The magazine's UK design team is working closely with the repro house on the project and around 150 dummy copies have already been produced on a Xerox iGen3 ahead of the 2 April 2009 launch.

Docklands-based Altaimage, which already handles pre-press for the property sections of GQ, House & Garden, Tatler and Vogue for Condé Nast, will handle retouching and pre-press work on an ongoing basis from the April 2009 UK launch of Wired.

The UK version is expected to have an initial circulation of around 50,000 but some 150,000 copies could be produced for the debut issue.

Altaimage said the 276x203mm magazine would use 80gsm Novapress Silk for the text paper and 170gsm Lumipress Art with matt finish for the cover.

Condé Nast is also expected to ask Altaimage to assist it by providing images and files for the concurrent website launch.

Managing director of the publishing house, Nicholas Coleridge, said: "Wired is the market-leading magazine about how technology is changing the world, that explores ideas and innovation, culture, politics and business, and how technology impacts on contemporary civilisation."

Wired magazine and Wired.com currently reach more than 12m US readers per month.