Brochure printing is a key step in producing an important marketing tool that allows businesses to promote their products, services and events. Ensuring that you create high-quality booklets is crucial for conveying a sense of professionalism; it is easy to spot a mediocre effort and this does not look good on a brand.
Before you start brochure printing, you must first determine your company’s budget for creating leaflets, as this will dictate your choice of paper quality, colours and more. Once you have established how much money to allocate to the leaflets, have a think about the following:
Paper size and number of pages
Your budget will determine how large your booklets will be. A DL or A5 paper size is ideal for smaller budgets; you may be able to get away with using A4 paper but this will be slightly more expensive. For larger budgets, A4 or A3 paper can work well. The paper size you select may also depend on the amount of content included in the booklets; you may have a large budget but opt for A5 or DL paper as you are only including a small amount of content, for instance.
Similarly, the extent of your budget will dictate how many pages you can include in each booklet. If you have a small budget, using concise copywriting and images can help reduce the number of pages whilst retaining reader engagement and creating a sleek, professional design.
Paper stock
There are a multitude of paper stock options available for brochure printing. Paper stock type can be identified by its GSM (Grams per Square Metre) number – the higher the GSM the thicker and heavier the paper. The type of paper you choose depends on the requirements of your project.
- 70-100GSM: Thin, lightweight paper ideal for books like novels
- 115-135GSM: Slightly thicker and heavier and ideal for brochure printing
- 170-300GSM: Thick, heavy paper often used for business cards and posters
You can also select from a range of paper coatings, the most common being:
- Gloss: A shiny coating often found in magazines. It is relatively inexpensive and is less bulky than a matte coating. This coating can work well for brochure printing.
- Matte: An opaque, non-glossy coating with a heavier bulk.
- Satin: A smooth coating which is low in gloss.
Quantity
The number of booklets you decide to create depends on both your budget and your project needs. Determine how many copies you want to produce so that you don’t end up with too many (or not enough). Ask your service provider for a cost estimate on short, medium and long runs; it may end up being more cost-effective in the long run to produce more copies.
Ink
Your choice of ink can have a huge effect on the design and cost of your leaflets. For instance, metallic ink is more expensive than regular ink but can add strong aesthetic value to your leaflets. Monochrome or bi-colour brochure printing can be a cost-effective and visually appealing solution. Your choice of typeface can also affect the cost of the job; thicker typefaces like Arial use more ink than ones like Times New Roman – opting for a thinner typeface could potentially save you money.
Accuracy
One of the most costly mistakes that can happen when brochure printing is realizing that there is a grammatical, spelling or factual error present in the final product and having to redo a run. You can avoid this by ensuring that the content has been read through for mistakes multiple times by several people before you produce them.