"Print-ready" and "printed" are not the same sentence. A design can be approved and perfect on screen and still be days away from existing as a physical object an actor can hold. On a shoot, that gap is where things go wrong - so it's worth understanding what actually happens between the file and the prop.
Lead times are real
Specialty stock has to be sourced. Certain finishes - foil, emboss, specific weights, uncoated period papers - take time and sometimes a minimum order. Aging and distressing a document by hand adds another pass. None of this is slow exactly, but it isn't instant, and it doesn't compress well the closer you get to the shoot day.
The August problem
In Greece specifically, a lot of print and finishing suppliers wind down or close around mid-August. If your shoot lands in that window, the network you're relying on is thinner than usual. It's an easy thing to plan around once you know it's there - and an expensive surprise if you don't.
Always print extras
Hero documents get crumpled, stained, signed, torn and reprinted across takes. A single perfect copy is a liability. Quantities should account for handling, multiple setups, and the reshoot nobody's planning for - it's far cheaper to print ten than to re-run a job at midnight.
Same-day changes and remote delivery
When a name changes on the day or a date needs to move, a local print network is the difference between a reprint by lunch and a problem that follows you home. For productions shooting in Greece, that's handled end to end through an Athens supplier network. For everyone else, the files travel instead - print-ready PDFs and layered source delivered to whatever the pipeline needs.
Print is unglamorous and easy to leave late. Treating it as a lead-time item, the same way you'd treat a build or a costume, is what keeps the hero prop on the table when the camera turns over.