Optima specialises in premium printing and branding solutions for businesses, SMEs, organisations, and corporate clients. Our product portfolio includes business cards, brochures, flyers, folders, annual reports, presentation materials, large-format posters, signage, promotional merchandise, branded apparel, and a wide range of customised print products designed to support your brand and marketing objectives and more.

In addition to our corporate printing services, we also offer personalised printing, gifts, and custom products for individual customers.

If you cannot find the product you are looking for on our website, please contact our team. We provide many bespoke printing and branding solutions that may not be listed online and will be happy to discuss your requirements.

You can also use the search bar on the homepage to quickly locate products and services.

For basic printing, copying, and scanning services from A4 to A0, please visit our associate brand, CopyQuick, at www.copyquick.mt.

Our in-house design team can assist with artwork creation, brand adaptation, and print-ready file preparation. Alternatively, you can create your own designs using our online design tool or submit artwork prepared in your preferred software.

If you are supplying your own artwork, please ensure it complies with our artwork specifications and guidelines available in the FAQ section to guarantee the best possible print quality.

We understand that timely delivery is important for businesses and organisations, and we always strive to complete orders as efficiently as possible without compromising on quality.

Production lead times vary depending on the type of product, order quantity, finishing requirements, current production schedules, and seasonal demand. As a general guideline, most orders are completed within 7 working days from approval of artwork and confirmation of the order.

Should we anticipate any delays that may affect this timeframe, a member of our team will contact you promptly to discuss alternative arrangements and provide an updated on the completion date.

If your project has a specific deadline, we strongly recommend contacting us before placing your order. Our team will review your requirements and confirm whether the requested delivery date can be accommodated.

You will receive email notifications at key stages of your order:

Order Confirmation – Once your order has been received and payment has been processed, you will receive an email containing your order number. Please quote this number whenever you contact us regarding your order.

Order Completion – When your order is ready for collection or dispatch, you will receive a notification confirming that production has been completed.

If you selected collection, you may collect your order from the location chosen during checkout once you receive the completion email. To facilitate collection, please have your order number available.

If you selected delivery, you will receive a further notification with details of the scheduled delivery date and any relevant delivery information.

To ensure you receive all order updates, please check your spam or junk folder, as automated notifications may occasionally be filtered by your email provider.

If you have not received an expected email notification regarding your order, please first check your spam or junk folder, as automated emails may occasionally be filtered by your email provider.

If the notification is not there, log in to your account and review the status of your order. In some cases, an order may be awaiting approval, additional information, artwork confirmation, or payment before it can proceed to production.

If you are still unable to determine the status of your order, please contact our team and we will be happy to assist you.

If more than 7 working days have passed since your order was confirmed and you have not received any updates or notifications from us, we recommend contacting our team as soon as possible.

While such situations are uncommon, delays may occasionally occur due to unforeseen circumstances or communication issues. To help us investigate your order promptly, please have your order number available when contacting us.

Our team will review the status of your order and provide you with an update as quickly as possible.

You can manage your account details at any time by logging in and accessing the My Account section. From there, you can update your personal and company information, manage your contact details, and change your password.

For security reasons, your password is encrypted and remains private. We do not have access to your password and cannot view or retrieve it. If you forget your password, please use the password reset option available on the login page.

You can view your order history and reorder previously purchased products at any time through the My Account section.

Please note that while we strive to maintain consistent quality across all orders, certain personalised and custom-made products may vary slightly between production runs. Variations in materials, manufacturing batches, print substrates, and production conditions can result in minor differences in colour, texture, finish, or appearance.

These variations are a normal part of the printing and manufacturing process and do not affect the functionality or quality of the final product. If consistency across multiple orders is critical for your project or brand, we recommend discussing your requirements with our team before placing your order.

We take privacy, confidentiality, and data security seriously. Our company has established procedures, systems, and controls designed to protect customer information throughout the ordering, production, and fulfilment process.

Our website and infrastructure are supported by reputable service providers and security solutions, while our team is trained to handle customer artwork and data in a professional and confidential manner. All information and artwork provided to us are treated as strictly confidential and are processed in accordance with our data protection and privacy policies.

Customer artwork is used solely for the purpose of fulfilling the requested order and is never shared with third parties except where necessary to provide the service requested.

