Print and Publishing in Bangkok

This post is more for expats and digital nomads who run their own media while travelling or basing themselves in Thailand. At the same time, I have had so many frustrations through the years with Bangkok Printing Services, for even the most basic of prints. And I really just want to share my own frustrations through the years. Because it is more of a problem from the past, as websites such as Gogoprint Thailand have pretty much everything all print needs covered, from the most basic of business stationery to branded string bags and flash drives… and the list goes on. So they’re a bit like the Vistaprint of the U.K. and Europe, only they cover Thailand. Anyway, in short, it’s now just very easy to source print jobs online, and here I am just recalling the nightmares of the past Also, if you are struggling with paying for services, you could get extra cash when you contact Max Cash Title Loans.


Local Print Shops

I was always the one that had to run around the shops in Sukhumvit, looking for the most basic of print jobs, such as visa documents, and just simple page prints. And I must have tried every computer shop, stationery store, and even the hotels of the area, just trying to find a place that won’t rip me off. And I remember one time where I just gave up, and I paid 150 Baht for a 3-page “professional print” (50 Baht per page), which looked like it had been printed on an out-of-date inkjet printer, with those annoying lines you get from dodgy inkjets. Or whatever you call them, as I really don’t know the ins-and-outs of printing, and I just want the print jobs done. It shouldn’t be that hard.


Bangkok Printing Services

We pretty much spent years in Bangkok not knowing where to go for honest Bangkok Printing Services, and, to this date, I still don’t even own business cards despite running this website for 7 years now. Although I have forever planned on getting them, it’s just every time I approached a printer, at MBK, the cheap-skate mall near Siam specifically, I was always being charged “tourist prices”. And while I expected Printing Services in Thailand to be cheap, I realised I could get them for cheaper back home at the time, in the U.K., by using online print companies. Which I’m guessing is to do with the whole economies of scale thing, but it’s also a lot harder to overcharge people who shop online.


Print Days Out

Fanfan’s first degree was in Applied Arts (interior design) and this meant printing off all shapes and sizes of projects and plans. So we used to set aside entire days just to print things. We would then travel from Sukhumvit by taxi, to the MRT, and then take a taxi again to the print shops of the Lad Prao area. We’d then have to wait around for the printing process, which would at times take half a day, before travelling the same route back again. And it’s kind of like the worst day out possible. And I remember once waiting half-a-day to print “Thank You” cards for the guests and wellwishers of our wedding, only they got the measurements confused, using centimetres instead of inches. And instead of “Thank You” cards we were given thumbnails, and friends and family are still waiting for our thanks.


Printer Problems

So we did cave at one time, and decided to just buy our own Multi-Function printer, with A3 print capabilities, and whatnot. And we at least expected it to sort some of our past printing problems. Yet it only created more. Where, in the first couple of weeks, the spooling system stopped working, and only around 1 in 10 prints came through, as the others were alerts for “paper jams”. “Beep-beep-beep, beeeeepbeeeeeep, beep-beep-beep”. I’ll forever hate that sound. Anyway, I ended up hauling this bigass printer back to Panthip Plaza, only to find the shop closed that day, and just ended up hauling it back home again. Before giving up. And, in 5 years now, I’m fairly sure that printer never came close to breaking-even when it comes to costs. And it certainly never helped our frustrations.


Leave a Reply