Short answer: a school or nursery in the UAE needs five print categories to run a clean academic year — ID cards and lanyards for students and staff, certificates for prize day and graduation, event collateral for open days and annual day, corridor and classroom signage, and the admin books nobody remembers until the auditor asks. At current MaxPrint prices, a 500-student campus can cover printed PVC ID cards, logo lanyards and 500 A4 certificates for roughly AED 1,600–2,200, and a full open-day kit — 1,000 A5 flyers, a roll-up banner and 100 presentation folders — for under AED 1,800. Everything below is priced from the live store, delivered anywhere in the UAE.
All prices below are in AED, VAT inclusive, from the live listings on maxprint.ae.
1. Student and staff ID cards + lanyards
This is the biggest recurring school print job in the UAE, and the one most often ordered badly — thin cards that crack in a bag by November, or a lanyard attachment a Year 2 student cannot operate.
The card itself
Standard PVC ID cards print at 86 × 54 mm on thick PVC with full-colour UV print, stain-resistant and colour-matched to your brand palette. Larger formats — 98 × 67 mm and 124 × 86 mm — suit secondary schools printing timetables or bus route numbers on the back. Three choices decide the price:
- Punched or unpunched. A slot punch is what lets the card sit in a lanyard clip. Order punched unless you are issuing card holders instead — Identity Cards with Punch are listed at AED 445 versus AED 415 unpunched.
- Plain blanks vs printed. If your school prints in-house with a card printer, plain Ultra ID Cards are AED 0.63 each, with gold and silver finishes at AED 1.40 each.
- Extra features. Barcoding (library, canteen, gate access) is listed at AED 565, a signature strip at AED 525, and embossing at AED 695.
Add Card Holders at AED 175 if you want rigid covers — worth it for primary years, where cards live in pockets.
Lanyards: match the attachment to the age group
The attachment matters more than the colour. For nursery and primary, a breakaway safety lock is not optional — it is the reason lanyards are allowed on a playground at all. For secondary and staff, a reel badge saves the daily gate queue.
| Lanyard type | Best for | Price (each) |
|---|---|---|
| Lanyards with Logo and Epoxy Doming | Staff, visitors — crisp logo repeat | AED 1.05 |
| Double Hook Cord Lanyards | Budget student issue, black or white | AED 1.05 |
| Lanyards with Double Hook | Heavier cards, secondary students | AED 1.40 |
| Lanyards with Crocodile Clip, Mobile Holder & Safety Lock | Teachers and admin staff | AED 2.10 |
| Lanyards with Hook, Safety Lock and Buckle, 20 mm | Nursery and primary — breakaway | AED 2.45 |
| RPET Lanyards with Hooks and Safety Clip | Sustainability-accredited schools | AED 2.45 |
| Organic Cotton Lanyards | Eco programmes, premium feel | AED 2.80 |
| Lanyard with Reel Badge and Safety Lock | Staff with gate or door access | AED 3.50 |
Spares are cheap and worth stocking: safety locks AED 1.05, crocodile clips AED 0.84, mobile holders AED 0.70, lanyard buckles AED 0.70 and lanyard straps AED 0.70 each. Order 10% spare attachments at the start of the year and you will stop reordering lanyards in February.
Browse the full range in Lanyards & ID Cards, or read the deeper breakdown in our lanyard and ID card printing guide.
2. Certificates: prize day, graduation and course completion
Certificates are ordered once and used for three years, so the only real decisions are size and stock. The house standard is 300 gsm Bristol board, single-sided full colour — heavy enough to feel like an award, light enough to post home in an A4 envelope.
| Certificate | Quantity | Price | Per piece |
|---|---|---|---|
| Certificates A5, 300 gsm Bristol, 1 side | 500 | AED 420 | AED 0.84 |
| Certificates A4, 300 gsm Bristol, 1 side | 500 | AED 585 | AED 1.17 |
| Certificates A3, 300 gsm Bristol, 1 side | 500 | AED 890 | AED 1.78 |
A4 is the default for graduation and end-of-year awards. A5 is the smart pick for weekly "star of the week" and reading-challenge certificates, where volume is high and the certificate goes on a fridge, not a wall. A3 is for honour boards and long-service staff awards.
Leave the name line blank and overprint or handwrite it — printing 500 personalised names costs far more than it saves in staff time, and one design serves every department. Full specifications are in the certificates collection.
3. Open day, admissions and annual day collateral
Admissions season in the UAE runs hardest between January and April, and again in a short August burst. The kit that actually converts enquiries is small: a flyer that a parent can fold into a handbag, a banner that survives a mall activation, and a folder that holds the fee schedule without looking like a photocopy.
| Item | Spec | Quantity | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flyers A6 | 100 GSM wood-free, 2 sides | 1,000 | AED 105 |
| Flyers A5 | 100 GSM wood-free, 2 sides | 1,000 | AED 145 |
| Flyers A5 | 135 GSM glossy, 2 sides | 1,000 | AED 155 |
| Flyers A4 | 100 GSM wood-free, 2 sides | 1,000 | AED 245 |
| Flyers A4 | 100 GSM wood-free, 2 sides | 5,000 | AED 490 |
| Roll-up banner | 85 × 200 cm, full colour 1 side | 1 | AED 190 |
| Roll-up banner | 150 × 200 cm | 1 | AED 950 |
| Folders A4 with pocket | 400 gsm art matt, velvet lamination, 3D gold foil | 100 | AED 1,425 |
Note how flat the flyer curve is: 5,000 A4 flyers at AED 490 cost only twice what 1,000 cost at AED 245. If you run two open days a year, print for both in one go. The flyer collection lists every size from A6 to A3 with GSM options.