For more than 25 years, businesses, organisations, and individuals have trusted us with the printing and production of sensitive and confidential materials. Maintaining that trust remains a fundamental part of how we operate every day.

We work exclusively with reputable and trusted payment service providers to ensure that all online transactions are processed securely. Our payment partners employ industry-standard security measures and continuously update their systems to maintain high levels of protection against fraud and unauthorised access.

For your security, we will never request payment details, credit card information, or online banking credentials by telephone, email, social media, mobile applications, or through third-party websites.

All payments should only be made through the official payment methods and secure checkout processes available on our website. If you receive any communication requesting payment information outside of these channels, please contact us immediately.

We offer the following order fulfilment options:

Collection

You may collect your order from the selected Copyquick/Optima outlet (Paola, Mosta, Valletta & Ibragg) during normal opening hours. Please ensure that you bring your order number when collecting your order.

Delivery

We offer delivery services to addresses in both Malta and Gozo. Once your order has been completed, we will notify you of the scheduled delivery date.

Delivery routes are planned according to operational schedules and delivery volumes. While we will provide a delivery date, we cannot guarantee a specific delivery time. To facilitate a smooth delivery process, our driver will contact you approximately 30 minutes before arrival.

It is important that a valid local contact number is provided when placing your order. If we are unable to reach you and no authorised person is available to receive the order at the delivery address, we will notify you by email and arrange for the order to be collected from one of our outlets.

To ensure efficient service for all customers, we are unable to guarantee repeat delivery attempts for missed deliveries.

We offer free delivery on orders with a value of €100.00 or more. Orders below this amount are subject to a delivery charge of €6.99.

Delivery charges and minimum order thresholds may be reviewed periodically to reflect operational and market conditions. Any changes will be clearly communicated on our website and will always be displayed during the checkout process before you confirm your order and submit payment.

The applicable delivery fee, if any, will be shown in your order summary to ensure complete transparency prior to purchase.

We currently offer delivery services to addresses in Malta and Gozo only.

If you require delivery outside Malta and Gozo, please contact our team before placing your order. We will review your requirements and advise whether alternative shipping arrangements can be accommodated.

Once an order has been submitted, we assume that all artwork, specifications, quantities, and other order details have been reviewed and approved by the customer. The submitted order will therefore be treated as the final version for production.

If you discover an error or wish to make changes after placing your order, please contact us immediately. We will make every effort to accommodate your request; however, changes can only be made if production has not yet commenced or if the order has not reached a stage where modifications are no longer possible.

As we operate a fast-paced production environment to meet customer deadlines, we cannot guarantee that amendments, cancellations, or artwork revisions will be accepted after an order has been submitted.

If your requested changes cannot be accommodated, the order will proceed based on the specifications and artwork originally approved at the time of purchase.

Once an order has been submitted, we assume that all artwork, text, specifications, and order details have been thoroughly reviewed and approved by the customer. The submitted artwork will be treated as the final version for production.

As part of our commitment to customer confidentiality and data privacy, we do not review, proofread, edit, or verify the content of customer-supplied artwork. Consequently, spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, incorrect information, formatting issues, low-resolution images, or other content-related inaccuracies may not be identified before production.

Customers are solely responsible for ensuring that all artwork and content are accurate, complete, and suitable for printing before submitting their order.

We strongly recommend carefully reviewing all artwork and order details prior to final approval, as we cannot accept responsibility for errors contained within customer-approved files.

Once an order has been submitted, we assume that all artwork, content, specifications, and order details have been reviewed and approved by the customer. The submitted artwork will therefore be treated as the final version for production.

We understand that each customer may have different preferences, design choices, branding requirements, and reasons for presenting artwork in a particular way. For this reason, we do not routinely question, proofread, or alter customer-submitted artwork unless an artwork review service has been specifically requested.

If you would like us to review your artwork before production, this service can be requested during checkout at a fee of €5.00 per artwork uploaded with your order. Our review is intended to identify common issues that may affect the final printed result; however, it does not constitute a comprehensive proofing or content verification service.

Please note that digital visuals are viewed on screens using the RGB colour model, while printed products are produced using print-based colour processes. As a result, colours displayed on screen may differ from the colours reproduced on the final printed product.

