Leather Sample Swatches. Leather Swatches

Leather Swatches

Leather Sample Swatches for Leather Printing

Real Leather

We are now able to offer leather printing on a variety of leathers, thanks to our new state-of-the-art leather printing technology. This allows us to print onto numerous different leathers with amazing colour reproduction and fine detailing up to 2 pt. Each of our leathers has a different thickness, handle or texture, yet each and every one of them looks visually stunning once printed.

We don't expect you to just take our word for it though, which is why we have introduced our leather sample swatches. This is a pack of leather swatches that are 5.5 cm x 5.5 cm (that's 2 inches squared) printed with the classic Contrado sample design which shows both fine and solid details, a variety of colours that are vibrant, rich dark, bright and striking to give you as much variety as as possible. This is the best way to show you exactly what to expect, and to help you make the right choice.

With our leather swatches, you can also not only see the surface textures and the handle of each material, but you can touch it for yourself. You can make a fully informed decision with our leather sample swatches, before committing to ordering an entire project worth of material.

Easy to find

When you receive your leather swatches, you'll see the name of each leather, which can be used to look up each leather on our website to make for easier ordering. Just enter the name into the search bar on the list of our whole range to see the properties, uses and material information.

As well as our fantastic leather swatches, you can also order swatch packs for our other fabric ranges too. When you go to add the leather sample swatches to your basket, you will also be offered our other swatch packs too.

Classic Swatch Pack: A range of man made fabrics, from velvet to voile, and lycra to lace. Our range has over 100 fabrics to choose from
Natural Swatch Pack: A range of natural fabrics, from cotton to linen to silk. A great selection of completely natural textiles
Paper Swatch Pack: As well as fabrics, we offer a variety of papers too. From wallpaper to poster paper, check out this great selection

Discount Voucher

Purchase a Leather Swatch Pack and receive a £10 gift voucher to redeem against your next order of fabric prints.*

*Voucher cannot be used for test prints or samples. Minimum spend: £25. This offer is for new customers only who have not previously ordered with us before. Voucher can only be used once and expires after 30 days.

Frequently asked questions:

How are your swatch packs separated?

The classic swatch pack includes the man made materials, the natural has only the naturals, and the paper only the papers. The leather swatch pack contains only the leathers, as we do offer vegan-friendly leatherette options, we wouldn't want to put them in the same packaging as the leather swatches.

Are all of your leathers in the swatch pack?

All of the leathers that we currently offer are included in the swatch pack, as we introduce more and more leathers they will be added into new swatch pack versions. We try to ensure that every material is included in the packs at all times, and the date your pack was printed, along with the version number, will be displayed on the leather sample swatches packaging. If you have any questions about your swatch pack please contact our customer service team via chat, who will be happy to assist you.

Why are the leather packs smaller?

The leather swatches are smaller for a number of reasons. Leather is a much more expensive material, which contributes to this greatly. If we were to create the leather swatches in the same size we'd have to charge more for them. Also there are limitations to the maximum sizes of each leather we use, dependant on the size of the animal. Smaller leather sample swatches are easier to create.

You have the amazing designs, but do you have the amazing place to sell?

All you have to do is design what you love and we bring your creations to life. We take care of the hand crafting and manufacture, the sales and the shipping. You the designer, control the products and designs from wherever you are, from home, the office, even on the go. Meanwhile the orders start to roll in and you get commissions fast.

Print Guideline

What's the best resolution to print in?

We print at 200dpi, which is a good combination of quality and file weight. Ideally your image should be scaled to 100% at 200dpi; this means that no resizing of your file occurs, preventing any interpolation.
Should I save my file as a TIFF or JPEG?

For multi-coloured or very detailed files we recommend using a tiff format, but they must be flattened. For simple colours and low detail files, a jpeg is fine.
Which colour model should I choose? RGB or CMYK?

If each individual colour is specifically important to your design, choose CYMK as our setup will print each colour with the closest possible match within our available range. If the relationship between the colours within the image is more important choose RGB; this will reduce all colours equally to fit within our range.
Maximum dimensions

For most of our fabrics there is no limit on the length of the fabric that you can order. We have a preview design window set up to 10m max to visualise the print, but that's not a print limit. If you'd like to order more, increase the quantity (x2 for 20m or x4 for 40m for example) and then you can order as much as you'd like, with a built in automatic volume discount too. The maximum print width of each fabric can be found on the individual fabric pages or in our design interface.
Do I need to incorporate white space within my design if I want a border or some cutting space?

Yes, that might help you! Always incorporate any extra space or boarders into your purchased fabric size. We trim squarely around fabric samples and fabric prints, leaving approximately 5mm white space. Cutting neatly on the line has an additional fee.

Do you print on fabric a customer supplies?

Unfortunately not; we like to test meticulously so that we know what gets best results on our fabrics, and our facilities cater perfectly to them. We do however print sublimation paper to order, and if you have access to a heat press you can press your own fabrics easily.
What is the situation with material shrinkage?

Just like many fabric printing processes, there is the potential for shrinkage. Depending on the fabric, please expect and allow between 2-8% shrinkage which you need to plan for in your dimensions.
Can I print on both sides of the fabric?