For sports day and annual day, add stickers for team colours and sponsor placement — 100 paper stickers at 7 × 7 cm (matt or glossy) are AED 230, and 1,000 economy glossy-laminated stickers are AED 350.
4. Signage, wayfinding and classroom branding
Schools in Dubai are inspected, and wayfinding is part of the impression. Reception and corridor signage is a one-time spend that lasts a decade:
- Indoor Wall Signage — AED 395, cut to your logo and exact wall dimensions
- Office Wall Signage — AED 425, for department and head-of-year doors
- Acrylic Wall Signage — AED 495, clean modern look for reception walls
- Wall Mounted Signage — AED 550
- 3D Acrylic Signage — AED 1,150, for the main entrance or auditorium
Design, production and installation in Dubai can all be arranged together. See the full signage collection for materials and finishes.
5. Awards, trophies and house competitions
Crystal awards have quietly replaced plastic trophies in most UAE schools — they engrave cleanly, they photograph well for the newsletter, and parents keep them.
| Award | Size | Price (each) |
|---|---|---|
| 3D Rectangular Crystals | Standard | AED 21 |
| 3D Cube Crystals | Standard | AED 22 |
| Crystal Awards | Small / Medium / Large | AED 25 / 28 / 34 |
| Crystal Awards with Blue Base and Box | Small / Medium / Large | AED 48 / 56 / 63 |
| Star Crystal Trophy | Standard | AED 154 |
| Crystal Globe Trophy | Standard | AED 182 |
A practical structure: AED 21–28 crystals for house points and subject prizes, AED 48–63 boxed crystals for year-group top achievers, and one AED 154–182 trophy for the headline award. The crystal awards collection has 90+ shapes.
6. Event T-shirts and bags
Sports day, house colours and field trips run on printed tees. Blank prices per piece, before branding: SELECT 180 Roundneck AED 5.00 (the volume option for full-school sports day), Giftology SALAMA anti-microbial AED 10.50, All Day Sports Roundneck AED 13.00, Core365 Santhome Adult Performance AED 14.50 for staff and coaching teams, and BioOne80 by Santhome Premium AED 22.00. For welcome packs and book fairs, non-woven shopping bags are AED 1.94 each.
7. The admin printing schools forget
Every UAE school runs on carbonless books: gate passes, permission slips, petty cash, incident reports, canteen receipts. NCR books print in duplicate with sequential numbering — the office keeps one copy, the parent keeps the other.
- 5 NCR Books A5, one colour 1+1 — AED 265
- 10 NCR Books A5, one colour 1+1 — AED 390
- 5 NCR Books A4, one colour 1+1 — AED 294
- 10 NCR Books A4, full colour 1+1 — AED 500
- Petty Cash Vouchers — AED 135 | Receipt Vouchers — AED 145
Add staff business cards — 1,000 matt-laminated 350 gsm cards are AED 119 — for the leadership team and admissions staff who attend education fairs.
The academic-year ordering calendar
- June–July: ID cards, lanyards, staff business cards, NCR books — before term starts, not in week one.
- August: welcome-pack flyers, non-woven bags, corridor and classroom signage.
- October–November: UAE National Day materials, house competition crystals, concert flyers.
- January–March: admissions open-day kit — flyers, roll-up banners, folders.
- April–May: certificates, graduation programmes, awards, sports day T-shirts. Six weeks before prize day, not two.
How to order
- Send the list, not the files, first. Message quantities and sizes on WhatsApp +971 52 210 0909 or call 052 210 0909. A consolidated price comes back the same day — easier to take to a finance committee than eight separate line items.
- Send artwork as print-ready PDF with 3 mm bleed and text 5 mm inside the trim. A school logo taken as PNG from a website will look soft on a certificate — ask marketing for the vector file.
- Approve one proof set so the ID card, certificate and folder share one design language.
- Production runs about five business days after proof approval; signage and 3D items take longer, as they are fabricated to your wall dimensions.
- Delivery is UAE-wide, including Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ajman, Al Ain and Ras Al Khaimah.
Free design layout is included — send a logo and the text and the team will set the certificate, ID card and flyer for you.
Frequently asked questions
What is the minimum order for school ID cards?
Plain PVC blanks start at AED 0.63 each with no meaningful minimum, and printed PVC identity card batches are listed from AED 415. For an exact price against your student numbers — 300, 800, 2,000 cards — send the figure on WhatsApp and you will get a quantity-specific quote rather than a shelf price.
Which lanyard is safe for nursery and primary students?
Any lanyard with a breakaway safety lock. The Lanyards with Hook, Safety Lock and Buckle, 20 mm at AED 2.45 are the standard choice, and the RPET version at the same price suits schools with a sustainability accreditation to report against. Avoid plain double-hook cord lanyards for under-8s — they have no release mechanism.
How long before prize day should we order certificates?
Six weeks is comfortable: two weeks for design and internal sign-off on wording, one week for proof approval, about five business days for production, and a buffer for the inevitable late addition of a category. Certificates are cheap to overprint and expensive to rush.
Can you print in Arabic and English on the same certificate?
Yes — bilingual certificates, ID cards and signage are standard work in the UAE. Supply the Arabic text as live text in the design file or as an outlined vector; Arabic pasted into a design as an image will print at whatever resolution the image was.
Do you deliver outside Dubai?
Yes, across all seven emirates. Schools in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Sharjah, Ajman and RAK order regularly; delivery is arranged with the production schedule so a single school order arrives in one consignment rather than in pieces.
Plan your school's print year in one call
Send your student numbers, event calendar and logo on WhatsApp +971 52 210 0909 or call 052 210 0909, and you will get a single consolidated quote covering ID cards, lanyards, certificates and event collateral — with free design layout and delivery anywhere in the UAE. Start with the Lanyards & ID Cards collection or browse name badges and tags for staff and visitor identification.
