Printing booklets is one thing we take a lot of pride in at cutpasteandprint. There are a lot of details that go into creating an excellent booklet or catalog. We enjoy perfecting those details and producing great work to help you look fantastic. So if it’s a simple event program, annual yearbook, or a vital business catalog, here are a few key tips for successfully printing booklets.
1. Pages not spreads
When you prepare your booklet project you will often hear is to set up the final version in spreads.
No, We disagree with this.
Why? Because you don’t know our equipment, and when you set up in spreads you are making a lot of decisions that may or may not match our printing equipment.
If you give us individual pages instead, then we have a lot more flexibility with your booklet. We can impose your files to match the needs of our equipment. Not just the press, but all of the various finishing machines we may be using for your project. Besides, as a designer why would you want to be spending a lot your time dealing with things like the space between pages and creep. Honestly, do you even want to know what creep is?
These are the kinds of tasks that are prepress team excels at. Why not hand those tasks off to our team and let them set things up to match our equipment.
2. Multiples of 4
This is something that trips up more designers than you could imagine. When you are setting up a booklet remember that the pages you include have to be in multiples of 4. Otherwise you will end up with blank pages in your booklet.
What does this mean? Well, consider that when you are printing booklets, 2 pages are printed on 1-side of a sheet of paper that will be folded in half. On your cover page for instance, you would have the front and back cover on 1-side, and then the inside front cover and the inside back cover on the other side of that sheet.
4 pages will be printed on a single sheet of paper. And for every 4 pages you add you will need another sheet of paper. If you add another 3 pages you would still need another sheet of paper, but then you would be left with a blank page.
By planning your booklet with pages in multiples of 4, you avoid missing pages right from the beginning.
3. Cover? Or self-cover?
We often use the term self-cover. This means that the same type of paper that you use for your interior pages will be used for the cover of your booklet. This is fairly usual for a lot of casual event programs or catalogs.
In many instances you may want to have a heavier paper for your cover. A cover weight paper for example. This is another option to consider when setting up a booklet. The choices are several, from a colored paper, to a heavy weight gloss, to black and white or color printing.
Remember that compared to a self-cover, a specific paper may increase your costs. This can be as simple as a nicer paper costing more. It can also be that a heavier paper requires more work from a finishing standpoint.
4. Mind the bleed
Because of spacing issues like creep, bleed when printing booklets can be a little tricky. The designer needs to extend the printed image past the final page size, so when the final trimming is done we can avoid problems.
If the bleed isn’t set right, or poorly planned, then you might end up with a thin line of white at the booklet’s outer edge. In the same way, designers need to be careful about placing elements of a design too close to the edge – they could be chopped off in production.
Generally speaking we need 1/8 inch of bleed on all sides, but this can vary depending on the type of booklet you are setting up, and what paper is being used. Bottom line, it’s best to check with your printer to make sure you have the right bleed set up as well as a proper safe zone separating content from the trimmed edge.
5. Dummies are smart
Although we said that we want you to provide us with files that have the pages set on singular pages, it is always a good idea if you also provide a completed dummy of your project. The more you can show what you want the completed booklet too look like the better.
This will ensure that we literally all see exactly what you want. It’s another way of communicating your ideas, and that is paramount when printing booklets, or any print project for that matter.
No matter what your booklet project is for, setting them up for print can be a big project. There are a lot of little details that go into making them great. Hopefully our tips can help you prepare your project.
Of course for more help feel free to stop in and let us help you prepare your booklet.
cutpasteandprint Printing, graphic design, binding, and promotional product specialists in Huntingdon Valley, PA. We proudly serve the Bucks and Montgomery County areas with superior quality, great customer service, and a commitment to getting you and your the best possible printed materials. Our services include: Digital Printing, Offset Printing, Graphic Design, Promotional Items, Bindery, and Copying.
estimating@cutpasteandprint.com • 215.364.3898
