Menu Printing Services for Restaurants, Takeout and Catering
Which stock, which coating, which fold, and what it costs. The decisions a printer would walk you through across the counter before a menu goes on press.
Menu printing prints your dish list on a text-weight paper, then folds, coats or laminates it to match how the menu is handled: a set of 50 starts at $57.11 at 4OVER4.COM and standard production is 5 business days. The size you order is the flat sheet, so an 11 x 25.5 in menu trifolds into three 8.5 x 11 in panels. Pick 100# Gloss Text when food photography carries the page and 70# Uncoated Text when staff write on it, and remember that lamination cannot be folded, so a folded menu takes a High Gloss UV coating instead.
Quick answer
Stock, fold, finish, quantity, in that order
Every menu decision follows from how the piece is handled. A takeout list leaves with the food, so it wants to be flat, slim and cheap per piece. A dine-in menu is picked up dozens of times a day, so it wants a coated stock and a finish that survives a wipe. Choose the flat size first, because the fold divides it: an 11 x 25.5 in sheet gives two 11 x 12.75 in pages half folded, or three 8.5 x 11 in panels trifolded. Then choose the protection, keeping in mind that lamination seals a flat menu but cracks on a crease.
Pick the Stock Around How the Menu Gets Handled
Our menu range runs on two papers, and the choice is decided by handling rather than by looks. 100# Gloss Text is coated, so ink sits on the surface and food photography reads with more depth. 70# Uncoated Text is matte and porous, which means it hides fingerprints, takes a pen, and reads as calmer and more expensive on a short list of dishes.
The trade-off is grease. An uncoated sheet drinks it, so a menu that comes back to the table after every guest will show a dark thumb shadow along the edge within a week. Coated stock resists that, and a coating on top of the coated stock resists it properly. If nobody needs to write on the menu, start at gloss text and only step back to uncoated for a deliberate reason.
There is a second thing worth knowing about the range: these are text weights, not cover weights. An 11 x 25.5 in sheet on 100# Gloss Text folds beautifully and prints richly, but held open one-handed it flops. When a menu has to stand up to that, the 18pt Kraft Uncoated Cover on kraft menus is the stiff option, made from 100% post-consumer waste, brown and uncoated so the handmade look is built in rather than printed on. Light inks disappear on brown, which is why that product carries a CMYK plus white setup.
Not sure by description alone? Order free paper samples and hold both sheets before committing a full run. Paper is the one decision on this page you cannot fix in the file.
Coating, Lamination, and the One Combination We Cannot Print
Protection on a menu comes in two grades, and they are not interchangeable. A High Gloss UV coating is a liquid layer cured onto the printed sheet. It stays part of the paper, so the sheet still folds, scores and behaves normally. Lamination is a film bonded over the whole sheet, and it is a genuine seal: a server can wipe it between guests for months.
| Finish | What it survives | Can it fold | Where it belongs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uncoated | A single sitting. Absorbs oil and creases at the edge. | Yes | Takeout lists, tasting menus, anything written on. |
| Coated, no finish | A busy week. Wipes once, then shows wear at the held edge. | Yes | Seasonal inserts and specials that get replaced anyway. |
| High Gloss UV | Repeated wiping, with the fold still intact. | Yes | Dine-in menus that fold in half or trifold. |
| Laminated | Months of table service, spills, grease, condensation. | No | Flat single-panel menus that live on the table. |
Read the third column carefully, because it is the one that catches people. A laminated sheet cracks along a crease and the film starts lifting from the cut edge, so lamination and folding are not printed together. Decide first whether the menu folds. If it does, the durable answer is a High Gloss UV coating; if it does not, laminated menus are the version that outlives the season.
One more practical note on lamination: it does not make a menu updatable. When a price changes you reprint. That is why kitchens with volatile pricing keep the fixed dishes on a laminated flat panel and put the moving parts on a cheap insert or a table tent that gets swapped without touching the menu.
Sizes and Folds: The Number You Order Is the Flat Sheet
This is where most first orders go sideways. The size in the dropdown is the flat sheet, before folding. Seven sizes run from a slim 4.25 x 11 in up to an 11 x 25.5 in spread, with custom sizing to 11 x 26 in, and the fold you choose divides whichever one you picked.
| Fold | An 11 x 25.5 in sheet becomes | Reading surfaces | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat | One 11 x 25.5 in page | 1 or 2, front and back | Laminated table menus and single-panel boards. |
| Half fold | Two 11 x 12.75 in pages | 4 | A full dinner menu with a drinks page inside. |
| Trifold | Three 8.5 x 11 in panels | 6 | Courses, sides and a wine list without a booklet. |
Perforation is the option nobody asks for and half of our restaurant customers should. A perforated strip along the bottom of a takeout menu turns the sheet into a coupon a guest tears off and keeps, and it costs nothing in production time. It only works on a flat or folded paper menu, never a laminated one.
Sizing beyond that is a service question, not a design one. A 4.25 x 11 in sheet fits a takeout bag and a wall rack. An 8.5 x 11 in flat sheet is the fastest menu to reprint when a supplier price moves. The 11 x 25.5 in trifold gives six panels, which is generous, and generous menus take longer for a guest to read. If you want each size measured against a real service, our guide to restaurant menu sizes goes size by size, and menu layout that sells covers what to put on each panel once the format is set. Start the artwork from a correctly sized menu template and the bleed is already right.
