How pint printing actually works.

Pint printing is a small machine that uses food-safe edible ink to print a design directly onto the foam head of a drink. Six seconds, the pint comes out with a photo, a logo, a monogram, anything you like sitting on the foam. The print bonds into the foam and stays sharp for the full lifetime of the head, typically 15 to 20 minutes for a properly poured Guinness. The drink tastes exactly the same. The print disappears as the pint goes down.

The science of edible ink on foam.

The ink we use is genuinely edible. Its ingredients are water, sorbitol, food-grade glycerin and food-grade colourants. It is vegan, gluten-free, halal and kosher, and tested to FDA, EU and SGS food-contact standards. Each cartridge holds enough ink for around 1,000 prints. Venues sometimes ask for the certificate of compliance, we send it over by email on request.

The ink itself is microscopically fine, almost a mist. When the machine sprays it onto the foam head, the droplets sit on top of the bubble film and form the image you see. The droplets are small enough that they don't pop the bubbles. The print sets within a couple of seconds and bonds into the foam structure rather than floating on top of the liquid below. That bonding is what makes the print durable, it doesn't smudge if knocked, doesn't run if the drink tilts, and doesn't dissolve into the beer.

The other thing worth knowing: the ink prints in monochrome sepia tones, not full colour. The cream-coloured foam acts as the canvas, the ink lands in dark brown shades, and the result reads beautifully. It looks intentional, like an old engraved print or a watermark, rather than a hard-edged photograph. Most people who see it for the first time assume it's branded glasswork. It isn't, it's on the foam, and it's gone when they're done.

The equipment.

The machine we ship is the EveBot EB-Pro, a purpose-built drinks printer used by hundreds of pint printer services worldwide. It sits at roughly the footprint of a small countertop microwave, 34 cm wide, 27 cm deep, 41 cm tall, and weighs about 13 kg. It needs only a standard UK 3-pin plug socket; power draw is low, similar to a kettle on standby.

Inside the box when it arrives at your venue you'll find:

• The printer itself, in its hard-shell flight case
• The ink cartridge already loaded, with a fresh seal
• A power cable with UK 3-pin plug
• A one-page setup guide for your bar staff
• A pre-paid DPD return label for after the event

The interface is a small touchscreen. We pre-load your designs before shipping, so when your bar staff power it on they see your wedding monogram, your venue silhouette, your company logo (or whatever you've sent) already there as big tappable tiles. No training needed. Anyone serving drinks can use it confidently within five minutes.

The print process, six seconds explained.

Here is exactly what happens at the bar when a guest orders a printed pint:

1. 1. The bartender pours the pint as normal. Guinness ideally needs a 119-second pour for the head to settle correctly. Other drinks just need a proper foamy head.
2. 2. They place the pint into the printer's tray. A sensor inside detects the foam level and adjusts the print head to the right height automatically.
3. 3. Either the bartender or the guest taps the design they want on the touchscreen. If you've enabled guest selfie uploads, the QR code can be scanned and the guest's photo loaded as an option.
4. 4. The print head passes over the foam in a single sweep. Six seconds later, the design is on the pint, sharp and detailed.
5. 5. The bartender lifts the pint out and hands it to the guest. Done.

Throughput in practice runs around 30 to 40 pints per hour at a busy wedding bar. The machine prints faster than that, but real-life bottlenecks are people deciding what design they want and the bartender finishing the pour. Two machines side by side will roughly double that throughput for events where the bar is genuinely running flat out.

What drinks work (and what doesn't).

The rule is simple: anything with a frothy or creamy head works. Anything flat or clear doesn't. Here's the full breakdown:

Drinks the printer loves

• Guinness and stout, the classic. Thick, creamy head, prints beautifully, holds the design for 15-20 minutes.
• Espresso martinis, the second favourite. The cocoa-toned crema makes the sepia print look like a piece of art.
• Cocktails with foam tops, sours, fizzes, gin foams, anything topped with egg-white or aquafaba foam.
• Cappuccinos, lattes, flat whites, milk foam works perfectly. Latte art with a printed logo on top reads especially well at corporate events.
• Hot chocolate, Bailey's-topped drinks, the cream and foam holds the print just like a Guinness would.

Drinks the printer can't handle

• Lager and pale ale, the head dissipates within seconds, too fast for the print to settle.
• Wine, prosecco, Champagne, no foam, nowhere for the ink to land.
• Cider, mixers, juice, flat surface, no print.
• Spirits served neat or on the rocks, same problem.

If your event mostly serves lager, we'd suggest having one stout option on the bar specifically for the printed pint experience. Or pivot to the espresso martini, which works as well as Guinness and often goes down better with non-stout-drinkers anyway.

The hire process end to end.

From your first enquiry to your damage deposit being refunded, here's exactly how booking and running a Pint Printers event flows:

Designing for foam.

The single best thing you can do to make your printed pints look good is to design for the medium. Foam isn't a sheet of paper. Three principles:

1. Bold, simple shapes win

Wedding monograms, single-letter initials, bold sans or serif typography, line illustrations, family crests, simple silhouettes, these all reproduce beautifully. Fine detail can be too delicate against the natural texture of the foam.

2. High contrast, single-tone

The ink lands as a dark sepia on cream foam. There's only one "colour" to work with. Designs that already work in a single dark tone (black-on-white logos, ink illustrations) translate directly. Multi-colour designs can be sent and we'll convert them, but consider that step in advance.

3. Big enough to read

Send files at least 1000 pixels wide. PNGs with transparent backgrounds work best so we can position cleanly on the foam. Small text under about 30 pixels tall tends to read mushy, keep wording short and chunky.

If you're not sure whether your design will work, send it over before booking. We'll tell you honestly if it needs tweaking, and we can often help you tidy it up before the event.

Costs and what's included.

We have three pricing tiers per event type:

• Parties, from £395 per event (Essential / Premium / All-out packages with 200, 400 or 600 prints)
• Weddings, from £495 per event (same package structure)
• Corporate, from £750 per event (same package structure)

Every booking includes the machine itself, loading up to six designs you supply, a fresh ink cartridge, tracked DPD delivery, a pre-paid DPD return label, and full setup instructions for your venue. The £300 damage deposit is held separately and refunded after a clean return.

There are no hidden costs. The quote you receive is the quote you pay.

A note on where we sit in the market.

Two questions come up enough that they're worth answering directly. Is this the same as Guinness Stoutie? No, Stoutie is Guinness's own in-pub feature where a participating bartender prints your face onto the foam at a select few Guinness venues. The Pint Printers is different: we ship our machine to your event, you load whatever designs you want, and we print on Guinness, on stout, on espresso martinis, on cocktails, on coffee. Stoutie is a Guinness-only feature in specific pubs. We're a hireable creative tool for your own event.

And how is this different from a regular photo booth? A photo booth makes prints on paper that guests take home. We make prints on the drink itself. The pint becomes the photo. The bar queue becomes the photo booth. Guests still take photos, but the photos they take are of their printed pint, which is then shared on Instagram, which is then seen by everyone they know. The marketing pays for itself.