified once, properly, and held to.

If your printed gear has never quite matched your website, that's usually why.

[email protected]

The half-day round trip.Getting print done properly used to mean Bunbury or Busselton or emailing files off to someone w...
27/08/2026

The half-day round trip.

Getting print done properly used to mean Bunbury or Busselton or emailing files off to someone who's never seen your business and hoping the proof comes back right.

Either way you lose a day, or you lose control of the job.

We're in Manjimup. You can ring, and a person who knows your job picks up.

0467 511 867

Address

PO Box 357
Manjimup, WA
6258

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

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