Dine-In, Takeout, Catering and Events
Four services, four different menus, and the differences are physical rather than stylistic.
- Dine-in. The menu is a shared object handled all day, so durability is the whole brief. Restaurant menus start at $57.11 for a set of 50 on 100# Gloss Text with an optional High Gloss UV coating, folded in half or trifolded.
- Takeout. The menu leaves with the food and never comes back, so it should be cheap per piece, flat, and slim. This is where the deeper quantity tiers pay, and where a perforated coupon earns its place. Standard menus cover it.
- Catering. The menu is a sales document read without you in the room, and it often gets annotated. 70# Uncoated Text takes a pen well, which is why catering menus at $57.11 per 50 tend to go out uncoated with the price grid on the back panel.
- Weddings and events. One menu per seat, read once, then taken home. Wedding menus start at $57.11 for 50 in the same size range, and the slim 4.25 x 11 in card is the place-setting standard.
Menus rarely travel alone. A dine-in room usually needs table tents for specials, which finish at 4 x 6 in from a flat 4 x 16.25 in scored sheet on 14pt Gloss Cover with a High Gloss UV coating, starting at $554.39 for 250. Front-of-house handouts and door drops sit better on flyers from $39.54. Everything that goes on a restaurant table or counter is grouped in the restaurant printing collection, and every menu style we print is priced live on menus printing.
Standard production is 5 business days across the menu range, with 2-day, next-day and same-day rush on the core products. Menu questions we get by phone are collected in menu help and menu FAQs if you want the short version before ordering.
Wally explains menu printing
Flat size first, then the fold, then the finish
Wally starts with the flat sheet, because that is what the size dropdown means. An 11 by 25.5 inch sheet becomes two pages half folded or three 8.5 by 11 inch panels trifolded. Then he picks the paper: gloss text when the food photos carry the page, uncoated when someone writes on it. Then the protection. He seals a flat menu under lamination for months of table service, and gives a folded menu a High Gloss UV coating instead, because a laminated sheet cracks the moment you crease it.
Configure your menus →Specs and pricing
Menu sizes, stocks and starting prices
Standard, laminated and kraft menus side by side, with live configuration choices and starting prices straight from the 4OVER4.COM configurator.
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Common Questions
Your menu printing questions, answered
How much does menu printing cost?
A set of 50 starts at $57.11 for standard, restaurant, catering and wedding menus, and the per-menu price drops across 25 quantity tiers as the run climbs toward 25,000. Kraft menus price differently because they run on a heavier cover stock: $166.04 for 100, about $1.66 a menu, falling to roughly $0.83 a menu at 1,000. Lamination, a High Gloss UV coating, double-sided printing and rush turnaround each move the number, so build the exact spec in the configurator rather than working from a headline price.
What paper stock holds up best for a dine-in menu?
For a menu that goes back on the table after every guest, 100# Gloss Text with a High Gloss UV coating is the working answer, and full lamination is the answer if the menu is flat. Gloss text alone survives a shift but shows grease along the edge a guest holds. 70# Uncoated Text is the wrong pick for dine-in service, since it absorbs oil and creases fast. Save the uncoated sheet for a takeout list, a tasting menu, or anything staff needs to write on.
Can you laminate a folded menu?
No. Lamination cannot be combined with folding or scoring, because a sealed sheet cracks at the crease and the laminate peels back from the cut edge. Laminated menus are produced flat, which suits a single-panel wipe-clean design. If the menu has to fold and still shrug off spills, print it on 100# Gloss Text with a High Gloss UV coating. Our help article on whether we can laminate and fold menus at the same time covers the same ground from the production side.
How many menus should I order?
Order to the reprint cycle, not to the price break. Dine-in menus are handled dozens of times a day and get replaced when they look tired, so most kitchens run 50 to 250 at a time and reprint seasonally. Takeout lists that go into bags are consumed rather than reused, so those genuinely reward the deeper quantity tiers. The trap is ordering 5,000 dine-in menus at an attractive per-piece price and then changing three entrees in March.
What size should a takeout menu be?
The slim 4.25 x 11 in sheet is the takeout workhorse. It slides into a bag without folding, staples to a delivery ticket, and fits a standard rack. For a dine-in menu, 8.5 x 11 in flat or an 11 x 17 in sheet half folded to 8.5 x 11 in covers most kitchens, and an 11 x 25.5 in trifold gives you six panels for courses, sides and drinks. Our guide to restaurant menu sizes for dine-in and takeout lays out each one against a real service.
How long does menu printing take?
Standard production is 5 business days, with 2-day, next-day and same-day rush available on the core menu products. Shipping transit is separate and stacks on top. Two things add time in practice rather than on the schedule: a file that arrives without bleed and has to be reworked, and a proof left unapproved over a weekend. Starting from a correctly sized layout in the menu blank templates removes the first one.
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Pick your flat size, choose the fold, add a High Gloss UV coating or full lamination, and we print menus that hold up through a full service.
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Gold Standard guarantees apply to all standard orders placed through 4over4.com. Price match requires verifiable proof of a competitor's published price for an equivalent product with matching specifications and turnaround time. Satisfaction guarantee covers manufacturing defects and print quality issues. Contact support with order number and documentation. On-time delivery rate based on tracked orders 1999 to 2026. Individual results may vary based on shipping carrier performance.
