Menu printing
in Las Vegas

A menu is a piece of print that gets handled forty times a day by people with wet hands. Ordinary uncoated cardstock does not survive that, and a menu that looks tired makes the food look tired with it.

There are three levels of protection and they cost very different amounts. An aqueous coating is the baseline — it seals the surface so a wipe does not lift the ink. High-gloss UV is tougher and makes food photography look considerably better. Laminate is a physical plastic skin, which is what you want if the menu is going to last a year rather than a season.

Where a menu lives somewhere genuinely wet — poolside, or on a kitchen pass — synthetic stock is worth the extra: waterproof all the way through, rather than a paper core in a plastic jacket that eventually wicks at the edges.

Choosing a build

Single laminated sheet. Cheapest per menu, easiest to reprint when prices change, easiest to sanitise. For most casual rooms this is the right answer and everything else is over-thinking it.

Folded. More content in the same footprint. Laminate before folding is not an option, so folded laminated menus are scored and folded after — which is a different price and a longer turnaround. Ask before you design.

Multi-page. For longer lists and wine programmes: saddle-stitched or screwpost so pages can be swapped without reprinting the whole book.

Design so you can reprint cheaply

• Keep prices in a consistent block rather than scattered through the layout
• Avoid printing the year or a season anywhere on it
• Leave room for one more line per section — you will add a dish
• Matte laminate photographs better and does not glare under downlights
• Tell us if it goes in a holder, so we can allow for the lip that covers the edge

Short runs are the point

We take menu runs from 25. If your prices move, or the menu changes with the season, printing a small batch often is cheaper than printing a thousand and throwing half of them away when the supplier costs shift.