Staples vs Azul Prints — blueprint printing, compared
Staples charges $4.50/sheet for a 24×36 blueprint. Azul Prints charges $3.00 — and ships it to you anywhere in the US the same day. Staples requires you to drive to a store. Here's the full breakdown.
Azul Prints — 24×36 B&W
$3.00
per sheet · ships nationwide via UPS
Staples — 24×36 B&W
$4.50
per sheet · in-store pickup only
📅 Updated April 2026📋 Based on published Staples pricing🎯 For contractors, architects & engineers
Ready to switch? Upload your plans and get an instant price.
Order before 12 PM EST — prints verified and shipped same day
Free UPS Ground shipping included on Azul ($29+ threshold)
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The math at scale: If your firm prints 500 pages per month at 24×36, that's $1,500/month at Azul vs $2,250/month at Staples. The $750 monthly difference more than pays for a junior team member's time — and Azul delivers to your office so you're not driving to a store.
The Shipping Gap
This is the real difference — Staples can't ship to you
Staples blueprint printing is an in-store service. You upload online, then drive to your nearest Staples location to pick up your prints. If you're not near a Staples, or you're on a job site in another city, you're out of options.
Azul Prints ships completed orders via UPS to any address in all 50 US states. Order before 12 PM EST on weekdays and your prints are packed and handed to UPS the same day — no pickup required, no trip to a store.
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If you need blueprints delivered to a job site in another state, Azul is your only option between the two. Staples requires in-store pickup at a local location. UPS Ground, 2nd Day Air, and Next Day Air are all available at Azul — with free Ground on orders over $29.
UPS shipping options from Azul
UPS Ground
1–5 business days
Free on $29+
UPS 3-Day Select
3 business days
Calculated at checkout
UPS 2nd Day Air
2 business days
Calculated at checkout
UPS Next Day Air
Next business day
Order before 12 PM EST
Save 33% vs Staples
ARCH D 24×36 — $3.00/sheet, ships to you today
No store visit. No account needed. Upload your PDF and your prints are reviewed, packaged, and handed to UPS the same day.
No account needed File reviewed before printing All 50 states via UPS
Order before 12 PM EST on weekdays — prints verified, packaged, and handed to UPS the same day. No rush fees.
File Review
The thing Staples doesn't do — check your file first
When you upload to Staples, your file goes to the printer. If the scale is wrong, the orientation is off, or a page is missing — you find out when you pick up the prints. At that point you've already made the trip, and you're making it again.
At Azul Prints, a real print technician opens your PDF and verifies three things before printing begins:
Scale
Verified before printing
1/4"=1' draws at exactly that on paper. Wrong-scale sets get rejected at building departments.
Orientation
Landscape confirmed
Drawings that print portrait when designed landscape are unusable on a job site.
Completeness
All sheets present
Missing sheets spotted here — before you wait on delivery or drive to pickup.
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A wrong-scale permit set gets rejected at the building department counter. You lose your inspection slot and resubmit — typically adding 2–4 weeks to your project timeline. The file review at Azul exists specifically to catch this before it happens.
Honest Assessment
When Staples makes sense — and when it doesn't
Use Staples if:
You need a single print in the next hour and there's a Staples two minutes away. In-store same-day pickup is fast when it works, and for a single casual print where scale accuracy isn't critical, it does the job.
Use Azul Prints if:
You need nationwide delivery. Azul ships to any US address. Staples cannot. If you're not near a store, or the prints need to go somewhere other than where you are, Azul is the only option between the two.
You're printing a permit set or job-site plans. Scale accuracy matters. File review before printing matters. At $3.00 vs $4.50/sheet, you're also saving 33% on every page — and the savings compound on any print run larger than one page.
You print regularly. The per-sheet difference on a monthly print budget adds up to hundreds of dollars. Azul delivers to your office; Staples requires a store visit every time.
You need mylar or color plans. Staples does not offer mylar (polyester film) printing. Azul offers waterproof 4-mil mylar for archival sets, permit originals, and job-site use.
Something Staples can't offer
Check your file before you print — anywhere
Upload your PDF to our free scale checker. We detect page size, scale notation, and orientation issues that cause permit rejections — before you spend a dollar on prints. Staples prints what you send them. We check it first.
Direct answers on Staples vs Azul blueprint printing.
Staples charges starting at $4.50 per page for 24×36 (ARCH D) black and white blueprint printing, based on their published pricing. This is 50% more per sheet than Azul Prints, which charges $3.00 for the same size. On a 20-page permit set, that difference is $30.
Staples blueprint printing is in-store pickup only. You upload online, but you must visit a physical Staples location to collect your prints. Azul Prints ships via UPS to any address in all 50 states — same-day on weekday orders placed before 12 PM EST. No store visit required at any point.
Yes — Azul Prints is 33% cheaper per sheet for 24×36 B&W printing ($3.00 vs $4.50). For 18×24, Azul charges $1.50 vs Staples' $2.25. For 36×48, Azul charges $6.00 vs Staples' $9.00. The pricing advantage holds across all standard blueprint sizes.
Staples does not offer a pre-print file review. At Azul Prints, a real technician opens and reviews every uploaded file for scale accuracy, orientation, and sheet completeness before printing begins. If there's a problem, you're contacted to resolve it — the issue is caught here, not when you're on deadline holding a set of wrong-scale prints.
Staples does not offer mylar (polyester film) printing. Azul Prints offers waterproof 4-mil mylar printing in both black and white and full color — used for archival record sets, permit originals, job-site durability, and reproducible masters. Mylar is available in all standard ARCH and ANSI sizes.
Staples same-day means in-store pickup today if you order before 12 PM at a participating location. You must physically go to the store to pick up your prints. Azul Prints same-day means your prints are handed to UPS today — no pickup required. Orders before 12 PM EST ship the same day via your choice of UPS Ground, 3-Day, 2nd Day Air, or Next Day Air.
