Blueprints, Engineering Copies & Building Plans: Stocks, Sizes and How to Order

Contractors, architects, engineers, surveyors and homeowners often ask the same three questions about plan printing: which paper, which size and how long will it take? Here is what to consider before ordering.

The three stocks that cover almost every plan set

20 lb wide-format bond (the default)

This is what a "blueprint" or engineering copy means in practice today: crisp black line work on bright white 20 lb bond. It's inexpensive, it folds and rolls well, it takes pencil and red-line markup, and it's what building departments and job-site crews expect. Unless you tell us otherwise, this is what we run.

Vellum

Translucent, dimensionally stable, and durable. Vellum is what you want for record sets, stamped originals, hand-drafting overlays, and any set that will be traced, archived, or reproduced later. It costs more per sheet than bond and it's worth it when the sheet is the archive copy — not the field copy.

Heavyweight matte bond (for full-color plans)

Color plans — landscape and site plans, renderings, utility and phasing diagrams, GIS maps, presentation boards for a ZBA or planning-board hearing — should not be printed on thin bond. Heavyweight matte bond (roughly 32–36 lb) holds saturated color without bleed-through or cockling, doesn't glare under conference-room lights, and survives being passed around a table. This is our standard for anything in color.

We can also plot to mylar and to heavy presentation/photo stocks when a project calls for it, and mount and laminate boards for hearings and site trailers.

Standard plan sizes we print

• 11×17 (Tabloid / B) — half-size sets, contractor reference copies, bid packages.
• 18×24 (ARCH C) — residential additions, small commercial, septic and site plans.
• 24×36 (ARCH D) — the most common full-size architectural and engineering sheet.
• 30×42 (ARCH E1) — larger commercial and civil sets.
• 36×48 (ARCH E) — full civil, utility and survey sheets.

Anything in between is fine too — we plot from a roll, so custom widths and long sheets (site plans, profiles, timelines) are routine. Pricing is per sheet and scales down as the total sheet count in your order goes up; the current tiers for each size are on our blueprints and engineering copies page.

Reduced-size sets for reference

A 24×36 drawing reduced to 50% prints at 12×18. Fitting it onto 11×17 requires a different reduction, so it is not a true half-scale copy. Reduced sets are useful for reference; check the scale before measuring from them and confirm the sizes required for permit submission.

Scanning, archiving and old drawings

We scan large-format originals up to 36 inches wide to PDF or TIFF — including yellowed, brittle or ammonia-print originals that a copier can't handle. Common jobs: digitizing a shelf of legacy drawings, converting a marked-up field set into a clean PDF for the design team, or scanning a stamped original before it leaves the office. Scanned files can be returned as multi-page PDFs in sheet order. OCR for searchable text is available for an additional fee.

Finishing: folding, binding and sets

• Collating into sets — sheets ordered and grouped so each set is ready to hand off.
• Folding — standard architectural fold to 8.5×11 with the title block out, ready for a permit envelope or file drawer.
• Rolling and banding — for full-size sets going to a job site; tubes available.
• Binding — spiral or comb bound half-size booklets for bid sets and specs.
• Mounting and laminating — presentation boards for hearings, plus laminated job-site copies that survive weather.

How to send us a plan set

1. Send a single multi-page PDF in sheet order, not 40 separate files. Flatten layers and embed fonts. Export at full scale (1:1), not "fit to page."
2. Tell us the sheet size and scale. If your PDF page size is 24×36, say so — that removes any guessing about whether a set was already reduced.
3. Say how many sets and what each is for (e.g. "3 full-size 24×36 on bond for the building department, 6 half-size bound for subs, 1 vellum record copy").
4. Upload through our Place Order page — it handles large plan sets that email will bounce. Or bring a USB drive to the counter.
5. Call 781-585-6021 if it's tight. Most black-and-white plan sets are quick turnarounds; color sets, vellum and bound bid packages may need more production time. We'll give you a real timeline before you commit.

A quick cheat sheet

• Field and permit copies → 20 lb bond, full size.
• Record, stamped or archive copies → vellum.
• Anything in color → heavyweight matte bond.
• Subs, estimators, bid sets → half-size, bound.
• Hearings and presentations → mounted or laminated boards.