BOOKLETS
A booklet contains promotional materials like a brochure does, just more of it! Booklets are a resource for your potential or existing customers, designed to relay detailed information. It is used for promotion or to give the reader an outline of a program. It is also a practical source of facts, news, and instructions.
A booklet can hold a sizeable amount of information, which makes it more practical to use than a brochure or pamphlet. Companies that make use of booklets often share more than just brief summaries, but rather share information, facts, and even images that would be both informative and engaging to the reader.
Booklets are typically used by businesses and large corporations to showcase the importance and benefits of the products and services they offer. This is a form of communication that is designed to address the needs of prospective clients. Booklets, like leaflets and brochures, are quite easy to distribute. These could be shared through email, distributed at events, or displayed in stores and offices.
From real estate to academia and food & beverage companies, many industries have used booklets for engaging with their customers on a more informative level, building brand recognition and converting prospective customers into sales. |
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PAPER QUALITY
The paper quality of your booklet speaks volumes in the hands of your customers. It allows them to see and feel firsthand your dedication to quality, attention to detail and creativity. This is why at Direction Printing we don’t cut corners when it comes to paper.
A booklet is similar in binding to a book (hence the name). And just like a big book, a booklet is bound, rather than folded. Typically, they have higher quality paper than brochures and more durable binding.
Below you can find additional information on the variety of paper options available for your print project. For a custom approach or a more unique quality, send us an email and we will work together to ensure your creative vision comes to life.
Just as the number of pages could impact the type of booklet you print, the paper could as well. Cover stocks are sturdier and thicker while text stocks are lighter and thinner. This is very important to know, especially if you’re printing a book with a saddle stitch binding.
There is a limit to how many sheets the saddle stitch booklet can contain before you need to consider moving up to a spiral coil or wire coil booklet.
With cover weight stock for both cover and interior pages, the maximum page count is 16.
With 100# text weight for interior pages, the booklet can be a maximum of 60 pages.
With 80# text weight for interior pages, the booklet can be a maximum of 64 pages.
GLOSS vs. MATTE vs. UNCOATED
Each paper type comes in either gloss, matte or uncoated. The paper can be either coated or uncoated. Uncoated paper is non-reflective like printer paper. Coated paper has a matte or gloss finish. Matte stocks are smoother and more refined than uncoated, but not shiny like gloss paper. The coated paper produces sharper and more vibrant printing.
Gloss paper has a shiny and lustrous smooth-coated gloss finish. Excellent for making colour printing pop and catching your customer’s attention. Gloss-coated paper is commonly used to convey professionalism, and the coating results in rich colours that make images and photographs really stand out. Catalogues, magazines, and programs are good examples of projects best printed on gloss paper.
Matte paper exhibits more of a diffused sheen that enhances the contrast of photographs and provides a smoother look than uncoated paper. This makes matte paper an excellent choice for jobs that require high-quality colour reproduction without the reflective shine that comes with gloss paper. Matte paper is glare-free, making it easier to read when there is a lot of typed copy. It is superior to those uncoated papers. Matte paper is a popular choice for art books, look books, photo books and other projects that require a subtler shine. Photos of people and other flesh-toned images really stand out on matte paper since there is less reflection.
Uncoated paper has no coating applied and is a higher grade of paper than normal copy paper. The uncoated paper delivers perfectly printed pieces with stunningly sharp images and bright, compelling photos. It is easy to write on and a popular choice for journals, colouring books, manuals, workbooks, or other materials that are filled with mostly text.
BINDING
Saddle-Stitched Binding
Saddle-stitched binding is two staples nested in the spine of the folded piece, securing the sheets together. It can go along the left edge or on top, depending on how the project is planned out. Saddle-stitched booklets can lie flat and stay open when you are flipping through the pages, making them easier to read. Saddle-stitched binding is our most inexpensive yet professional form of binding. Saddle-stitching is commonly used to bind everything from calendars, magazines, colouring books, programs and more. If your booklet has 8 to 92 pages, this will be the most economical choice to make. If your booklet has a larger page count, we recommend changing your binding type to perfect, spiral or wire.
