The Printing Trade Customs, explained for buyers
If you are awarding a print project, there is a good chance the contract you sign incorporates a document you have never read.
The Printing Trade Customs are a set of model contract clauses that most US printers fold into their terms, usually by reference, usually in a line near the bottom of a quote. They decide who owns your files, how long you have to complain, who carries the risk while your books are on a truck, and how many copies short a delivery can be before it stops counting as short.
Who wrote them, and who maintains them now
Two versions circulate.
The older lineage was promulgated by the United Typothetae of America in 1922 and updated by the Graphic Arts Council of North America in 1985. It runs to eighteen numbered customs.
The current lineage is Graphic Communications Business Practices, created in 1994 by the National Association of Printers and Lithographers, the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation and Printing Industries of America. It states that it replaces the former trade customs.
Nobody maintains either one. Printing Industries of America merged with SGIA in 2020 to form PRINTING United Alliance. That organization does not publish or maintain a trade customs document. What it publishes are color specifications. The customs survive because individual printers and regional associations republish them, not because a standards body stands behind them.
One regional association that does republish them attaches this note: “Trade Customs are not necessarily recommended practices. Some printers may elect to follow them; others may not.”
They are still legally meaningful. Under the Uniform Commercial Code, a practice with enough regularity in a trade can be treated as usage of trade and can supplement a contract. That is exactly why a printer will cite them in a dispute, and exactly why a buyer should read them rather than assume they are a neutral industry consensus. They are the printer's opening position, and they are thirty years old.
Here are the clauses that decide the most money.
1. You can be delivered ten percent short
What it says. “Over-runs or under-runs will not exceed 10 percent of the quantity ordered. The provider will bill for actual quantity delivered within this tolerance. If the customer requires a guaranteed quantity, the percentage of tolerance must be stated at the time of quotation.”
What it means. Order 5,000 and 4,500 is a complete delivery. Order 5,000, receive 5,500, and you are billed for 5,500 whether you wanted them or not.
The trap in the older version. It reads: “If customer requires guaranteed exact quantities, the percentage tolerance must be doubled.” So asking for a guaranteed minimum under that text permits the printer to run twenty percent over, and you pay for it.
What to do. Ten percent is a ceiling, not a working figure. Actual book tolerances are far tighter and depend on binding and run length, because spoilage is roughly fixed per setup and therefore a bigger share of a short run. Ask for the tolerance that applies to your binding and your quantity, in writing, in the quote. If you need a guaranteed minimum, say so at quote stage, because the custom requires it then and not later.
2. Your claim window is ten days, and the clock starts at delivery
What it says. “Claims for defects, damages or shortages must be made by the customer in writing no later than 10 calendar days after delivery. If no such claim is made, the provider and the customer will understand that the job has been accepted.”
The older version allows fifteen days, but adds “delivery of all or any part of the order”, meaning a partial shipment can start the clock on the whole job.
What it means. Ten days from delivery, not ten days from when anyone looked. Books going straight into a warehouse or a third-party logistics provider frequently sit unopened past the window.
What to do. Someone has to open a carton in that first week. Put the inspection in the delivery plan rather than after it, and name who does it. This is the most common way a buyer loses a legitimate claim.
3. The printer's liability is capped at the invoice
What it says. “The provider's liability will be limited to the quoted selling price of defective goods, without additional liability for special or consequential damages.” And: “Under no circumstances will the provider be liable for specific, individual, or consequential damages.”
What it means. If a print failure causes you to miss an event, a launch, a season or a contractual delivery, the custom gives you the cost of the books and nothing else. Not the venue, not the campaign, not the opportunity.
What to do. This is the clause worth negotiating on a large project, and it is also the reason the schedule matters more than the unit price. On a fixed date, buy the buffer rather than the remedy. A remedy capped at the invoice is not a remedy for a missed conference.
4. Title can pass to you before the books move
What it says. “Unless otherwise specified, the price quoted is for a single shipment, without storage, F.O.B. provider's platform… Title for finished work passes to the customer upon delivery to the carrier at shipping point; or upon mailing of invoices for the finished work or its segments, whichever occurs first.”
What it means. Two things, and the second surprises people.
F.O.B. origin is the default. Under UCC §2-319 that is a shipment contract: risk of loss passes to you when the goods are handed to the carrier. Damage in transit is your problem and your claim against the carrier, not against the printer.
And “whichever occurs first” is doing real work. Title can pass to you because an invoice was mailed, while your books are still standing on the plant floor. You can own, and carry the risk on, goods you have never seen.
