The Ultimate Guide to Booklet Printing « Back to list
Even in today’s digital age, printed booklets remain an important, popular and highly effective way to promote businesses, events, products and services. People are much more willing to browse or read a printed booklet than they are to spend similar time reading content online. Printed booklets can be read anywhere and at a time that suits the reader or customer. That’s one reason why printed booklets continue to make up a large percentage of our marketing.
Whether you’re producing an event programme, information booklet, magazine, reference book or even a novel, booklet printing is the perfect way to get your message out.
There are more types of booklet printing than many people realise, so we’ve created the ultimate guide to booklet printing to help you choose the best kind for your project.
What can you use booklet printing for?
Booklet printing is a way to produce any book, magazine or document from eight to 700 printed pages in length. Depending on the method you can have your booklet as small as 120x120mm or as large as A3. There are three types of binding widely used in booklet printing and each has its own unique advantages.
Saddle stitched booklets
With saddle stitched books the pages are bound together with staples (or wires) along the folded spine. Saddle stitched booklets look highly professional at a low cost, making them a consistently popular choice with our customers. If your booklet is over 40 pages in length we’ll square off the spine to give an even better finish and stop your booklet springing open.
Uses include:
Brochures, catalogues, event programmes, newsletters and information booklets.
Pages
Saddle stitched booklets are perfect for any document of between eight and 64 pages in length.
Booklet size
There are 11 different sizes for your booklet, ranging from 120mm square to A4 and including square, portrait and landscape formats. See the full range of sizes for saddle stitched books here.
Hints and tips
Most customers use around 150gsm for the internal pages and 250gsm for the cover with lamination on the outside. However, we’d recommend 130gsm for your internal pages if your booklet is over 28 pages long.
Remember that saddle stitched booklets are made from folded spreads. Each spread is folded to make four printed pages, so the final number of pages must be divisible by four.
Supply your artwork as a multi-page pdf saved as single pages going in sequence from your cover (page one) to the end of your book and including any blank pages where they’ll appear in the finished book
Special offer on saddle stitched booklets
This month our saddle stitched booklets are even better value with 10% off*. Go to www.DigitalPrinting.co.uk and click for a quote to see how much you can save!
Perfect bound books
Perfect bound books consist of single leaves that are stacked in a squared-off block, then glued together along the rear edge of the pages. The cover is then wrapped around and bonded to the spine. We use a very strong and flexible PUR adhesive which is tolerant to extreme temperatures. This means your book can be opened more fully without the spine cracking or the pages becoming loose or falling out.
Perfect binding produces professional books or documents that close completely flat and we print on the spine too, so they’re perfect for display as well as stacking.
Uses include:
Annual or company reports, brochures, magazines, educational texts, reference books and novels.
Pages
A great advantage of perfect bound books is that they can be used for any book or document from 28 pages in length right up to 700 pages. Everything from magazines to best-selling novels are perfect bound.
Page size
Perfect bound books come in the same eleven sizes as saddle stitched booklets, ranging from 120mm x 120mm up to A4.
Hints and tips
Because the cover and inner pages are produced separately, you’ll need to supply one pdf for the inside covers and one for the internal pages. Save the cover as a flat spread with spine and the internal pages as a multi-page pdf saved as single pages in running order. Perfect bound books don’t open completely flat so on your artwork, leave a safe area of at least 12mm between text and the inside of each page next to where it will be bound.
Wiro Bound
With wiro binding, single leaves are stacked and hole-punched along the left or top edge. Wire is then fed through the holes, binding the pages together. Wiro bound books have the advantage of opening completely flat or folding all the way back around. This makes them ideal for instruction manuals or any documents that need to be read while leaving the hands free for another task.
Uses include:
Recipe books, instruction manuals, presentation documents, teaching aids, company reports.
Pages
You can have up to 360 printed pages (180 leaves printed on both sides) with a minimum of four leaves.
Sizes
Wiro bound books come in five sizes: 1/3 A4, A5, 210mm square, A4 and A3 landscape
Hints and tips
As with perfect bound, pages in wiro bound books need a safe area of 12mm at the bound edge. Supply your artwork as one multi-page pdf saved as single pages from the cover to the back and including any blank pages. You can laminate your cover or add a clear acetate cover for extra protection.
Chosen you booklet? Pick a paper!
Whatever you decide for your new printed booklet you have a great choice of paper types and weights from our extensive range.
Standard premium paper comes in three finishes: uncoated, silk and gloss. Paper weights range from 100gsm- 350gsm. Check out our website to see all the options for papers types and finishes along with recommendations from our team.
If your booklet is wiro bound or saddle stitched you can also choose from our stunning range of luxury papers. There are metallic effect and pearlescent papers which give off a beautiful sheen.
We also offer textured and embossed papers including linen effect, laid, hammer or felt effect. The look and feel of these luxury papers really take your booklets to another level so ask to see a sample pack – we’re sure you’ll be impressed.
We’re also big on green printing. That’s why we also offer recycled papers, recycle 99% of anything that can be used again and endeavor to use only paper from responsibly managed forests. All of the papers we offer in our booklet printing are recyclable with the exception of anything that has lamination on it.
Your booklet professionally printed at a great price
Whatever type of booklet you choose you can be sure of great value for money and of the exceptional print quality all our customers enjoy. Our Indigo Digital Presses produce rich, beautiful colours and superb image reproduction so your printed booklet will look exactly as you want it.
Our website is easy to use and allows you to choose your specification, get an instant quote, upload your artwork and order your job online. And don’t forget that if saddle stitched is your preferred type of printed booklet we’re offering 10% off* all month, so order today and save even more.
For more information on getting your new printed booklet visit www.DigitalPrinting.co.uk today!