We do not offer printing on both sides of the fabric, as a lot of our fabrics are semi-transparent. As the customer, you can consider the effect of printing on both sides one of our fabrics and contact us, and we will get back to you if it's feasible.
Can I order labels in another fabric? Will you cut them like you do with the normal fabric labels?

At the moment no, our labels are all printed on the same satin fabric. We may introduce more in the future, but for now this is the best choice. The labels are all cut the same way. You can order the fabric of your choice and make the labels yourself, but we do not cut different fabric into label format.
How is your fabric printing eco-friendly?

With environmental consciousness in mind, our fabrics are all printed using completely water-based inks. This means no chemicals or solvents are used. Our heat fixing procedure fixes the colours and prints, avoiding the downsides of steaming, such as excess or contaminated water returning into the waste system. We have one facility in London where we conduct all the printing, production and fulfillment.

Sizing For Hemming And Shrinkage

We have a full Cut & Sew service here at Contrado, and are able to hem your fabric prints for a small additional charge. We create a small one- or two-fold hem that typically uses 5 to 20mm of material, depending on the thickness of the fabric. So, for example, if you want a finished piece of fabric that measures 100 x 100cm, you will need to order a size of 101.5cm x 101.5cm to allow for the hem (on top of that please also allow for shrinkage of min 2%). The thicker the fabric, the bigger the hem will be. You can choose to have your prints hemmed with either Black or White thread. On our silk and other light woven fabrics, one hemmed edge will be straight (vertically down the roll) and the other will be slightly rippled. The hemming material allowances are as follows and you need to make your print bigger to accommodate the hem:

Light Fabrics (20-100gsm): For silks and other light fabrics, we use 6-8mm in the hem (2 fold), so overall width/height will be minus 12-16mm
Medium Fabrics (101-200gsm): For medium-weight fabrics that fray, we use 15-20mm in the hem (2 fold) so overall width/height will be minus 35-40mm
Stiff/Heavy/No-fray fabrics: we use 15-20mm in the hem (1 fold) so overall width/height will be minus 35-40mm

All of these measurements are approximate and can vary. Including with shrinkage it can mean a fairly significant difference to ordered dimensions, so please plan your print accordingly. Depending on how open the weave is, our fabric can shrink anywhere from 2% to 8% with the average being 2.5%.

How Would you Like the Edge?

We have four finishing options for your fabric order:

As it comes. We cut around your image, leaving a simply scissor cut, perhaps uneven white fabric border.
Hem with thread. We can hem your fabric with a choice of black or white thread. Please allow 1-2 days additional production time. See below for information on how hemming affects the size of your print. We offer an overlock hem as well as a folded hem (one or two fold depending on the fabric) however not all fabrics are suited to both hem types. If you can see both options, it means both are suitable, and you will be able to chose whichever you prefer.
Cut on the line. We will cut neatly on the edge of your image. Please be aware, when we cut along the line, we have to cut against the grain of the fabric. This is the standard procedure for fabric cutting. This means that with some fabrics, for example, Georgette and Mulmul, which have a slight wave in them, some fraying will occur. This is unavoidable, as the cut follows the grain of the textile.

All of our fabrics are cut manually by hand, with the utmost care and attention. If your fabric has a slightly uneven look on the edges, or a touch of fraying, this does not indicate a flaw in the textile. It is not always possible to achieve a perfect straight cut with certain fabrics, so please do bare this in mind when it comes to your design. If you have any queries or would like to know about our cutting methods in more detail, please get in touch and we will be more than happy to discuss them with you.

For further information about our fabrics see our FAQs.

Delivery time & Costs

Production times

We handmake your item on site, which takes on average 1-2 days. Please check individual production times which are displayed next to the item price on the product page, as this varies from product to product. In rare cases when we need to re-print an item, this may take an additional 1-2 days.

Shipping methods

After your item has been manufactured, we ship your order via your chosen method. Please add on the production time to the delivery time to calculate when your order will be with you. Select your delivery method in your basket.

We have a range of trusted shipping options:

Royal Mail 1st Class Standard (no tracking) - 1-5 working days on average (please note that this can take up to 15 working days in exceptional circumstances).
Royal Mail 1st Class Recorded (no tracking) – Usually delivered the next working day. It is not a guaranteed next day service, or a tracked service. A signature is required. (Please note that this can take up to 15 working days in exceptional circumstances).
Special Delivery – Delivered the next working day
Saturday Delivery (deliver only on Sat)
Collection from our London Office (between 4-6pm on working days only)
For international orders or large/bulky packages within the UK, we ship via DHL or Fedex services. This takes on average 2-5 working days.

You can then enjoy or resell your hand-made products with your very own designs.

You can also read more about our terms & conditions and refund policy.

Make use of our Manufacturing and Worldwide Shipping Experience

At Contrado, every product is handmade on site to ensure the highest quality. We provide a dedicated production service as well as a range of fast delivery options. For the past 14 years, we have printed and hand-made countless personalised products for a wide range of customers all over the world and many of them have become loyal customers who love not only our products but also the care, knowledge and dedication from our staff.

A speedy Special Delivery service is available where your item will delivered within one working day, after it has been manufactured.

Over 100 Fabrics

Custom Clothing Collection

Discover Custom Leather

Leather Sample Swatches

From £1.00. Ready same day.

Leather Swatches