Catalogs & Booklets

Too many pages for a fold

A catalog or a booklet is what you print when the content will not fit on a folded sheet. A product line with dozens of items, a course handbook, a program for an event, a nonprofit report, a seasonal book of offers: each of these is a bound piece with a page order someone has to follow. The reader flips. They do not unfold.

If the story is a few panels and a cover, a brochure is the simpler object and the one you should quote instead. Once you have a page count, a spine, and a cover that may be a different sheet from the inside, you are in booklet territory. Getting that distinction right at the quote saves a file built for the wrong binding.

Page count, binding, and the cover

You set the page count, and the binding has to agree with it. Saddle-stitch is the stapled booklet people ask for when the book is thin. It is usually built in multiples of four pages, because the sheets nest. Perfect bind is the squared spine people ask for when the book is thick enough to need one, or when they want that spine to carry a title. If your count does not suit the binding you named, we will say so on the quote and tell you what has to change. Spiral and wire are further requests, not assumptions. Ask, and we will confirm whether this job includes them.

The cover is a separate decision even when it is the same paper as the inside. Say whether you want a self-cover or a heavier cover sheet, and which finish that cover should have: matte, gloss, or soft-touch. A photograph-heavy cover and a text-heavy interior do not have to be the same ink plan. Color on every page, or a color cover with a black interior, should be chosen up front. Mixing those up after the proof is how page counts and budgets drift.

Consistent color on a long run of identical books is why catalogs and booklets are so often an offset printing job. If your quantity is small, say so. The quote should match the run you need.

Producing it without standing at the press

Request a quote with the page count, trim size, binding, cover plan, color plan, quantity, and the state or ZIP for the cartons. We price the job and send a proof of the pages in order. You approve. Then we print, bind, and ship anywhere in the United States.

A pocket, a loose insert, or a reply card is an extra piece and belongs in the quote. If finished books must ship to more than one place, split the quantities in that same request.

Pages that can be imposed

Send a single PDF in reading order, with every page the same trim size, plus bleed on any image that runs off the edge. Pages you intend to leave blank should be real pages in the file. Say whether the cover is in this PDF or a separate file, and embed the fonts. A slide deck exported at screen resolution will look soft once it is bound.

Graphic design and prepress can impose the file, check that the count works with the binding, and catch type that falls into the gutter. Send the PDF, the page count you believe you have, and the binding you asked for. The proof is where you confirm order, margins, and cover — before any sheet is printed.