Customers are encouraged to review all artwork carefully and request professional assistance where required before confirming their order.

There are three different ways to create your design.

Use our Templates: For certain products we can provide you with a template to create your own designs. Our template is set with the basic dimensions and may offer you some inspiration or boundaries to start off.

Design here online: Our online designer is available for certain products. Choose the ‘Design here online’ if you want to quickly and easily customize your product. This feature offers a variety of layouts to choose from.

Upload a full design: Uploading your own files offers full flexibility and control over your design. Whether you have creative experience or your very own designer, this is the perfect way to create your product. However please respect the printing standards for the bleed, trim and safe zones and printing resolution.

Use our Templates: For certain products we can provide you with a template to create your own designs. Our template is set with the basic dimensions and may offer you some inspiration or boundaries to start off.

Design here online: Our online designer is available for certain products. Choose the ‘Design here online’ if you want to quickly and easily customize your product. This feature offers a variety of layouts to choose from.

Upload a full design: Uploading your own files offers full flexibility and control over your design. Whether you have creative experience or your very own designer, this is the perfect way to create your product. However please respect the printing standards for the bleed, trim and safe zones and printing resolution.

Always remember to check the text for spelling and grammar and make sure no important information is missing from the artwork before supplying the finished file to us for printing.

One should also ensure that the dimensions are correct including bleed, trim and safe zones. The printing resolution is equally important.

Please note that the printing process uses the CMYK colour spectrum and images will display brighter on a screen. Artwork should be created in CMYK colour profiles for a better representation of how the artwork will look once printed.

The printing file once submitted to us is presumed to be confirmed and final.

Colours displayed on screen will always look brighter and more vibrant than the final printed colours, so you may need to compensate for this when editing your images.

Artwork displayed on light emitting screens such as computer monitors, TVs, tablets and smartphones uses Red, Green and Blue (RGB) colour values.

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (CMYK) are the basic ink colours that printers use to build a full colour print.

We recommend previewing and editing your files in CMYK colour profile. You may choose to adjust your brightness (for photos), or CMYK colour values (for vector/text-based designs).

A PDF, which is short for Portable Document Format, was created to be the most universal way to communicate with documents. Submitting a file as a PDF allows the creator to control many aspects of their file, such as verifying colour mode, embedding fonts, compressing file size, and combining files.

Most file formats you use to print at home or in your office are not designed to include all the information that a printer would need. For example, Microsoft Word prints by using the information in the file that you are working with as well as information stored on your computer, such as font and color settings. If you were to send that file to a printer, they would not have the same information that your computer has. When you save a file as a PDF, you are essentially packaging all of the components of your design into a single file. This ensures that whoever is viewing your file on their own device can view it as you intended.

Having said this, it is still very important to ensure that any unique fonts are embedded in the pdf file.

My file contains unique fonts. How can I guarantee that all fonts will print as intended?

When you embed a unique font, you are allowing your PDF file to display text the way you designed it, whether the computer you are viewing your file on has the font or not.

Unembedded fonts can be an issue that goes unnoticed until the final print is received. Some programs will automatically replace an unembedded font with a different font, if the printer’s computer or program doesn’t have the font downloaded.

You may have used a fun font such as “Orange Slices” when designing your file on your computer. However, when it is sent to another person, that person’s computer may not have “Orange Slices” installed! In this case, that person’s computer will use a default font (such as “Arial” font) to display everything that was designed in “Orange Slices”.

PDFs allow you to check if the fonts are embedded. It is as easy as clicking the “Ctrl” and “D” keys at the same time. Then a pop-up window will appear and under the “Fonts” tab, there will be a list of all the fonts used in the file and state if they are embedded or not.

In addition to a larger file size, JPG, JPEG or PNG files have several limitations compared to a PDF file. A PDF file has color formatting information, such as color mode and color profile information which allows the printer to get more insight on the client’s intended colours and gives the printer the ability to make color adjustments as necessary.

Sending large file sizes can be tricky and take a long time! PDFs can compress the size of the file without decreasing resolution quality.

