Mistakes to Avoid When Designing Your Booklet

Booklet printing is a highly effective way to create brand awareness and showcase your products or services to your target audience.

Designing a booklet is more straightforward than it sounds. You may decide to hire a graphic designer to create a booklet for you or create one yourself using tools like Microsoft Word and the graphic design platform Canva. As long as you actively avoid the common booklet design mistakes detailed below, you’re bound to create a booklet design that showcases your products and services clearly and professionally.

Moreover, incorporating engaging content that effectively communicates your brand’s message is essential. To add an extra touch, consider the option of saddle-stitch booklets, a popular choice for their sleek appearance and practical binding method. This method not only enhances the overall presentation but also ensures your booklet remains durable and easily navigable, making it a memorable piece for your audience.

Common Mistakes When Designing a Booklet

Bad Design

First and foremost, a lousy design will severely limit the effectiveness of your booklet. Your booklet should be eye-catching, clear and highly engaging. You’ve probably picked up booklets in the past, taken one look, and placed it back down again due to bad design. Too much text in various fonts and colors is incredibly off putting. Even if the content within the booklet is of interest, the design is just too painful to look at! So don’t make the common mistake of bad booklet design; you’ll regret it.

Lack of Clarity

You’ll likely have already come across booklets that catch your eye in terms of their appearance, but you can’t work out what they’re selling. Your booklet will lack clarity if you put too much information inside. The same applies if you try to engage too many different audiences — a booklet that lacks clarity doesn’t appeal to anyone.

Poor Quality Imagery

One of the first things you’ll notice about a booklet is the quality of the imagery used. Poor quality imagery is an instant black mark against your business as it looks disorganized and unprofessional.

No Contact Information or Calls to Action

The goal of a booklet is to encourage readers to buy from your business. By forgetting to include contact information or calls to action, you’re blocking prospective customers from progressing through the sales funnel! By including a website, phone number, email address and, if applicable, the address of your shop or office, you encourage customers to take steps to engage with your business.

Poor Print Quality

Nothing will make your booklet look more unappealing than poor print quality. Bad binding and poor paper quality will make your business appear cheap and unprofessional and ultimately put prospective customers off. That is why you must choose a reliable booklet printing service to create your booklets.

How to Avoid Common Booklet Printing Mistakes

Create an Effective, Impactful Design

The first step to a good booklet is an effective design. Decide on your brochure’s size and include clear bleed areas and quiet areas so content isn’t cut off during the printing process. Additionally, make sure to take CMYK colors into account, as you can’t print a booklet in RGB. The very last thing you want is a booklet that comes out in the wrong colors with important information lopped off!

Choose the Right Paper Type and Thickness

Ultimately, you want your booklet to appear professional, and you want it to last. One of the best ways to create a professional booklet is to print it on suitable paper. Most booklets are printed on silk paper with a low sheen coating — somewhere between a gloss and matte finish. Silk paper improves the look of colors and sharpens imagery, making it perfect for various types of booklets, including manuals, product catalogues, and newsletters. Next, you need to ensure the pages of the booklet will last. Most printing services allow you to choose from paper weight between 90 and 200 GSM — the thicker the paper, the less likely it is to rip.

Consider Binding Options

A poorly bound booklet will quickly fall apart, and you don’t want that! Stapled binding is an affordable and relatively sturdy binding option that works perfectly for most booklets. However, if you’re creating a booklet that requires thick paper and are willing to spend a bit more money, you may want to consider wiro binding. For example, suppose you’re creating a business presentation, a product manual or a report, something you want to last a long time. In that case, wiro binding will ensure the booklet remains intact long term.

Use a Reliable Booklet Printing Service

There are several highly reputable online booklet printing services out there. If you’re new to booklet printing online, don’t worry. Many booklet printing services will encourage you to contact them if you have any queries about creating your booklet, including considerations regarding size, paper type, finish, thickness and orientation. Also, if you’re confused about how to upload your files or have questions regarding the bleed or quiet area requirements, help is available. You have two options: you can read the printers’ informative FAQs page or contact the company directly to ask questions.