Post-it® Notes, Custom (3" x 3")

Custom Post-it® brand notes are one of the few promotional print pieces that customers actually keep, use, and reach for every day at their desk. When the notes are real 3M Post-it® brand product — not a sticky-note knockoff — your logo travels with the adhesive that built the category. Captain Notepad is an authorized 3M dealer that designs, proofs, and manages every custom Post-it® brand order out of our Denver, Colorado facility, while 3M handles the printing and ships the finished pads directly to your door. This page covers the 3" × 3" format, the most-ordered size in the line, in both 25-sheet and 50-sheet pad options.

Why Real Post-it® Brand Notes Beat Generic Sticky Notes

"Sticky notes" and "Post-it® notes" are not the same product. Generic sticky-note substitutes use cheaper adhesive compounds that either fall off within a few hours or leave residue when removed. Genuine Post-it® brand notes use the original repositionable adhesive that 3M developed in 1968 — the formula that lifts cleanly, sticks again, and re-positions multiple times without tearing the underlying page. For client gifts, trade-show giveaways, and office-wide rollouts where the brand recognition of the Post-it® name and the reliability of the adhesive both matter, the real 3M product is the right call.

Captain Notepad is in the 3M Promotional Markets / Post-it® Custom Notes Program. That dealer relationship is what makes the pads on this page genuine 3M product — not lookalikes printed on lower-grade adhesive paper at a regional sticky-note shop. The custom imprint runs in full process color (CMYK 4/0) across every sheet of every pad in your order, on the same notepaper 3M has manufactured under the Post-it® name since 1980.

How to Order Custom 3" × 3" Post-it® Notes from Captain Notepad

Here is what happens after you place a custom Post-it® brand order with Captain Notepad. Each step has a clear owner so you always know where the order sits.

1. Order intake and quantity selection. Pick 25-sheet or 50-sheet pads on this page, choose your pad quantity from the 250–5,000 range, and add the order to your cart. Captain Notepad's customer service team in Denver picks up the order from there.
2. Custom design and proofing. Our in-house art team in Denver, Colorado lays out your logo, tagline, and contact block to the 3M-published 3" × 3" Post-it® bleed and safe-area specs, then sends you a digital proof for written approval. Design assistance is free with every order.
3. File submission to 3M. Once you approve the proof, Captain Notepad submits the print-ready file to 3M through the 3M Promotional Markets / Post-it® Custom Notes Program. This kicks off 3M's production clock.
4. 3M production, packaging, and drop-ship. 3M prints your pads at their manufacturing facility, packages them, and drop-ships the finished order directly to your shipping address. Captain Notepad does not physically handle the finished pads at any point in the chain.
5. Customer service and order support. Throughout the order, Captain Notepad handles questions, change requests, and timeline updates. After delivery, our team in Denver is your point of contact for any reorder, follow-on artwork change, or new size in the Post-it® brand catalog.

25-Sheet vs. 50-Sheet Pads: Which Should You Choose?

Both pad counts use the same 3" × 3" cut size, the same full-color CMYK print, and the same genuine Post-it® brand notepaper. The choice between 25 sheets and 50 sheets is about desk life and per-piece economics, not quality.

• 25 sheets per pad — the standard giveaway and trade-show handout format. Runs $0.29–$0.36 per pad depending on quantity. Best when you are giving the pad away as a brand impression at an event or in a welcome kit.
• 50 sheets per pad — the deeper-pad executive format. Runs $0.51–$0.63 per pad depending on quantity. Best when the recipient is a long-term client, the pad is going onto a desk for daily use, and you want twice the on-pad lifespan per impression.

Many of our small-business buyers split a single Post-it® brand order across both sheet counts: 25-sheet pads for trade-show booths and walk-up giveaways, 50-sheet pads for top-tier client gifts and in-office deployment. If you want help structuring a split-quantity order across the two formats, contact our team and we will quote it together.

Design Guidelines & Artwork Help

The 3" × 3" Post-it® brand format has clean, well-documented design specs. Build your file once and it prints cleanly on every pad in the run.

• Final cut size: 3.00" × 3.00"
• Document size with bleed: 3.25" × 3.25" (0.125" bleed on every edge)
• Safe area: keep critical text, logos, and contact information at least 0.125" inside the cut line so nothing is trimmed
• Color mode: CMYK 4/0 (full-color, single-sided)
• Preferred file formats: vector AI, EPS, PDF, or SVG; high-resolution raster files at 300 dpi or higher in PNG, JPG, or TIFF are also accepted
• Free design assistance: our in-house art team in Denver will redraw a low-resolution logo, build a layout from your brand assets, or design the pad from scratch — no design fee, no setup fee

Our team checks every file against the current 3M print specs before submitting the order. If something will not print cleanly — a thin line, a tight registration, a color that will not hold on the Post-it® stock — we flag it on the digital proof and recommend the fix before anything goes to 3M. No proof is sent to print without your approval.

Pricing, Quantities & Turnaround

Full price ladder for the 3" × 3" Post-it® brand format, both sheet counts. The 250-pad minimum runs $90.00 at 25 sheets or $156.94 at 50 sheets. Pricing scales down per pad as quantity goes up.

Standard timeline: 9–14 business days from approved proof to your door. That breaks into two phases — 3M production runs 7–9 business days from print-ready file submission, then 3M drop-ships the finished pads directly to you in 2–5 business days of transit. Add 1–2 business days up front for proof creation if we are designing your file from scratch.

Rush option: 3M offers a 24-hour rush production option through the Post-it® Custom Notes Program for an additional fee, subject to file readiness, order quantity, and artwork complexity. Contact Captain Notepad to inquire about rush pricing and confirm rush availability for your specific order.

Custom Post-it® brand notes are one piece of a broader catalog. If you are building a complete branded kit, you can pair this size with our full custom notepads line, our wider sticky notepads catalog, our die-cut sticky notepads for non-standard shapes, or our 3×3 full-color notepads if you want the same footprint at a different price point. For background on why these sit on desks for so long, see our posts on 8 ways custom sticky notes boost productivity and how to build brand identity with custom sticky notes.