Perfect Binding
Perfect binding is sheets of paper held together by glue attaching the inside sheets of a book to the cover. This type of bind creates an attractive square spine for a polished look. With perfect binding, you can print on the spine and the booklets will not lie flat when open. The minimum page count for a perfectly bound booklet is 28 pages. Keep in mind that while perfect binding has its place, it can be slightly more expensive than saddle-stitch binding.
POTENTIAL PROMOTIONAL USES
Over the last couple of years, booklet printing has seen a resurgence. This is because of a variety of factors like the over-saturation of digital marketing, the ability to showcase brand identity and creativity, and, the most important factor, their effectiveness.
Each kind of booklet has its own unique use and since we have spent years printing promotional materials for our customers, we have come to learn a few tricks of the trade about what works best depending on the industry.
Booklets are used by businesses and individuals to showcase their brands, promote a specific product (think new condo development), highlight upcoming events or courses and more.
Below are examples of industries that most benefit from a well-designed booklet.
Real Estate - Real estate developers use booklets to showcase and “pre-sell” upcoming condo buildings. By inspiring the customers or investors with all the features of the building, the neighbourhood, and the amenities, it entices them to reserve a unit for themselves.
Educational and Academia - Universities and colleges often use booklets to highlight programs for an upcoming school year. These booklets are distributed to potential students to motivate them to apply.
Corporate Businesses (Insurance, etc) - Many corporate businesses utilize booklets to promote company culture, services, and new campaigns.
Food & Beverage - Food & Beverage businesses, such as the LCBO, use booklets to highlight various delicious food and drink pairings. This inspires the customers to try out new recipes and entices them to purchase the various accompanying beverages for the full dining experience.
Entertainment - When attending a music concert, opera, theatre performance, or art display, a program booklet is usually distributed to its guests. A reader may find various information pertaining to the event they are in attendance. This typically would include a list of the compositions and their composers, the names of the stage actors, and an outline of the program.
FURTHER HELPFUL INFORMATION
There is so much to consider when designing your booklet. How will the customer engage with the content? Is the content sufficiently clear yet also informative and fun? How to create a booklet that motivates the customer to follow a call-to-action rather than toss it in the recycling bin? How to ensure that the brand is presented well? On and on. At Direction Printing, we have put our heads together to come up with a few important tips and tricks — think of them as your pre-printing checklist — to ensure that your booklet stands out in the hands of your customers.
One challenge in designing booklets is creating a thoughtful layout without crowding the copy and images. You should maximize space, but also position the design elements for a visually appealing experience. Some other things to consider are the fonts used and the text alignment in your brochure.
Fonts:
Choose easy-to-read fonts (i.e., Garamond, Helvetica, Times New Roman, or Century).
Use a sans serif font, such as Arial, for captions or small type.
Limit your font choices. Using more than two types of fonts will make your brochure messy, unprofessional, or playful.
Use highlighting techniques – bold, italic, and bigger font size — instead of varying font styles.
Use a bigger text size for headlines and calls to action. Although not always, font size can be relevant to the importance of information.
Choose font sizes that are proportionate to the size of your brochures. To help you decide on the font size, assess how many words you want to fill the space with.
Use a 12-point font for the body, 10-point font for captions, and a 14- to 22-point font for headlines. These are recommended sizes, but your choices will depend on the overall look of your design.
Text Alignment:
Avoid putting borders on your paragraphs unless needed.
Align design elements — headers, images, and text — properly.
Make spacing consistent throughout your design. Remember to leave some white space on your layout to give your content a balanced look. This helps make your design easier to read and it will leave room in the margins for your customers to make notes for themselves if needed.
Let’s connect to discuss your current or upcoming projects. Our work speaks for itself, so be sure to ask us for an introductory package tailored specifically to your printing needs.
