One of the many reasons businesses reach for booklet printing is because so much information can be crammed into a small package at a low cost. Training manuals, mini-catalogs, educational information – all of these are candidates for booklet printing.

 
The real beauty of booklet printing is that you are not overwhelming your customer with a large catalog or limiting your presentation as with a brochure or flyer. And if you need more information, all you have to do is add a page.
 
The low cost factor is important as well. With marketing budgets shrinking, businesses need printed collateral that will get the job done at the best price possible. Booklet printing gives businesses the print real estate they need while also keeping costs under control. Many companies print black and white for the main portion of the content and reserve color printing for the cover.

Printing basics
Booklet printing can only be accomplished in four page increments. This is simply a matter of practicality – it’s a lot easier to print two pages onto a single sheet of paper, staple, and fold them than it is to try to print lots of individual pages. Each sheet of paper will have four pages printed on it in this format – two pages on the front of the paper and two pages on the back.

 
In the simplest booklet, you would have four pages – the front cover, the inside of the front cover, the outside of the back cover, and the back cover all on one sheet of paper folded in half. Additional sheets of paper would also require four pages printed on each.
 
This brings up the point of imposition: the order in which the pages are printed. While you might design a booklet from page 1-8, as an example, you would print it as page 1 then 8, 2 then 7, 3 then 6, 4 then 5; each group of two pages on one sheet of paper. This is called the imposition and the process is usually accomplished by your printing firm of choice. In the event that you need to print more booklets on your own, keep the imposition principle in mind.
 
Another important aspect of printing booklets is called creep, the phenomenon of the outer pages having to wrap around the inner pages, causing the sheets of paper to be shorter along the outside. The solution is to allow software to adjust for this affect and then the sheets of paper are trimmed to look uniform. Again, this is typically done by a professional printer.

Final thoughts
Booklet printing can be one of the more productive printing formats for businesses and can save money in the process. While booklet printing is not necessarily easy, choosing the right printing firm becomes essential when it comes to the actual process of printing. You should be able to design your booklet in the order you would read it and let the printer handle the process of imposition and creep adjustment.