Booklets are fun to design and are a great way
to share information. They can be used for creative purposes (chapbooks,
anthologies), professional communications (company handbooks, marketing
brochures), and more.
Let's go through the process so you can create your best booklets yet.
Booklets are fun to design and are a great way
to share information. They can be used for creative purposes (chapbooks,
anthologies), professional communications (company handbooks, marketing
brochures), and more. There are a few things you need to do to create
an attractive booklet from writing great copy to actually binding it.
Let's go through the process so you can create your best booklets yet.
Write your document and proofread it. Your
copy is the heart and soul of your book, so it's important to make sure
it's as polished as possible. Write several drafts before you do
anything else and then proofread it several times. To help you catch any
typos, it's a good idea to have a colleague edit the document for you.
If you need to do the editing yourself, enlarging the font in your word
processing program can make it easier to spot spelling and grammatical
errors.
Choose your fonts wisely.
The text of your booklet needs to be easy to read otherwise no one will
be compelled to peruse it. Using a sans serif font such as Calibri or
Verdana is the way to go. Be sure to avoid whimsical or hard-to-read
fonts like Comic Sans which can look extremely unprofessional and make
reading a hassle.
Design your pages and cover.
Once your text is perfect, you can begin designing your pages and
cover. It's usually helpful to draw out thumbnails before you use a
program like InDesign. (You can also use a program like Microsoft Word.)
Keep your color scheme consistent and don't use more than two or three
colors. Resist the urge to place clip art on every page and only use the
best photographs. Be sure to keep your document's dimensions in mind so
everything fits on the page. When you're satisfied with the layout, you
can print your work on a laser or ink-jet printer.
Bind your booklets.
Once your booklets are printed out and collated, you can start binding
them. One way you can do this is by stitching them. This is a good
method if you only have a handful of booklets you need to bind. You
could also staple the documents with a long-arm stapler. However,
stapling them by hand can be time-consuming and tiring especially if you
have a large stack you need to assemble. One other option is using a
booklet maker, a machine that will fold and staple the documents. Using
one of these machines is the perfect solution if you regularly need to
assemble a lot of booklets, especially since some devices can staple
hundreds of documents per hour.
As you can see, there are a number of things you need to do to create a
great-looking booklet. Having good content that's free of typos and is
printed in a readable font is essential. It's also important to lay out
your pages and avoid using too much clip art. Finally, finding the right
way to bind the documents is vital, and you have a few options to
consider. All together, creating booklets can be fun, so start designing
and binding yours today.
Jeff McRitchie is the Vice-President of Marketing for MyBinding.com.
He regularly writes articles, reviews, and blog posts on topics related
to bookbinding, laminating, paper shredding, and office equipment. More
than 2,500 of his reviews have been published in thousands of locations
on the Internet. If you're looking for information about booklet makers, his articles are a great place to start.