Most programs offer the ability to ‘Export’ or ‘Save As’ the file to a PDF even if your computer does not have a professional PDF editor. Once you have converted your file to a PDF, you can view your new PDF with any pdf reader that you are able to download and use for free!

Resolution is a critical characteristic of your design and will determine the quality of your final print. Having artwork or images included in your artwork at low resolution is a very common issue especially if the source of the image is a simple search from the internet. Artwork in low resolution is often not detected when viewed on a small screen such a smartphone or tablet. The only way to fix this problem is to replace the artwork with a high-resolution image or file. There is no way a printer can resolve the problem of a low resolution file.

300 PPI (Pixels Per Inch) or 300 DPI (Dots Per Inch) is the optimal printing resolution for digital printing presses. This applies to all print products, from small products like business cards and keychain printing to larger products like poster and booklet printing. Designing a file in lower than 300 PPI will lead to blurriness and pixelation. On the other hand, there is no point in designing at higher than 300 PPI. As far as the eye can tell, there will be no difference in print quality. It will only make your file significantly larger and creating problems to upload, download and process a printing file.

In practical terms 300PPI means that every inch of your artwork contains 300 pixels (or dots). If converted to centimeters it means that for every 2.54cm there are 300 pixels.

Using the example of a design file size 21.59cm (8.5”) wide by 27.94cm (11”) tall with a 300PPI resolution the total number of pixels should be:

2550 pixels wide (300 pixels/2.54cm * 21.59 or 300 pixels/inch * 8.5 inches) and

3300 pixels tall (300 pixels/2.54cm * 27.94 or 300 pixels/inch * 11 inches)

We recommend that you set the resolution to 300 PPI before starting to design your file. Increasing the resolution after you start is still likely to result in blurriness/pixelation.

“No bleed” printing is the traditional print on demand printing we are used to doing at a local stationery shop, at home or at the office.

“No bleed” printing is when your desktop printer prints a standard A4 sheet of paper and leaves a thin white margin around the sheet. Having said this, all domestic, commercial and industrial printers, with the exception of a very few, leave a white border around the edges of the paper. This means none of the printing is done till the edge of the paper.

So, what happens if you want to print to the edge? What happens if you want the background of your design to extend all the way to the edge?

Your desktop printer at home can’t print it. Neither can the slightly larger printer you have at work. You think: “maybe printing companies have a special printer that can print edge-to-edge”.

No!

Printing companies still experience the same white border around the paper’s edge. However, the printer will go through a simple but important procedure so that their customer’s products have printing all the way to the edge of the sheet.

“Full bleed” printing refers to when a printing product has printing to the edge of the sheet.

To produce a full bleed A4 (297mm by 210mm) size print the following basic steps are followed:

The digital file needs have the artwork extended to around 310mm by 220mm.

The printer will print the artwork on SRA4 (320mm by 225mm) paper (this will include the white border as any standard A4 print).

Once printed, a guillotine cutter will cut off approximately 5mm from each side of the print to arrive at final A4 size print. This way the final product has printing to the edge of the sheet!

You are able to request for your file to print “no full bleed”, so that your file contains 0.2” white border on all 4 sides. This is the ideal choice when important content is getting cut off and you are not able to fix your file.

If your design has a white background, then you do not need to ask for a full bleed printing. Ask for a full bleed printing when the design has a solid colour background or border, and you wish to extend to the edge of the sheet.

Full bleed printing requires larger sheets and more technical labour resources. The price is more expensive then no full bleed printing. If you are looking to save money, no full bleed printing might be able to keep you within your budget!

Your file will always need to be designed properly for full bleed printing. Otherwise, there is a high risk that important content from your file will be partially or completely cut off.

The parameters are simple for a “full bleed” printing. Follow the information below regarding safe area, trim, and bleed. This way important details within your artwork will be placed and printed correctly.

These elements compensate for industry standard variations that occur during the printing, binding and trimming processes. These variations are small, normally not more than 2 to 3mm, but are highly critical and will impact on the final product.

It is very normal that shifts in the print occur from one page to another especially when printing on two sides of a sheet. The bleeds and safe areas allow for safe tolerances.

