UK Print Company of the Year 2024

The AI-powered trade print platform, built for printers

Drop your artwork and forge reads the file, runs AI and preflight checks, configures the job and prices it instantly. The print ordering revolution, wired straight into a world-class production floor.

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✓ Free for approved Solopress customers · No licence fees · No subscriptions
Trusted by trade
25+ years production ISO certified Award-winning
_forge configurator showing AI proof tools, spellcheck, mood image generation, and live pricing
25+
Years of Solopress production expertise
£8m+
Recent investments in plant and equipment
Billions
Of product combinations, attribute-based, not a catalogue
#1
UK Print Company of the Year, Printweek 2024
Why now

Rising costs. Shrinking margins.
increasing expectations

Most print businesses are still running jobs through emails, spreadsheets and manual checks. forge changes that, replacing the admin with an automated, AI-checked workflow from file to delivery.

The challenge

The UK print industry
needs a new model

Over 25 years, thousands of print businesses have closed. Rising capital requirements and a widening technology gap are pushing smaller operations to the margins.

forge is the answer, giving print businesses direct access to world-class production without carrying the cost of owning it.

2000
11,000
UK print companies Industry at full scale
25 years
↓
2025
6,800
UK print companies 38% have closed
continuing
↓
Without a new model
Capital costs rise.
Margins compress.
Clients move on.
There is a better model.
The new model

Two types of business.
One powerful platform.

Small / Medium Sized Print Companies

You have a facility and you're good at what you do, but you're outsourcing more, and that process is slow and margin-thin. forge changes that entirely.

→Handle jobs beyond your capability without turning them away
→Replace email-and-phone outsourcing with instant ordering
→Expand your product range without capital investment
→Retain customers you'd otherwise lose to larger competitors
Register to gain access →

Print Managers & Resellers

You have the clients and the relationships. You don't have a press. forge gives you Solopress's entire production capability under your own brand.

→White-label platform in your company's full branding
→Full margin control: set your selling price your way
→Quote clients live in meetings from a single file drop
→Billions of specifications, not a limited product catalogue
Register to gain access →
See it in action

Drop your file and watch the spec write itself

Most print platforms make you specify the job by hand and upload artwork last, the exact moment you find out something is wrong. We turn that on its head. Your file goes in first, and from it forge reads the artwork, identifies the product, derives the full specification and prices it instantly. No forms to second-guess. No surprises at checkout. The entire order, built from the one thing you already have.

01 / 08 Upload
Drop in your artwork
That's all forge needs to get started.
Real footage of the artwork and ordering experience
◐
System, light, and dark modes The platform respects your team's preferences, switch any time, settings persist per user.
SystemDarkLight
AI-powered workflow

Built by print experts.
Powered by AI

Five AI capabilities go to work the moment your artwork lands, catching problems and creating assets before anyone touches the job.

◇

Artwork analysis

Reads dimensions, page count and product type straight from the file.

⌁

AI spellcheck

Flags likely typos with exact page coordinates before anything prints.

❖

Image enhancement

Lifts low-resolution and flat artwork toward print-ready quality.

⊞

QR validation

Finds every QR code and tests each destination URL is live.

▣

Mockup generation

Turns artwork into a real-world product shot in a single click.

Platform features

Built for how the trade actually works.

Every feature exists because a real print business needed it. No consumer frills, just the tools that move jobs from brief to press.

Feature 01: Ordering model

Upload first. Configure never.

Every other platform asks you to specify the product first, then upload the artwork last, where problems get discovered too late. We inverted that entirely.

Dimensions, page count, and product type read straight from the file
Specifications pre-set automatically before you touch anything
No catalogue to navigate, the file is the brief
Configurator
forge configurator just after upload: the PDF has been read — 210 × 148mm, 28 pages, detected as Bound — and the product type is pre-selected
Feature 02: Production transparency

Choose how your job is printed

Unique to _forge: pick the actual press your job runs on, with live pricing for each. No other trade platform offers this level of production transparency.

Digital Inkjet (Ricoh VC80000; HP T250), offset quality, the cheapest option on runs up to circa 1000 copies
HP Indigo 120K, premium digital, colour-critical work
Heidelberg XL106, benchmark offset litho
Printing Technology
Press selection with live pricing: Digital Inkjet at £137.76 marked best price, Digital HP Indigo at £158.92, Litho Heidelberg at £206.07, alongside the configured job spec and your trade price
Feature 03: Preflight

Five-stage preflight, before you commit

Resolution, colour mode, bleed, trim, and print readiness, all checked automatically in the background. Catch issues before they cost you a reprint.

Runs on upload, before configuration is even complete
Low-resolution images upscaled with AI in one click
Print-ready confirmation before you order
Preflight
Preflight checks in progress on the uploaded file: Upload, Dimensions and Resolution complete, Spellcheck scanning text for spelling errors, Print File pending
Feature 04: AI Spellcheck

Catch typos before they print

Prevent costly reprints and protect client relationships. The platform reads every word on every page and flags likely spelling errors with exact page coordinates, before anything is committed to print.

Scans the artwork itself, no OCR step, no waiting
Page-level location and bounding box for every flag
One-click corrections applied to the PDF before press
AI Spellcheck
AI Spellcheck panel: one possible spelling error found with the surrounding sentence quoted, the page number, and a one-click fix button
Feature 05: AI Mood Image

Generate product mockups on demand.

Win client approvals faster and lift every presentation. Turn artwork into a real-world product mockup in a single click, no photoshoot required.

