Club magazines, programmes, newsletters, lookbooks, annual reviews — anything printed in the tens or hundreds rather than the tens of thousands — are produced as saddle stitched booklets. Not as a compromise: below a few thousand copies it is genuinely the right process.
What we print
Our booklets are A5 (148 × 210mm), saddle stitched, from 8 to 32 pages in multiples of four including the cover, with cover and text stock selected separately. Minimum order is 100 copies.
If your magazine needs a format outside that — a larger trim, a higher page count, or a bound spine — talk to us before you order rather than trying to force it through the configurator.
Plan the page count first, not last
Saddle stitching gives you pages in fours, so your magazine is 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28 or 32 pages. This constrains editorial planning more than people expect, and it is far easier to commission to a page count than to cut an article after it is written.
Work out the count before the content. Why page counts run in multiples of four explains the mechanics and how to count the cover correctly.
Layout notes specific to magazines
Double-page spreads work here
Saddle stitched booklets open completely flat, so an image crossing the centre spread is not lost into a gutter the way it would be in a perfect-bound book. This is one of the real advantages of the format — use it.
Supply the file as single pages in reading order, though, not as spreads. We impose it.
Watch the outside edge
The inner pages of a saddle stitched booklet stick out slightly before trimming, so they lose a fraction more from the outside edge. Keep folios, rules and running heads at least 4mm inside the trim and this never becomes visible.
Choose text stock for what is on the page
Text-led pages are fine on 115gsm. Photography-led pages benefit from 150gsm, which shows less of the reverse side through the sheet. Cover and text stock covers the trade-off.
Files
- One PDF, single pages, sequential, in reading order.
- A5 trim plus 3mm bleed on every edge.
- CMYK throughout; 300dpi effective at final size.
- Fonts embedded or outlined.
Every order runs through an automated file check and produces an on-screen proof you approve before you pay — on a 32-page job that is worth actually reading page by page. See our file requirements.