Trim

Trim size represents the dimensions of your final product. To arrive at a full bleed print, the artwork must extend beyond the trim size to the “bleed” line. This is done to avoid white borders at the edge of your print once it is trimmed to size. When the artwork is prepared it is normal to show small lines in the upper and lower corners called the “crop marks” to indicate where the artwork is intended to be trimmed.

Safe Area

This is an area inside the trim area. The safe area is a smaller area than the trim size and therefore smaller than the final print size. The safe area is where you should place your most important information of your design. Any content outside of this area is in risk of being cut off during the trimming process.

The distance between the trim line and the safe area line may be as little as 3mm or as large as 10mm. There is no fixed rule on this since it very much depends on the additional finishing processes required and the use of the print.

Bleed

Bleed is the portion of your design that extends past the trim size. Bleed is cut off when the print is trimmed to the final size. Its sole purpose is to make sure your design or image reaches the very edge without leaving any unsightly white edges. The bleed is commonly between 3mm and 10mm larger than the trim size but again same rule as the safe margin – it really depends on the print size and how it will be trimmed.

There is no fixed rule as to the size of the artwork. We can print any custom size if it is technically possible and feasible.

One major consideration which is often overlooked especially when printing invitations is the availability of envelopes. We strongly recommend that if the product will be delivered to the recipient in an envelope, you do check the availability of envelope sizes and then plan the artwork to fit the envelope. Normally the print is between 5mm to 10mm smaller than the envelope size. However, this depends on the material being used and the additional contents that will go into the envelope.

Same principle applies if the artwork is a poster that will be framed or put in a folder. Start off by checking the size of the frame or folder to make sure that once you have the print in hand it can fit in its intended place.

Standard paper Sizes

The two main common paper sizes are the American and European ISO standard sizes. The ISO A series is the most frequently used page measurement standard. The ISO B sizes are used for poster printing while ISO C is meant for envelopes. The SRA paper sizes are standard sheet sizes used in the printing industry mainly to produce full bleed prints.

All paper dimensions are specified in inches or millimetres. All our artwork and printing sizes are in millimetres. Therefore, to avoid unnecessary problems we will ask our clients to quote all dimensions in mm.

ISO A paper sizes

The A-series consists of a logical set of paper sizes. The largest size (A0) measures one square meter. The height/width ratio remains constant (1:1.41) for all sizes. This means you get the A1 size by folding an A0 paper in two along its shortest side. Then fold the A1 size in two to get an A2 size paper, and so on… A-sizes are used to define the finished paper size in commercial printing: A4 is for office documents, A5 is for notepads and A6 is for postcards.

This drawing illustrates the principle behind the ISO A series:

When choosing paper or cardstock it is important to consider paper weight, which is a big part of the look and feel of your wedding invitations, greeting cards, and other printing projects. The right weight can create your desired first impression. Colour, texture and finish are other factors one will consider when choosing the paper.

If you have experience with printing or have purchased paper for printing you may have come across the acronym “GSM.”.

What Does GSM Mean?

Although in practice different paper is distinguished by thickness in the paper and pulp industry, paper is measured by grammage and not thickness. The area density of a paper product is expressed in grams per square meter (g/m2), or the weight of one sheet of 1-metre x 1-metre card.

Grammage is more commonly referred to by its unofficial abbreviation: GSM. While grammage is technically the proper term for paper weight, printers and customers refer to GSM as the “weight” of a card.

It is worth noting that a 300gsm sheet of card is very likely to be thicker than a 100gsm sheet and very often it is correct to assume that the higher the grammage the thicker is the paper. However, one cannot use the grammage to determine the exact thickness of a paper since there are other factors such as the material composition and density that determines the weight of a paper.

Paper products in different GSM classes are better suited for certain applications. For instance, paper with a lighter weight is generally designed for printing and writing. In contrast, heavier and thicker paper is ideal for specialised applications, such as invitations, greeting cards, and business cards.

Business cards usually come in the heaviest card available. As they’re designed to be passed around between contacts, business associates and customers, business cards need to be thicker and durable, explaining why they’re made from high-GSM durable card.

On the other hand, flyers promoting a sale or event are usually disposable, hence why they’re made from a light, low-GSM paper.

The chart below gives you a rough idea of the feel of different products in each GSM range.

The right choice of card thickness or GSM ultimately depends on your needs and preferences.

Our range of paper: