Responding to a challenge from St Bernard’s Catholic High School in Barrow, Cumbria, one of its 30-or-so school clients, it printed prime numbers and equations on Aslan DFP 46 floor graphic vinyl, which was over-laminated for extra protection and then stuck on the risers of 39 stairs leading up to classrooms.

St Bernard’s will soon become an academy and wanted to better use its space for learning.

Business manager Maureen McKendry said: “We were looking at signage across the whole school and decided that this was an innovative opportunity and a form of tangential learning. There are a thousand pairs of feet passing the 39 steps daily and with the help of H&H Reeds Printers we’ve turned each one into another learning opportunity."

The job was completed using water-based latex inks on the company’s HP360 wide format printer.

H&H print sales executive Toni Hall said it was the first staircase the company had been asked to provide signage for.

“We thought it was an interesting job, something a bit different. It’s a product that people don’t know we do. We pride ourselves in being able to produce signage for spaces and products of all kinds.

“During the last three to four years we have diversified into wide-format print, making jobs like these steps possible and giving us the opportunity to offer a larger range of services to already existing customers.”

H&H Reeds, which has three sites in Penrith, Carlisle and Milnthorpe and employs 50 people, also runs two Heidelbergs, a B2 SM74 and a B2 XL75.

As well as more usual commercial print, H&H Reeds prints prospectuses, banners and promotional items such as pens for the schools it services.