Stapled Booklets & Brochure Printing

What is a stapled booklet?

Stapled booklets are often also called saddle stitched booklets. Saddle stitch binding is a really popular method where printed pages are folded, gathered together and then stitched up the fold line with a sturdy metal staple. The popularity of this technique is largely down to two things: they’re really fast to produce, and are cost effective! Stapled booklets are a sure fire way of keeping all the information you are printing together in one place.

How do I make a stapled booklet

Whether you’re designing the artwork yourself or are instructing your in-house design team, making a stapled booklet is simple and straightforward. You can create your stapled book print in Microsoft Word or, if you have access to professional design applications like Photoshop or InDesign, our how-to instructions will show you how to set your artwork up in easy steps.

Find our full set up instructions for stapled booklet printing here .

What paper types can I choose?

You can choose from a range of paper types to make a booklet to suit your budget. There’s high quality 150gsm silk paper available, or 120gsm uncoated paper for a writable finish. You can also pick from a self cover (which is the same as your inner pages) or a 250gsm thick cover; perfect if you’re printing professional stapled brochures to hand out to clients – these will really put the icing on the cake!

How are stapled brochures created?

We think the secret to our high-quality stapled brochure and booklet printing and binding service is using the best machinery for the job! That’s why we print and make all of our booklets in our state-of-the-art facility.

The booklets’ inside pages are printed out on our high-speed ink jet printers (Truepress Jet 520HDs), and the book covers are printed on our iGen press or Heidelberg. These are then stitched together by our Horizon StitchLiners for binding.

Call us biased, but watching these machines in action is an incredible sight! You can watch a full video of the magic happening here .

What can I use my stapled booklet printing for?

After some printspiration? There are loads of different ways in which you can use stapled booklets for your marketing. Here are the most popular ways to use them – but you can be as creative as you like with your own!

1) Magazines and Newsletters

Sending out a magazine or newsletter to your customers is a great way to keep them in the loop about any upcoming product launches, offers and industry news. You can mail them out, leave them in your waiting room or even pile them on a coffee table in your café or reception area.

For a silky branded magazine, choose our thin, 115gsm silk paper. Opt for the classic A4 size or something a little quirkier like a 210mm square magazine.

2) Theatre Programmes

With a thicker stock, you can give your theatre audience a taste a luxury at your next big production. Add a glossy cover to a 250gsm silk stock to make the colours pop, and keep the inside pages at 150gsm silk for a premium feel that won’t break the bank. Print your theatre programmes on A5 – the perfect size for popping into a bag or flicking through during the interval.

3) Guides and Manuals

If you’re offering a product that needs set up or how-to instructions, a stapled booklet is the best option because it’s so affordable. Choose an A6 booklet or a small square one , with 115gsm uncoated inner pages and a self cover for the most cost-effective book printing option.

4) Multi-Page Menus

If you have a huge range of dishes and courses, you need a stapled booklet menu to show them off! Our A4 size is the perfect choice for a main menu, large square books make great dessert menus, and DL size booklets are the perfect choice for a bar menu or drinks list.

Our Top 3 stapled brochure design tips from the experts

Our in-house team really are experts at what they do, so we asked them: “When designing your own stapled booklet, is there anything you should keep in mind?” Here’s what they had to say:

1) Setting Up Your Pages

Please set your artwork up as separate pages (not spreads) in reading order. Remember, your front and back covers are included in the page count.

2) Adding Bleed

For stapled booklet printing, you’ll need 3mm bleed area on each side. Check out our bleed guide for more information on setting this up.

3) Keeping Text Safe

We recommend keeping text away from the fold line in your booklet design, especially body text (the small, main paragraphs of information). The crease can sometimes make this hard to read.