Import/export function and creating and managing your own papers

📄 Manage materials / papers

In the admin area under Materials / Papers, you can create, edit, duplicate or delete individual paper types. You can also search for existing papers.

🔧 You can define the following parameters:

Form: Sheet, roll, envelope, piece
Type: Paper, cardboard, plastic, foil, metal, wood, cloth
Name: A name of your choice
Category: E.g. matte coated paper, gloss coated paper, uncoated paper, etc.
Environmental certification: Select from available certifications
Grammage: In g/m²
Width: In millimeters
Height: In millimeters
Grain direction: None, short grain or long grain
Surface treatment: Coated, uncoated, primed, etc.
Surface color: E.g. red, blue, chamois
Surface texture: E.g. satin, embossed
Order number: Can be adjusted later when defining prices

⚠️ Important information about grain direction:

Please make sure you enter the grain direction correctly:

1020 × 700 mm = short grain
700 × 1020 mm = long grain

Only a correct entry allows Keyline to identify the grain direction properly and calculate the optimal number of items from the raw sheet.

📥 Import materials

To import several materials at once, we recommend the following process:

First, export an existing list.
Select the supplier and material category you want.
Keyline creates an Excel list that you can download and edit directly.
Adjust prices or add new materials and packaging units.
You can then import the edited list back into Keyline – including an automatic sample check.

✅ Check the import

Before you finalize the import:

Look closely at the samples:
Are the prices correct?
Are the materials and papers named correctly?

If everything looks right, you can complete the import – the data will then be available in the system immediately.

🧪 Demo data & recommendations for data maintenance

Your demo account already contains some sample papers and materials, so you can start an export at any time and work with real example data.

We strongly recommend importing as little as possible, but as much as necessary. Many suppliers provide lists with more than 20,000 price components – in practice, that is usually not helpful.

Our motto: Less is more.

A well-maintained, clean system with a clear structure and good data hygiene is more valuable than an overloaded system full of unnecessary data.

📊 Explanation of the most important columns

Column
1	Substrate form	Text	Form of the printable substrate	Allowed values: "sheet", "roll", "envelope", "piece"
2	Substrate type	Text	Type of printable substrate	Allowed values: "paper", "carton", "plastic", "foil", "metal", "wood", "cloth"
3	Paper name	Text	The paper’s name without additional information	Example: "MultiArt Silk"
4	Category	Text	The paper’s product category. Multiple categories can be separated by commas	Examples: "Photo paper", "High-gloss paper", "Matte"
5	Width in mm	Integer [mm]	For short-grain paper, the width is the dimension across the grain. For long-grain paper, it is the dimension parallel to the grain.	Example: 1000
6	Length in mm	Integer [mm]	For short-grain paper, the height is the dimension parallel to the grain. For long-grain paper, it is the dimension across the grain.	Example: 700
7	Paper thickness in µm	Integer [µm] `optional`	Paper thickness in micrometers	Example: 150
8	Grammage in g/m²	Integer [g/m²]	Paper weight in grams per square meter	Example: 150
9	Grain direction	Text `optional`	The paper’s grain direction	Allowed values: "Breitbahn", "Schmalbahn", "short", "long", "SB", "sb", "BB", "bb"
10	Surface color	Text `optional`	The color of the paper surface	Examples: "white", "ivory"
11	Surface texture	Text `optional`	The type of paper surface	Examples: "matte coated", "gloss coated", "glossy", "elephant skin"
12	Environmental certification	Text `optional`	The type of environmental certification of the paper	Allowed values: See below
13	Color saturation	Floating-point number [0..1] `optional`	Color saturation as a percentage between 0 and 1	Example: 0.24 (for 24%)
14	Coated	Boolean	Yes, if the paper is coated	Allowed values: j, y, n, 0, 1
15	Item no.	Text	The order number of the paper / sales unit	Example: "ABD938832"
16	Sales quantity / SKU	Integer	The sales quantity to which the price in this row applies.	Examples: 1, 1000
17	Price of sales quantity	Floating-point number	The price of the sales quantity in the preceding column, in the print shop’s currency.	Examples: 0.3232, 1932.21
18	Pre-cut	Boolean `optional`	Yes, if the paper is cut before delivery; otherwise No.	Allowed values: j, y, n, 0, 1
19	Sales quantity unit	Text `optional`	Specifies the sales quantity unit. If this column is empty, the unit is implicitly derived from the `Substrate form` column as follows:Entry in `Substrate form` columnSales quantity unit`sheet`Sheet`roll`Meter`envelope`Piece`piece`Piece	Allowed values: "sheet", "m", "sqm", "piece", "kg"
20	Tier quantity	Integer `optional`	Specifies the minimum order quantity to which the price under `Price of sales quantity` applies. For a tier quantity of 100, for example, at least 100 of the `Tier quantity unit` must be ordered for that price to apply.	Example: 10, 500, 10499
21	Tier quantity unit	Text `optional`	Specifies the unit used for the tier quantity. For example, the tier quantity unit can be “Sheet” (`sheet`) while the price is given in a weight unit. If this column is empty, the implicitly determined sales quantity unit is used (see the `Sales quantity unit` column). If a paper is available unreamed in certain tiers, enter `*_noream` in this column for those tiers. Otherwise, the paper is considered reamed. This also means that at least two tiers must be specified if a paper is available both reamed and unreamed.	Allowed values: "sheet", "m", "sqm", "piece", "kg", "sheet_noream", "kg_noream", "sqm_noream"
22	Broken ream	Boolean `optional`	If this column is set to `j`, `y` or `1`, less than one ream (i.e. less than one packaging unit) of this paper can be ordered.	Allowed values: j, y, n, 0, 1
23	Order increment	Integer `optional`	Specifies the interval between two valid order quantities. For example, if the order increment is `1000`, paper can only be ordered in quantities of 1000, not 1500. If no order increment is specified, it implicitly matches the value in the `Sales quantity` column. An exception applies if the `Sales quantity unit` column specifies a unit that allows unreamed order quantities, i.e. increments of 1. Valid order quantities depend on both the tier quantity and the order increment. The tier quantity specifies the minimum order quantity. The next order intervals are calculated by addition (`Tier quantity + (n * Order increment)` for integer n). The order increment unit always matches the `Tier quantity unit`.
24	Delivery time in working days	Integer `optional`	Indicates the material’s expected arrival after ordering	Allowed values in days: e.g. 2

Allowed values for column 12 Environmental certification:

FSC 30%	FSC 50%	FSC 70%	FSC 80%
FSC 100%	FSC Mix Credit	FSC Mix 30%	FSC Mix 50%
FSC Mix 70%	FSC Mix 80%	FSC Recycled Credit	FSC Recycled 30%
FSC Recycled 50%	FSC Recycled 60%	FSC Recycled 70%	FSC Recycled 75%
FSC Recycled 80%	FSC Recycled 85%	FSC Recycled 95%	FSC Recycled 100%
PEFC 70%	PEFC 75%	PEFC 80%	PEFC 95%
PEFC 100%

🗑️ Remove materials automatically

If this option is enabled, all materials in the same category and from the same supplier are deleted (including the associated papers and colors defined in the admin area) if they

are not part of the current import,

have no stock and

have no prices from other suppliers saved.