What to do. Ask where title passes and where risk passes, and get both in the quote. Strike the invoice-mailing trigger. Decide deliberately whether you want origin or destination terms, and price it either way, rather than inheriting the default by silence.
5. The plates, the files and the artwork are the printer's
What it says. “Art work, type, plates, negatives, positives, tapes, disks, and all other items supplied by the provider remain the provider's exclusive property.” And on creative work: “Sketches, copy, dummies and all other creative work developed or furnished by the provider are the provider's exclusive property.”
Your own files remain yours, but: “It is the customer's responsibility to maintain a copy of the original file.”
What it means. Anything the printer produced in the course of making your book belongs to the printer. That can include the imposed files a second vendor would need to reproduce your job.
What to do. If you may reprint elsewhere, or want a second bidder on the next edition, contract around this. The older text says “unless otherwise agreed in writing,” which is an open invitation to agree otherwise.
6. Your files are kept until acceptance, and then not
What it says. “The provider will retain intermediate materials until the related end product has been accepted by the customer. If requested by the customer, intermediate materials will be stored for an additional period at additional charge.”
What it means. The published default is retention until you accept the job. After that, nothing is promised. Practice varies enormously and there is no norm to point at.
What to do. If you expect to reprint without re-supplying everything, put a retention period in writing with a stated length. Do not assume it.
7. There is no confidentiality clause. At all.
What it says. Nothing. Neither lineage contains a non-disclosure or confidentiality provision of any kind. There is no print-industry confidentiality standard to fall back on either.
The only related clauses run the other way: the printer retains rights in creative work, and can place a lien on customer property held against unpaid invoices.
What it means. A corporate book routinely contains material that has not been announced. Overrun copies, rejected sheets and makeready waste are physical objects that exist somewhere after the job ends. The standard document says nothing about any of it.
What to do. If it is not written into your agreement, you do not have it. Ask for a signed non-disclosure agreement, and ask what happens to overs and waste.
8. Color variation is defined as acceptable performance
What it says. “Because of differences in equipment, paper, inks, and other conditions between color proofing and production pressroom operations, a reasonable variation in color between color proofs and the completed job is to be expected. When variation of this kind occurs, it will be considered acceptable performance.”
What it means. “Reasonable” is undefined, and it is the clause a printer relies on when you say the cover does not match the proof.
What to do. If color matters, replace the vague standard with a numeric one. Conformance can be specified against a published print condition and verified with a control wedge on the proof. That converts an argument about reasonableness into a measurement.
9. Press proofs are an extra unless you asked in writing
What it says. “Press proofs will not be furnished unless they have been required in writing in the provider's quotation.” And if you attend a press check: “Any press time lost or alterations/corrections made because of the customer's delay or change of mind will be charged at the provider's current rates.”
What it means. A digital proof is assumed. Anything physical is not, and press time is expensive while you decide.
What to do. Decide before quote stage whether you need a physical proof, because after that it is a change order. On book work, ask specifically about F&Gs, folded and gathered signatures sent before binding, and ask which kind you are getting. Approval F&Gs stop production until you sign. Confirming F&Gs are sent while binding proceeds. Most buyers are never told which they received.
10. Two smaller clauses that catch people
Customer-furnished materials. “Materials furnished by customers or their suppliers are verified by delivery tickets. The provider bears no responsibility for discrepancies between delivery tickets and actual counts.” If you supply paper, count discrepancies are yours.
Insurance on your property. The printer carries fire and extended coverage only, and liability is limited to what that insurance pays. Additional coverage is available if requested in writing and paid for.
The short version
| Clause | The default |
|---|---|
| Quantity | Up to ten percent over or under is a complete delivery |
| Claims | Ten days from delivery, then deemed accepted |
| Liability | Capped at the invoice. No consequential damages |
| Risk in transit | Yours, from the printer's dock |
| Title | Passes on carrier delivery or invoice mailing, whichever is first |
| Plates and prep files | The printer's property |
| File retention | Until acceptance only |
| Confidentiality | No clause exists |
| Color | Reasonable variation is acceptable performance |
| Press proofs | Not provided unless required in writing at quote |
Every one of these can be negotiated. Almost none of them are, because most buyers never see the document.
How we handle these
We manage print on behalf of the people buying it, so our position on each of these clauses is published rather than incorporated by reference. Where the standard is fair we follow it. Where it is not, we say so.
How we work: our terms, next to the industry default →
Quantities, tolerances, delivery terms and proofing are confirmed with your quote, and the quote governs.
Nothing on this page is legal advice. It is a description of a widely used industry document and what it says.