Leather Swatches

Leather Samples for Leather Printing

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 color 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 squared (that's 2.16" square) printed with the classic Contrado sample design which shows both fine and solid details, a variety of colors 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 and Offers for Leather Printing

Purchase a Leather Swatch Pack and receive a CA$10 gift voucher to redeem against your next order of leather prints.
*voucher cannot be used for test prints or samples. Minimum spend: CA$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.

Please note: The first time customer offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other discount. This includes the wholesale discount and any other offers.

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 0.2" to 0.75" (5-20mm) of material, depending on the thickness of the fabric. So, for example, if you want a finished piece of fabric that measures 39.37" x 39.37", you will need to order a size of 39.96" x 39.96" 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 (0.59oz-2.95oz): For silks and other light fabrics, we use 0.24" - 0.32" / 6mm-8mm in the hem (2 fold), so overall width/height will be minus 0.48"-0.56""/ 12-16mm
• Medium Fabrics (2.98oz-5.90oz): For medium-weight fabrics that fray, we use 0.5 - 0.75" / 15-20mm in the hem (2 fold) so overall width/height will be minus 1.4" - 1.6" / 35-40mm
• Stiff/Heavy/No-fray fabrics: we use 0.5 - 0.75" / 15-20mm in the hem (1 fold) so overall width/height will be minus 1.5" / 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?

• 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 choose whichever you prefer. 
• Cut on the line. We will cut neatly on the edge of your design. This means that if you have a border around your design we will cut around that border, if your design takes the whole space of the fabric, then we will neatly cut around the edge of that 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 perfectly 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.

Please note: As we make everything by hand, all sizes may vary slightly.

For further information about our fabrics see our FAQs.

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, dependent on the size of the animal. Smaller leather sample swatches are easier to create.