Single-Sided vs Double-Sided Printing
The fastest way to halve your paper cost, and the situations where you should not.
Duplex, or double side printing, puts content on both faces of a sheet. A 200 page document becomes 100 sheets instead of 200. That halving affects cost, thickness, weight, binding and how the document is read.
Single side, or simplex, uses one face per sheet. It is thicker, heavier and more expensive in paper terms, but it is the correct answer in several specific situations.
This guide gives you a rule for each case rather than a general preference.
What Double Side Actually Saves
The saving is in sheets, not in printing effort, so it is not an exact halving of the bill; the per side rate still applies to each printed side. What it does halve is paper consumption, document thickness and parcel weight.
Weight matters more than people expect. Courier charges are calculated on weight, so a 300 page report printed double side can cost noticeably less to send than the same report printed single side. For bulk orders going out of Delhi, this alone can justify the choice.
When You Must Print Single Side
Follow the rule book first. Many universities specify single side for final thesis submission, and some competitive and government submissions require it. If a guideline exists, it overrides every other consideration in this article.
Print single side also when pages will be handled individually: sheets that will be cut, laminated, pinned to a board, signed page by page, or filled in by hand with a pen that bleeds. And print single side when the paper is too light for the content, which brings us to show-through.
Show-Through And Paper Weight
Show-through is the faint appearance of the reverse side's content through the sheet. It depends on paper weight measured in GSM, on ink coverage, and on how the two sides align. Plain text at 70 GSM is generally fine. Dense tables, dark images, full page photographs or heavy diagrams at 70 GSM can be distracting.
The fix is heavier paper rather than abandoning duplex. Moving from 70 GSM to 80 or 100 GSM removes most show-through while keeping the sheet count halved. If your document is image heavy and must be double side, ask for the heavier stock when you place the order.
Binding Implications
Double side documents need a slightly larger inside margin because both faces meet the binding edge, and the margin alternates: wider on the right for left hand pages and wider on the left for right hand pages. Word processors call this mirror margins. Set it before exporting to PDF, or the inside text of alternate pages will sit too close to the spine.
For perfect bound and hardbound work this is essential; a spiral coil is more forgiving but still eats several millimetres. As a working rule, keep 12 to 15 mm clear on the inside edge.
Blank Pages And Chapter Openings
In a properly prepared double side document, chapters usually start on a right hand page. Achieving that sometimes requires a deliberately blank page at the end of the previous chapter. Those blanks are part of the design, not an error, and they should stay in the PDF you send.
If you remove them to save a sheet, every subsequent chapter opening flips to the wrong side and the document reads as though it was assembled carelessly. Leave them, and tell us they are intentional so nobody removes them for you.
How To Place A Printing Order With Us
The same six steps apply to every document covered in this guide.
1. Upload Document
Open the upload printout page and tap the upload area. Your device file picker opens and you can select a PDF, DOC, DOCX, JPG, JPEG or PNG file up to 150 MB. The file name, type and size are shown back to you, and you can change or remove the file before continuing.
2. Select Printing Options
Choose black & white, colour or mixed mode, and single side or double side. Mention paper weight or A3 pages here if your document needs them.
3. Enter Total Pages
Read the page count from your PDF reader rather than estimating it, and give an exact page range if only part of the document should be printed.
4. Enter Number Of Copies
There is no minimum. One copy is a valid order, and so is a run of several thousand. Copy count is what decides whether digital or offset production is cheaper for you.
5. See Estimated Price
The order summary combines pages, sides, colour mode and copies into a live estimate so you can compare options before committing to anything.
6. Submit / Request Order
Submit the request and an Order ID appears on screen. We then confirm the final amount and any delivery charge with you on 7289879398 before printing begins.
Binding, Collection And Delivery Options
Loose sheets suit drafts and anything destined for a ring file. Spiral and wiro binding lie completely flat, which is why they are the default for notes, lab records, manuals and working documents. Soft cover perfect binding gives a squared, printable spine and is the usual choice for project reports, proposals and paperbacks. Hardbinding, with foil spine text where required, is used for theses, archival record copies and premium editions. Card covers from 250 to 300 GSM, with matt or gloss lamination, can be added to any bound document and cost very little across a small number of copies.
Finished work can be collected free of charge from our counter at T-552 Baljeet Nagar, Patel Nagar, New Delhi, Delhi 110008. That is the fastest and cheapest option if you are in Patel Nagar, Baljeet Nagar, Shadipur, Karol Bagh, Rajinder Nagar, Ranjit Nagar, Kirti Nagar, Naraina or anywhere in Central or West Delhi, and it removes courier transit from your timeline entirely — which matters when a submission or a meeting is fixed. Everywhere else in India we dispatch by tracked courier. The delivery charge depends on parcel weight and your destination pin code, is paid by the customer, and is quoted before dispatch rather than added afterwards. Delhi NCR addresses in Gurugram, Noida, Ghaziabad and Faridabad are usually quickest; remote pin codes take longest. We give you dispatch confirmation and tracking instead of promising a delivery date on a courier’s behalf.
What Drives The Price
Four inputs account for almost every printing quote: total pages, number of sides, colour mode and number of copies. Pages set the volume of the job. Sides decide how many physical sheets that volume becomes, so double side printing halves paper use, document thickness and courier weight in one decision. Colour mode sets the per side rate, with black and white lowest, full colour highest, and mixed mode applying colour rates only to the pages that genuinely contain colour. Copies multiply the run, but not linearly, because file checking and setup happen once regardless of quantity and the per copy cost therefore falls as the run grows. Binding, paper upgrades, card covers, lamination and A3 pages are quoted on top, and delivery is always separate. If your job is unusual in any way, a two minute call to 7289879398 produces a firmer number than any calculator.
Ready To Print?
Upload your document, choose black & white or colour, single or double side, enter pages and copies, and see an instant estimate before you submit.