How to Design a Booklet: Booklet Design Tips & Best Practices
Thinking about printing a full color customizable booklet? You came to the right place! PrintingCenterUSA will help you learn what makes a booklet, the different types of booklets available to you, and give you booklet design tips and tricks to get you started on making the business booklet of your dreams!
Do you already know what kind of booklet you want to print or have your design files ready?
Check your files against print industry standards before ordering with our Free File Review 43 Point Inspection!
What Is a Booklet and What Kind Will You Print?
A booklet is usually a thin, saddle-stitched book with less than 96 inside pages with a paper cover. You can choose a self-cover booklet, where the cover is the same paper as the inside pages or pick a plus cover which has a little bit heavier card stock. There are many great custom options when it comes to building the best booklet ever, but first you should decide what kind of booklet you are making.
Booklets usually promote one particular subject and give you detailed descriptions and information or advertising and can set your company, school or organization apart by making a positive and long lasting first impression.
Here are the most popular types of booklets that we print:
Saddle Stitch Booklets
Get your saddle stitched booklets, printed for your business, graphic design, real estate, education, non-profit and more!
Available in multiple sizes and paper finishes
Catalogs
For catalogs saddle stitched or perfect bound binding options are the best and help you market your business, jewelry, product, service, fashion & apparel, home interior and more!
Available in multiple sizes and paper finishes
Magazines
With your saddle stitched or perfect bound magazine you can print and self-publish for your travel, business, real estate, healthcare, fine art, lifestyle, fashion magazine and more!
Available in multiple sizes and paper finishes
Lookbooks
Create a stunning perfect bound or saddle stitched fashion, beauty, style, architecture or design lookbook to promote your fall, winter, spring, and summer product lines!
Available in multiple sizes and paper finishes
Programs
Grab your audience with saddle stitched or perfect bound professional quality dance recital, beauty pageant, sporting, wedding, funeral, conference, convention, trade show, and cinema/theater event programs!
Available in multiple sizes and paper finishes
Art & Coffee Table Books
With perfect bound art books, print and self-publish, picture, photography & coffee table books and more!
Available in multiple sizes and paper finishes
Binding SizesBefore printing your booklet design, you should select the binding style you will use for your publication.
- Saddle Stitch Binding is the most inexpensive and simple to make, yet professional form of binding, which allows us to save you money. They also offer the fastest turn-around time. Saddle stitched is the most popular and ideal choice for booklets and calendars with smaller page counts between 8 and 92 pages.
- Perfect Binding is the most popular type of soft cover binding. Perfect bound books are inexpensive to make and provide a durable, high quality attractive look that can’t be matched. Perfect binding is the ideal choice for publications with higher page counts (28 pages up to 2 inches thick), giving them a professional looking printable square spine. A paperback book or a phone book is a familiar example.
- Spiral Binding uses a durable plastic coil which makes it an ideal option for every-day use as reference material. Spiral Bound Book Printing offers different coil colors, sizes, and diameters and can accommodate a higher page count up to 2” thick. There is a fast turn-around time for very short spiral bound book production quantities. Manuals, and Handbooks are good examples of products well-suited for spiral binding.
- Wire-O is similar to Spiral binding. Wire-O binding uses a professional-looking looped metal wire which makes it an ideal option when the product is for a more formal setting, such as a presentation. Wire-O binding can accommodate a higher page count up to 1 ¼” thick. They may cost a little more. Available only in black standard wire.
- Hardcover is like perfect bound books excerpt it has a hard cardstock cover that protects your book even farther. They have that classic and professional look to them with a thickness of 30 to 400 pages. They are comparably prices to the other binding types but will typically be more expensive. Anyone looking to stand out from the competition would be a great fit for hardcover books.
Sizes
When it comes to sizing, our standard options are 4.25 x 11, 5.5 x 8.5, 8.5 x11, 6 x 9, 6×6 and 8×8. Custom sizes are available as well. Click on “Custom Size” on the pricing tool (on your desired product page) to enter in your desired size and determine if we can accommodate it.
Pages
The number of pages your booklet project can have depends on the binding type.
- Saddle Stitch: You can have a page quantity anywhere between 8-92 for Saddle Stitch Binding.
- Perfect Bound: You must have a minimum of 28 pages to print a perfect bound book. Page counts can go up to 2 inches thick, which will depend on the thickness of the inside pages.
- Spiral: 2 inches is the max with this form of binding.
- Wire-O: 1.25 inches thick is the max.
