Everybody orders by the diameter. Almost nobody asks for the live area.

Why we exist

Buttons are ordered by size and price, and the three things that actually decide the outcome — the live area, the back and the read distance — are on nobody’s quote.

All three are settled before anything is pressed, and none of them costs extra.

The wrap is not a detail

A button is a flat printed circle pressed over a domed shell and crimped under the rim, so the paper has to fold. On a 2.25 in shell that costs roughly a quarter inch of printed diameter.

We quote the shell size, the printed diameter, the bleed and the live area as four separate numbers, and the proof draws the live-area ring straight over your artwork.

Read distance is the number that matters

One inch reads at conversation distance. 2.25 in reads across a room. Three inch reads across a hall and six inch reads down a rally line.

Ordering the small size to stretch a budget, when the entire point is that a room can see who somebody is for, is the most expensive mistake in this category. We put the read distance next to the size.

The back decides whether it gets worn

A safety pin is right on a jacket and wrong on knitwear or a good suit, because a pin leaves a hole and people who know that simply do not put the button on.

A magnet back holds with nothing pierced. A locking pin stays square all day. A clip suits lanyards and pockets. Tell us what the audience is wearing and we will specify it.

On the paid-for-by line

Federal rules exempt small items on which a disclaimer cannot be conveniently printed — buttons, pins, bumper stickers and the like. State and local rules differ, and your committee’s counsel makes the call, not us.

What we will not do is quietly shrink a candidate’s name to four point to fit a line that may not be required. We ask at quote stage and we set it properly if you want it. We are printers, not lawyers, and we will say so every time.

A slate is one system, not eight designs

Built as a shared layout with a plate per name, a table of buttons reads as one ticket. Built one at a time, it reads as eight suppliers.

We hold the system, the colour build and the live-area geometry on your account, so a candidate added late matches the first run instead of nearly matching it.

What we will talk you out of

The one inch shell when the hall is fifty feet long. Three lines of type on a button that can carry one. A pin back for an audience in knitwear. A rectangle when the logo will be eaten at the corners.

And signage — we make no yard signs, roadside signs, banners or window clings, and no struck metal, enamel pins or medals. We would rather send you to the right supplier.

How we work

Who we serve