Generated from the actual artwork, not a stock template
Regenerate freely until the result matches the brief
Download in high resolution for client use
Mood Image
AI-generated product mockup: the uploaded brochure rendered as a saddle-stitched booklet on a desk, with download and close buttons
Feature 06: QR Validation

Every QR code checked live

Eliminate failed campaigns caused by broken QR codes. The platform finds every QR code, decodes it and tests each destination URL is live before anything goes to press.

Detection runs automatically on every upload
Live HTTP check confirms each URL responds
Page reference for every code, ready to verify
QR Code Check
Proof summary after checks: a possible spelling error flagged for review, low-resolution images fixable with AI, and every page scanned for QR codes
Feature 07: Pricing

Set margin your way

Markup %, margin %, fixed uplift, or a target £ price. Client has a £180 budget? Type the number in and the margin appears instantly. Total control over how you sell.

Four pricing modes for every selling situation
Different margins per client, set and remembered
Switch modes mid-quote, totals update instantly
Margin Control
Margin editor open on the selling price card: Markup, Margin, Fixed £ and Target £ modes, 30% entered, showing cost £206.07 becoming a £294.39 sell with £88.32 margin Selling price card with margin applied: £294.39 ex VAT, built from your cost of £206.07 plus 30% margin of £88.32, via Litho Heidelberg
Feature 08: Price matching

Price match, in-platform

Submit a price match request directly from a quote. Track its status (pending, approved, declined) entirely within _forge. No phone calls, no chase-up emails, no lost requests.

Submit competing quotes alongside the job spec
Track every request from one place
Full history per client for future negotiations
Price Match Requests
Job #2034: Saddle stitch brochure
vs Vista · 18 Feb
£142.50
Approved
Job #2031: A2 posters × 50
vs Tradeprint · 22 Feb
£87.20
Pending
Job #2028: Business cards
vs Moo · 15 Feb
£24.50
Declined
Feature 09: Delivery

Every delivery option, fully specified.

Custom box labels, split deliveries to multiple addresses, pallet, taillift, scheduled dates, storage and call-off. All configured at point of order. No phone calls, no email confirmations.

Plain-label or branded box options
Multi-address splits with per-address quantities
Schedule, store, or call-off as your client needs
Delivery Options
Packing and delivery options in the configurator: custom box labels, custom delivery slips, split deliveries, pallet and taillift delivery, scheduled delivery date, collect from Solopress, and book-in delivery
The commercial case

Save 35 minutes on every job.

A typical quote, proof, artwork check and follow-up takes around 40 minutes of manual work. forge does it in under 5. That's not to mention the waiting time between all of those steps, which can often drag across days.

20 jobs
Traditional
40 min / job
With _forge
5 min
11.7 hrssaved per week
607 hrssaved per year
White label

Your brand.
Your platform.
Our production

forge runs fully under your identity. Your clients see your brand. Solopress's production sits invisibly behind it.

✓
Full brand customisationLogo, colours, and company name throughout
✓
Live client quotingOpen it in a meeting, price a job before they leave the room
✓
Login-gated accessInvite-only access. Clients see a professional, exclusive tool.
✓
Per-client margin controlDifferent pricing structures for different customers
✓
Margin visibility controlsKeep cost data separate from client-facing views (coming soon)
✓
Branded quote generationSend clients a professional PDF quote in your own branding, straight from the platform
Printcraft Ltd
printcraft.1450.io
Buying price
£153.63ex. VAT
Selling price £192.03 (20.0% margin)
Markup
Margin
Fixed £
Target £
Morgan Evans Print
morganevans.1450.io
Buying price
£153.63ex. VAT
Target £180.00 → margin £26.38 (14.7%)
Markup
Margin
Fixed £
Target £
Anyprinter LTD
Quote generated
Real branded quote letter generated by the platform: Anyprinter LTD quotation #31308 prepared by Peter Parker for Spring Campaign Flyers — folded A4, 250 copies — net £37.06, VAT £7.41, total £44.47, with payment details and company footer
Powered by Solopress

25 years of print excellence behind every order

forge isn't built by a startup. It's the next evolution from the company that launched ecommerce printing to the UK in 2005 and has been leading the industry ever since.

Every order runs through Solopress's Southend-on-Sea facility. Award-winning, ISO-certified, and home to some of the most advanced print technology in Europe.

2024.
UK Print Company of the Year, Printweek Awards
1999.
Founded: 25+ years of continuous innovation
£8m+
Recent plant investment: presses, capacity, capability
ISO.
ISO 9001 Quality & ISO 14001 Environmental certified
Built with the trade

Shaped by real print businesses

forge is being built hand in hand with working print managers, resellers and trade customers, using real jobs and real production data, not assumptions.

Everything we used to chase, the artwork checks, the quoting, the proofing, now happens in one place. It has taken hours of admin out of every job.

Print management partnerEarly access programme

The AI spellcheck alone has already saved us from a reprint. For a reseller, that is real money and a saved relationship.

Trade print resellerBeta participant

Quoting a client live in a meeting, under our own brand, changes the whole conversation. It feels like our platform.

Print managerEarly access programme
No catch

Free for approved Solopress customers.

No licence fees No monthly subscriptions No setup charges
Register for access

Register to gain access

This print ordering platform is specifically targeted at and exclusively designed for trade customers like printers, print resellers/managers and creative/marketing service providers. We need to verify your credentials before granting access. We will review your application and email you within 24 hours.

Application for access
Trade customers only
Business address

Your registered office address is fine here — you’ll get the chance to set up your invoice and delivery addresses later on.

We review every application and email you within 24 hours.