From product catalogues to corporate brochures, booklets are one of the most versatile ways to get your message out. These days, you can choose from a wide range of options when it comes to printing booklets, including but not limited to paper types, paper weights, finishes, binding, and lamination.

With that being said, there are various other nuances associated with booklet printing that you need to know before sending your booklet for printing, and this includes getting your booklet artwork print-ready. In this article, we share with you a few important tips in this regard, and also explain how to print your booklets. But first, let’s have a look at what booklets are and what they are used for.

What are booklets and what are they used for?

A booklet is a small book that’s very thin and contains a small number of pages, usually in the range of 8 to 36 pages. Booklets can be used to share essential details and information about your business with your potential clients and customers, for promotional purposes or for giving out information about a specific topic or event. For example, catalogues are used to advertise products and services to potential customers with the help of a professionally designed booklet that contains relevant images and easy-to-read text to give the readers a better idea of a business’s offerings. Some other common examples of booklets are brochures, training manuals, instruction manuals, inserts for DVDs, storybooks and recipe books.

How to get your booklet artwork print ready

Perhaps you have already designed your booklet, but is your booklet artwork print-ready yet? In this section, we will have a closer look at what all it takes to ensure that your booklet prints will come out looking perfect, just as you expect them to.

Select a print-ready file format

Make sure that the original working file that contains a booklet is editable and stored in a print-ready file format. Only a few file formats are considered print-ready, including PDF, PSD, AI and ID. Out of these, the PDF file format is supported by most printers. Avoid using file formats like PNG and JPG, as they are image file formats and are not recommended for booklet printing.

Use only high-resolution artwork

The resolution of a digital image or artwork defines the quality of the image. It’s measured in dots per inch or DPI. The higher the DPI value, the sharper the image will be. On the other hand, images with lower DPI or resolution usually appear pixelated when viewed at 100% of their dimensions.

For high-quality output, your artwork needs to be of at least 300 DPI in resolution, but no higher than 450 DPI. However, it’s best to confirm with your print partner whether the resolution of your artwork is satisfactory, before placing your order for booklet printing online.

Make sure that the artwork is set up in the CMYK colour space

Most images are created and stored in RGB  (Red Green Blue) colour space, including those that you will find on the internet. However, most printers don’t recognise the RGB colour space for printing purposes. To ensure that your artwork is print-ready, you will need to have it converted from RGB to CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black) colour space which is what printers recognise. It’s best to use your editing software and export your artwork directly in CMYK colour space, instead of exporting it in RGB and then converting it to CMYK later, which may lead to some colour loss.

Leave out additional space for margin for cutting and trimming

It’s standard procedure for printers to print multiple pages or documents on the same sheet of paper and then send them for cutting. If you don’t leave out the additional margin for cutting and trimming, chances are that you may lose a part of your artwork to the trimming process. To avoid this from happening, most printers will recommend that you leave a safety margin of 3mm, also known as the bleed area.

How to print your booklet

With online booklet printing services, it’s fairly easy to print your own sleek looking booklets. Before you get started with the printing process, you need to do the following:

• organise the content of your booklet in the order it needs to be printed
• choose the paper type, paper weight and paper finish for the cover and the inner pages of your booklet
• decide if you want lamination for your booklet
• choose the binding type (saddle-stitched/wiro/perfect)
• have your booklet printing file ready with bleed area (extra margin) added for binding and trimming

In case anything seems confusing or you are not sure about any of the steps mentioned above, you should consult with your print partner for their guidance and suggestions, before sending the booklet for printing.