Our top tips to create the perfect booklet

Booklet printing is a great printing vehicle if you want to produce catalogues, magazines or even small books. When producing your PDF to submit to your printer to produce your booklets, there are some aspects that you need to consider:

• Think about page counts – both front and back of each page
• Binding options can be determined by the size of booklet
• Heavier paper types can lift quality but are not suitable for large page counts
• Don’t ignore the front and back covers
• Get the technical setup of your print files correct

Page counts – binding and booklet types will determine min and max

When booklet printing it is important to understand and consider the page counts. Firstly, remember to include both the front and back covers in the number of pages for your booklet, along with any ‘inner’ side of the covers.

When numbering for printing consider the front cover to be Page 1 – any printed inside of the front cover would be Page 2 and numerically increasing from there. Depending upon the type of binding you have selected for your booklet, there are different minimum and maximum pages to consider – saddle stitched bound booklets should consist of page numbers that are multiples of 4 with a minimum 4 pages up to a maximum of 128 pages.

Be aware that these page totals refer to printed sides of paper not individual leaves – for example, if your booklet contains 20 printed sides (using both sides of an individual sheet) then that would constitute 12 pages (10 double sided printed pages plus the front and back cover).

Choose your binding – the size of booklet can determine this

 There are a couple of binding options to consider for your booklet printing. The typical size of a booklet will be between 4 and 128 pages and will normally be soft covered with saddle stitched binding. If your booklet is to contain a greater number of pages than 128, then you should perhaps consider a paperback binding as a more suitable alternative.

The difference between the two is, with a saddle stitched binding the sections of your printed booklet are inserted inside each other and secured with wire staples through the middle fold – with a paperback binding, the pages are bound together and secured to the booklet spine with an appropriate adhesive.

Paper types – heavier papers provide a higher quality

There are also different paper types for you to choose from when producing your printed booklet and a couple of aspects to consider. Heavier paper will, generally, provide a higher quality finish – however, you must weigh that up against the number of pages your booklet is to contain. The heavier paper is thicker and can, therefore, potentially cause a problem in keeping the booklet closed if you have too many pages! It

is recommended that you select a paper type of 120 or 130gsm if your booklet is to contain more than 60 pages. The finish of your paper type is also important – white plain paper has a matt finish and a bright appearance, whilst white satin paper has a slight sheen and sometimes a tinge of yellow.

Front and back covers – these can often be overlooked

As mentioned earlier, both the front and back covers of your booklet need to be considered. They should be included in your overall page count and will be the first and last pages of your document. Consider the content of your first printed content page and whether you want that to appear on the inside of the front cover – if you do not, then remember to insert a blank page as page number 2. The same consideration applies to the back cover and the final page before that.

Margins, crop marks and bleed – get the more technical print aspects correct

Other printing aspects such as margins, crop marks and bleed are important – a minimum margin of 3mm is required for booklets (to prevent your content from being cut when binding) so you are advised to leave a margin of 5mm for a cleaner, more professional look. The crop marks indicate to the printer where you want your booklet’s pages trimmed – you do not need to add theses crop marks as the printing software will cater for these along with any ‘bleed’, once you have uploaded your document.

Print2Demand

We are an all round UK book manufacturing and printing service. We work closely with publishers, self publishers and authors. We have a state of the art factory, complemented by our sales and marketing office in Westoning, Bedfordshire. We have invested in the very latest digital and litho printing technology, to integrate with a fully equipped craftsman bindery.  The conclusion of which means we are offering both softback and hardback books, to a very high standard of quality.

Order your book printing online or contact our team for more information.