A spec sheet states the facts. A sell sheet makes the case.

A spec sheet, short for specification sheet, is a one page document that states the measured facts about a product: what it is, its dimensions and materials, the performance figures buyers compare on, the standards and certifications it meets, and the part numbers used to order it. Its job is to let somebody decide whether the product fits their application without calling you. It carries no persuasion, and it carries a revision number and a date so a reader knows which version they are holding.

A spec sheet states facts and a sell sheet makes an argument. The spec sheet is written for an engineer, a specifier or a buyer checking fit, and it answers the question will this work in my application. The sell sheet is written for a distributor, a retail buyer or a rep, and it answers the question why should I stock or buy this one. They carry different content, different tone, and usually different sign off: engineering owns the first because a wrong value is a returned order, and sales owns the second because it is a claim rather than a value. Most products need both, and the sell sheet should link to the spec sheet rather than trying to contain it.

In everyday use, yes. Data sheet, product data sheet, technical data sheet, tech sheet and specification sheet all describe the same document, and which term you hear depends on the industry. Cut sheet is the same document again in construction, lighting and plumbing, where it goes into a submittal package. The one real distinction worth keeping is that a safety data sheet is a different, regulated document with a mandated format, and it is never a substitute for a product spec sheet.

One page whenever the values fit on one, and two only when the table is genuinely that long. What matters more than the count is that the page a reader downloads is the current version, which is why a revision number and an issue date belong on every spec sheet and are the field most often missing.

Six things. A headline that is a claim rather than a product name, a photograph of the product doing its job, three benefits each anchored to a fact the spec sheet can prove, one honest proof point, the commercial detail a buyer needs to act (case pack, minimum order, lead time, price position), and one specific ask with a named contact. Three benefits, not six: a sell sheet loses more often to clutter than to weak content.

A line sheet is the wholesale product and price sheet a brand sends a buyer. It covers a whole range rather than one product, one row per style, and it carries the commercial terms, so a buyer can choose what to order and order it without a follow up email. A sell sheet argues for one product; a line sheet lists many and prices them. The rule that matters most on a line sheet is to put the wholesale price and the suggested retail price on the same row, because the buyer is working out their margin and a sheet that makes them do it elsewhere loses to one that does not.

No, and they get filed together constantly. A line sheet is a brand showing a buyer what it sells and at what price. A line card is a distributor listing the manufacturers it represents, so a customer can see which brands it can supply. Different author, different reader, different job.

A line card is the one page document a distributor uses to show which manufacturers it is authorised to represent and what it carries from each of them. It answers a single question for a buyer, which is whether you can get them a particular brand, and it is usually the first thing handed over at a counter, a trade show or a first meeting. It is a capability document rather than a quotation, so it carries no prices, and it carries the territory you are authorised in, because distribution rights are geographic and a card forwarded outside your area produces a call you have to turn down.

Your own name, logo and one line saying what kind of distributor you are. The territory you are authorised in. Each manufacturer by its real name, grouped so the list can be scanned, with two or three words beside each naming the product families you actually stock rather than every part number. Whether you are an authorised distributor, a stocking distributor or a rep, per line. The markets you serve. Your value added services, meaning kitting, cutting, fabrication, calibration, next day, consignment. Certifications that let you sell into regulated work. One named contact with a direct number. And an issue date, because lines get added and dropped and an old card sends business to somebody else.

Usually one of four things, and none of them is design. Every manufacturer is set at the same size, so the card is a hierarchy pretending to be a list and a buyer cannot tell what you are good at. The logos carry no product families beside them, so a buyer who knows the brand still does not know which part of it you stock. There is no issue date and at least one line is out of date, which is the most common failure because a line card is printed, handed over and kept. Or there is no territory on it, so it gets forwarded out of your area.

Send both, and lead with the sell sheet. A distributor is deciding whether to carry the line, which is a commercial decision, so the sell sheet is the document that answers them. Their technical people, their installers and their own customers will then want the spec sheet, so it should be attached or one click away rather than promised in a follow up.

No, and the design mistakes that actually cost you are not the ones a designer is hired to fix. A spec sheet fails on a missing unit, a missing revision or a value nobody can source, and a sell sheet fails on six benefits where three would do. Get those right in plain text first. What design buys you after that is real and worth having, which is that a sheet in your own colours, type and logo reads as a company rather than as a template.

You paste your website address and it reads the real colours, fonts and logo off your own pages, then lays the sheet out in them as a PDF you can download and send or publish as a LinkedIn document post. You supply every figure. It will not invent a dimension, a rating, a certification or a lead time, which is the only safe way to generate a document somebody is going to order from. For a catalogue of hundreds of parts, keep the values in your own product data system and use Blendin for the presentation layer rather than as the source of truth.