Choose office printing equipment around the documents your firm prepares, reviews, assembles and issues.
A legal or professional practice may produce correspondence, agreements, reports, evidence, working papers and formal document packs from several different applications. The practical requirement is not simply to print individual pages. Staff may need to combine files from different sources, maintain a precise page order, distinguish drafts from final copies and reproduce the same document consistently.
Before requesting proposals, map the firm’s document-production process and provide suppliers with realistic sample files.
Identify the Firm’s Main Document Sets
Begin by listing the complete document sets produced during a typical piece of work.
For a legal practice, these may include:
- Client-care and engagement documents
- Attendance notes
- Witness statements
- Agreements
- Disclosure documents
- Correspondence bundles
- Hearing bundles
- Exhibits
- Completion packs
- Probate papers
- Property transaction documents
- Employment documentation
Other professional firms may prepare:
- Engagement letters
- Working-paper files
- Management reports
- Valuation reports
- Survey documents
- Tender responses
- Board papers
- Consultation reports
- Technical schedules
- Project handover packs
Record the length, format and assembly requirements of each document set. This gives suppliers a clearer picture than a list of individual machine features.
Test Complete Files Rather Than Sample Pages
A machine may print the first page of a document correctly while producing errors later in the file.
Use complete, anonymised examples when assessing proposed equipment.
Check whether:
- Page numbering remains sequential
- Headers and footers remain aligned
- Footnotes appear on the correct page
- Tables continue correctly across page breaks
- Landscape pages rotate as intended
- Blank pages appear only where required
- Attachments begin in the correct position
- Double-sided sections turn on the correct edge
- Page dimensions remain consistent
- The final sheet count matches the source document
A complete test can reveal problems that would not appear in a manufacturer’s demonstration file.
Examine Bundle Production
Some firms regularly combine correspondence, statements, reports and supporting material into one ordered bundle.
Prepare a sample bundle that contains the same variety of material normally received during live work.
It might include:
- Word-processing documents
- PDF files
- Email printouts
- Spreadsheets
- Photographs
- Plans
- Forms
- Documents supplied by third parties
- Pages in portrait and landscape orientation
- Files created at different times
Ask the supplier to demonstrate how the proposed setup would produce the finished bundle.
Check:
- Whether every file begins on the intended page
- Whether numbered pages remain in sequence
- Whether landscape material is easy to read
- Whether blank backs are inserted where needed
- Whether oversized pages require separate handling
- Whether the completed bundle remains in order
- Whether an interrupted job can resume without duplicating pages
- How staff confirm that no section is missing
The test should reflect the firm’s actual bundle process rather than an idealised document created for the demonstration.
Plan for Covers, Dividers and Section Breaks
Formal packs may need more than one paper type.
A document set could contain:
- A front cover
- An index
- Numbered sections
- Coloured dividers
- Heavier separator sheets
- Signed documents
- Appendices
- Plans or schedules
- A final certification page
Ask how these components will be introduced into the job.
Possible methods include:
- Separate paper drawers
- Insert trays
- Manual insertion points
- Pre-printed divider stock
- Post-print assembly
Request a practical demonstration using the firm’s preferred cover and divider materials.
Also establish:
- Which sheet sizes are supported
- Which paper weights can be used
- Whether divider tabs can pass through the machine
- Whether inserts are counted as printed pages
- Whether staff must divide the job into several stages
- How the final pack is kept in order during assembly
The most appropriate setup is the one that reduces unnecessary handling while preserving the required document sequence.
Distinguish Drafts From Issued Documents
Professional work often passes through several review stages.
A file may exist as:
- Initial draft
- Internal review copy
- Client review copy
- Amended draft
- Agreed version
- Signed version
- Issued copy
- File copy
Ask whether staff need simple presets for different stages.
A draft preset could apply agreed draft markings or use a designated paper source. A final-document preset could use approved stationery and remove draft settings.
The firm should decide:
- Who may create or change presets
- How presets are named
- Whether the same settings appear on every workstation
- How obsolete presets are removed
- What happens when a document is reopened months later
- Whether staff can see the selected setting before printing
Clear presets can reduce the chance of an internal working copy being mistaken for the version intended for issue.
Check Pagination Workflows
Adding or maintaining page numbers can become difficult when a pack contains material from several sources.
Before choosing a system, establish where pagination takes place:
- In the original application
- In document-production software
- Within a PDF editor
- Through a specialist bundle platform
- During the printing process
- By an external document-production service
Use the method already followed by the firm when testing equipment.
Check whether:
- Existing page numbers remain visible
- Added numbers are not cropped
- Numbering continues across inserted sections
- Landscape pages receive numbers in the intended position
- Covers and indexes are included or excluded correctly
- Reprinted pages match the existing sequence
- Replacement sheets can be produced without rebuilding the entire pack
Do not assume that pagination performed by one application will behave identically when the file is processed elsewhere.
Test Replacement Pages
A small amendment should not require an entire document pack to be reproduced.
Create a test in which several pages are replaced after the original pack has been completed.
Confirm that staff can:
- Identify the correct replacement page
- Retain the original page number
- Match the paper and print orientation
- Preserve the correct front-and-back arrangement
- Avoid shifting later pages
- Produce several non-consecutive replacement sheets
- Distinguish replacement pages from unrelated print jobs
This is particularly important where a long pack changes shortly before it is required.
Review Formal Correspondence Production
Legal and professional firms may use several approved stationery formats.
Examples include:
- Main letterhead
- Continuation paper
- Office-specific letterhead
- Partner or department stationery
- Compliment slips
- Window envelopes
- Standard envelopes
- Client-specific templates
- Pre-printed forms
Ask for a written media plan showing where each stationery type will be stored and how it will be selected.
