Getting it right – Top tips for designing your booklet.

Booklets can be an important and highly effective part of your marketing mix. Whether advertising specific products and services, introducing your company to the marketplace, or supplying prospective customers with more information on your business, a well-designed booklet will do wonders for your sales. However, before you go to print, there a few things to remember.

Think about its purpose
Have a clear idea about what your booklet should achieve. Is it promoting a specific aspect of your business, or giving a general overview of what you do? You need to be sure of its purpose before you start. Make it easy for people to read your booklet. Good content is vital if you’re to keep readers interested and hugely important in portraying the professional image you want for your business.

Think about your images
Good images really enhance a booklet and attract attention to your message. Make sure your images are in high resolution. That beautiful Irish countryside pic might look great on a website, but won’t look good in print. Images need to be sharp and clear. Your images should be 300 dpi at the final printed size and in CMYK colour mode. If you’re not sure about imagery, have a look at our website or contact our expert team who’ll tell you if your images are suitable for print and advise you on what’s best for you.

Make the right paper choice
We have a huge range of styles, weights and finishes, from standard high quality paper in silk, matt or gloss finishes, to luxury laid papers which will give your booklet a beautiful look and feel. The sort of paper you use will depend on the purpose of your booklet, the target market and often on the number of pages. To see the full range of papers and for help in choosing the right type, have a look at our website where you’ll find great examples of booklets in a number of styles and finishes.

Pick the right binding
Think about how your booklet will be bound:

– For thicker booklets or catalogues of between 40 and 700 pages, choose perfect bound, where your document is bound together with adhesive along the spine.

– Saddle stitching is ideal for booklets up to 48 pages. This is where your booklet is stitched or stapled along the spine.

– Wiro bound is perfect for manuals and reference documents. Here the document is held together with a spiral bound spine, fed through holes punched near the edge of the pages.

Remember to leave room for the binding when designing your booklet, so that no text or important graphics are too close to the spine or the page edges.

Get the cover right
It’s the first thing anyone will see, so make sure your cover is well designed and encourages people to find out more. Self-covering means that the cover paper is the same weight and stock as the inner pages, but usually you’ll want the cover to be in a thicker paper to make it more durable and rigid. The right style, finish and weight is hugely important for your cover and can be the difference between your booklet being read or immediately discarded.

Digitalprintingireland.ie have over 25 years of experience in printing booklets and other marketing materials and we’d love to help you bring your booklet idea to life. Our website has a huge number of ideas and examples, along with customer reviews, so have a look or contact our expert team who’ll be delighted to help you get started.

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