Paper Types
You’ve thought about binding, sizing and page count for your booklet needs so let’s take a quick look at paper options next. PrintingCenterUSA is all about high-quality paper stocks!
- Gloss paper: shiny and lustrous smooth coated finish. Make your colors pop!
- Matte paper: glare free and dull coated paper. Often used for jobs with lots of typed copy.
- Uncoated paper: more superior than your average copy paper and prints pieces with stunningly sharp images. Great for journals and coloring books as it’s easy to write on.
Of course, there is also the weight to consider when looking over your paper options. Here, at PrintingCenterUSA we offer more than 10 types of weights when it comes to your booklet. Choose from 60# uncoated to 100# gloss!
Online Design
If you don’t have design software and want your job fast, design your booklet online with our free online design tool. You can drag and drop your photos, images, insert your text and click submit. Ok the proof and we do the rest.
(If you already have a print-ready file feel free to submit it to us. You are not required to use our templates or our online design tools. We accept Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator and Adobe PDF files.)
Use our Free Templates
We have 40 different page templates available for download. Leave the layout alone or modify the template to suit your needs. These free booklet templates are built for Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator and Adobe PDF.
Layout Services
If you would like to bypass the design process or just get a helping hand with a page you have problems with, we offer layout services. Click here to read more about how to use them and how to get layout services for your design or business.
How to Design a Booklet: Essential Booklet Design Tips You Need to Know
Ok, so maybe you already know why you need a booklet. Maybe you even know what it will be about! Well congrats, because you are ahead of the game and you are in the right spot. Now you just need design help on how to get your information on the page in an attractive way.
Many people don’t know where to start when it comes to designing booklets. Follow these helpful tips to make the daunting task of design simple. (If you were so inspired and would rather not read today, feel free to order now!)
1. Start by outlining the goal of the catalog or booklet and focus on what you want to accomplish. Your purpose for the booklet can drastically influence its design. If you’re looking to raise brand awareness or acquire a later sale via phone call or website visit, think about designing a catalog with a lookbook or a photo booklet.
Organize your design around how you intend the booklet to be used. Sometimes putting a mockup together is helpful in laying out ideas. Don’t forget the design and print quality of your catalog is just as important as the information. It doesn’t matter how great your information is. If you have poor images and poor print quality, your audience will get bored and won’t read your material.
Put yourself in the shoes of your audience. What will attract them? What will keep them turning the pages? Finding the right image for your product is also very important. There is a plethora of websites that offer copyrighted, free and royalty-free stock photos to fill your creative needs. When you decide to use an image from any website, be sure to read the terms of service to know the rules or regulations and don’t forget to check for a high resolution.
Consider adding pages if you have lots of information. Do not try to cram it all into a booklet that is too small. Add a few pages or upgrade to a larger size booklet. You don’t want to overwhelm your audience with too much information that isn’t even legible.
Mailing & Distribution of Your Booklet
Want to print and mail to every home and business in your market area? Why spend your valuable time stuffing and addressing envelopes and standing in line at the post office? Our in-house mailing services are easy and affordable. Just send us your mailing list and we’ll take it from there. Click here to watch our YouTube video on how to upload your mailing list to us!
We can ship your printed booklets directly to your customers, event, conference or trade show and they will be there waiting for you. This means you will save time and money. You won’t have to haul the booklets to the event yourself, or mail them our individually to your subscribers, they will be ready and waiting when you get there.
Beyond the Basics
Now that we have discussed the very basics as far as your options go for the specs, let’s take a look at 4 key reasons to make booklet printing part of your marketing mix.
- Distribution: Booklets are an excellent way to share valuable information at a conference, convention or any targeted group of people.
- Grab Your Audience: As the digital landscape becomes more and more saturated, having a tactile marketing asset like a booklet in your marketing portfolio will help your business stand out.
- Industry Leader: Booklets are great for educating current and future clients about your business. A printed product works well to concisely showcase your business portfolio.
- Room to Grow: There’s more space for crucial business information and advertisements! When it comes to an 8.5″x11” booklet, you’re going to have significantly more space to provide the reader with important data.
Create Stunning Booklets with Ease – Design and Print Today!
Building a booklet doesn’t have to be hard work. PrintingCenterUSA takes the hassle out of designing and ordering, and our prices speak for themselves. Our slogan is fast, easy and affordable printing for a reason, and we have a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Our online color booklet printing company offers affordable prices paired with exceptional quality color printing on all of our full color printing services. Check out all of our excellent reviews, and then give our printing services a try. You’ll be glad you did.