Test whether:
- The first page uses the correct letterhead
- Later pages use continuation paper
- Addresses align with envelope windows
- Margins match the approved template
- Signatures and reference lines appear correctly
- Staff can choose the required format without changing several settings
- The wrong stationery cannot be selected accidentally
- The configuration remains consistent across different applications
Use dummy correspondence rather than real client information during testing.
Include Documents Produced by Specialist Software
Professional practices may create documents through case-management, practice-management, accounting, conveyancing, document-automation or reporting systems.
List every application that produces printable output.
For each application, provide examples containing:
- Long text sections
- Tables
- Page references
- Matter or project numbers
- Client details
- Automated fields
- Generated signatures
- Barcodes
- Payment slips
- Terms or schedules
- Embedded attachments
Ask the supplier to test the actual output rather than confirming compatibility based only on the operating system.
Record any application-specific settings required so they can be recreated after software, server or workstation changes.
Check Files Received From Outside the Firm
Documents supplied by clients, courts, counterparties, consultants and other advisers may not follow the firm’s usual formatting rules.
External files may contain:
- Unusual page dimensions
- Embedded fonts
- Scanned pages
- Handwritten annotations
- Password restrictions
- Mixed orientations
- Oversized diagrams
- Colour-coded amendments
- Low-resolution images
- Pages created by older software
Create an anonymous test set containing examples of files that have caused difficulty in the past.
Check:
- Whether all text appears
- Whether symbols and special characters print correctly
- Whether comments or markup appear unexpectedly
- Whether page sizes are altered
- Whether the output is legible
- Whether images cover surrounding text
- Whether password-protected documents require a different process
- Whether the printed version matches the on-screen preview
The supplier should explain any limitations discovered during the test.
Consider Marked-Up Working Copies
Some teams work from printed drafts containing handwritten notes, tracked amendments or review markings.
Identify how these working copies are used.
Questions may include:
- Is additional margin space needed for notes?
- Must tracked changes remain distinguishable?
- Are line numbers required?
- Should comments print at the end or beside the text?
- Are documents reviewed single-sided?
- Are particular sections printed separately?
- Is a reduced page layout acceptable?
- Do staff require more than one copy for a review meeting?
Create a preset only after the firm has agreed how a working copy should appear.
Plan for Plans, Drawings and Oversized Schedules
Some legal and professional matters include plans, diagrams, spreadsheets or schedules larger than the surrounding documents.
Establish:
- Which page sizes are received
- Whether the original scale must be preserved
- Whether reduction is acceptable
- Whether colour carries meaning
- Whether the page should be folded
- Whether an external print provider is currently used
- How the oversized sheet will be referenced within the main pack
- Whether the office machine is genuinely suitable for the task
A proposed machine should not be enlarged solely to handle a type of document that appears only occasionally and could be managed through a separate process.
Test Spreadsheet and Financial Schedules
Spreadsheets can be difficult to reproduce consistently because the result depends on print areas, scaling, page breaks and orientation.
Use representative examples such as:
- Transaction schedules
- Damages calculations
- Completion statements
- Account summaries
- Project cost reports
- Valuation tables
- Fee schedules
- Reconciliation sheets
Check:
- Whether column headings repeat where intended
- Whether figures remain readable
- Whether columns are split across pages
- Whether blank rows create unnecessary sheets
- Whether scaling changes between users
- Whether totals appear on the correct page
- Whether landscape orientation is selected correctly
- Whether a saved print area is respected
Where the same schedule is produced repeatedly, document the approved application settings as well as the printer settings.
Agree a Document Acceptance Test
Before installation is signed off, run a documented acceptance test.
The test may include:
- A multi-page letter using letterhead and continuation paper
- A document containing footnotes and automatic page numbering
- A mixed-orientation PDF
- A complete formal bundle
- A pack with covers and dividers
- Several replacement pages
- A spreadsheet schedule
- A document produced by specialist practice software
- A file received from an external party
- A marked-up working copy
Record:
- The source application
- The selected preset
- The paper source
- The expected sheet count
- The actual sheet count
- Any manual steps
- Any errors
- The final approved configuration
This creates a reference point for future workstation changes or software updates.
Questions to Ask Potential Suppliers
Use process-specific questions when comparing proposals:
- Can we test complete anonymised files before choosing equipment?
- How will mixed-source bundles remain in the correct order?
- Can covers and dividers be inserted without rebuilding the job manually?
- How are replacement pages produced for an existing bundle?
- Can separate presets be created for drafts, working copies and final documents?
- How will letterhead and continuation paper be selected?
- Can our specialist practice applications be tested?
- What happens when a file contains mixed page sizes or orientations?
- How will interrupted long jobs resume?
- Can the final settings be documented for our internal records?
- Which tasks still require manual assembly?
- What is included in the installation acceptance test?
Prepare a Firm-Specific Document Pack
Before requesting proposals, assemble anonymous examples of the documents the firm produces regularly.
Include the awkward files as well as the straightforward ones.
A useful test pack will show suppliers:
- How formal correspondence is constructed
- How bundles are assembled
- How drafts are identified
- How pages are numbered
- Which stationery types are used
- Which specialist applications produce documents
- Which external file formats must be handled
- Which documents need covers, dividers or replacement pages
A proposal can then be assessed against real professional work rather than a generic office demonstration.
Request Printer and Photocopier Proposals
Describe the documents, stationery, applications and assembly processes used by your legal or professional firm.
Request printer and photocopier quotes