Brochure Printing

If you’ve decided on perfect binding for your brochure, make sure that your designer knows this. Missing artwork is a common cause of print production delays and they’ll need to provide artwork for the spine as well as front and back covers.

Never guess the spine width! The thickness of the paper stock chosen for your text pages will affect the measurement. If in doubt, ask Bishops Printers and we’ll do the calculation for you.

Print is a tactile, sensory experience. Your paper choice affects how your brochure is perceived, so select a stock and finishing that complements your brand, audience and objectives.

Our house stocks have been carefully selected to offer excellent print quality, reliable colour reproduction and competitive pricing across a wide range of brochure applications. However, there are many other options available, including papers with different shades, textures and finishes that can create a very different feel.

It’s also worth considering turnaround times. While our house stocks are held in stock in volume, specialist papers may need to be ordered specifically for your project and can add additional time to production.

If you’re unsure which option is right for your brochure, speak to your friendly team at Bishops Printers. We’ll help you balance quality, budget and lead times to find the best solution.

This is particularly important if you are converting artwork for a digital publication into perfect bound print. Your designer needs to allow a margin of 5-8mm along the spine edge. This will prevent copy and content from being sucked into the spine and double page spread images from appearing distorted.

Print files should always include a 3mm bleed margin on all four edges to avoid content being cut off when pages are trimmed to size. Within that margin, it’s also advisable to leave a ‘safe area’ without any copy. This will mitigate slight movements during the manufacturing process that could leave text too close to the edge.

A well-designed brochure deserves to be printed properly.

Our litho presses use advanced colour control technology to maintain colour consistency throughout a print run, while our HP Indigo digital presses deliver exceptional colour accuracy on shorter runs. Combined with carefully selected paper stocks, this helps ensure images remain vibrant, brand colours stay consistent and your brochure creates the right impression.

If colour quality is particularly important to your project, speak to us before placing your order and we’ll recommend the most suitable print process and specification.

The most popular brochure sizes are A4 and A5, although other sizes and formats can also be produced. 

• A4 brochures are often used for catalogues, reports and detailed product information. 
• A5 brochures are compact and ideal for promotional brochure that will be mailed out, guides or event materials.

If you’re unsure which size to choose, our team can recommend an option based on your content, budget and how the brochure will be used. 

The two most common brochure binding methods are saddle stitching (also known as staple binding) and perfect binding. 

Saddle stitched brochures
Pages are folded and stapled along the spine. This is a cost-effective option and works well for brochures with lower page counts and when you want the pages to lie flat when opened 

Perfect bound brochures
Pages are glued into a square spine, creating a clean, book-style finish with a more premium feel. Best suited to higher page counts, although shorter brochures, catalogues or reports can also be perfect bound if the spine is at least 3 mm thick, to enable a secure bond. We can help you decide which binding method best suits your page count, budget and intended look.

Brochures can vary widely in length, but typical ranges include:

• 8 to around 60 pages for saddle stitched brochures. Above this range, your brochure will struggle to fold shut.
• 48 pages and above for perfect bound brochures

For perfect binding, a minimum spine width of around 3mm is usually required to ensure strong binding.

This depends on the look, feel and purpose of your brochure. Coated papers, such as silk or gloss, are popular choices because they make images appear more vibrant than on uncoated stock. In general, Silk is a good all-round option. With less shine than gloss paper, it makes large areas of text easier to read. 

It’s common to use a heavier paper stock for your brochure covers. Text pages will typically range from 100gsm to 170gsm, with covers printed on 250gsm – 400gsm. This serves to protect the inner pages, so your brochure lasts longer. The exact paper choice will depend on your design, your brand, your budget, and your audience. We’re always happy to guide you to the right choice.

Yes. A range of finishing options can be added to enhance the appearance and durability of your brochure. 

Common options include: 

• Gloss or matt lamination
• Anti-scuff lamination
• Spot UV varnish combined with matt lamination
• Foiling
• Embossing

These finishes can help your brochure stand out and support your brand values.

Yes. We can produce both short-run and high-volume brochure printing. 

Short runs are ideal for small campaigns, test publications or limited editions, while larger runs benefit from the efficiencies of high-capacity production. Our equipment and experience allow us to handle a wide range of quantities while maintaining consistent print quality.

Yes. Bishops Printers offers a complete print and mailing service through our wholly owned company, The Mailing People. 

We can handle tasks such as: 

• Envelope enclosing 
• Polywrapping or paper wrapping 
• Flyer insertion 
• Bulk mailing and distribution

By managing both printing and mailing, we can streamline the process and help ensure your brochures reach their recipients on time. 

Yes. If you need help designing your brochure, we can connect you with The Graphic Design House, our fully owned creative agency. They regularly design printed and digital publications such as brochures, catalogues and magazines, so they understand how to structure multi-page layouts, balance text and imagery, and prepare artwork correctly for print. 

Because the design and print teams work closely together, potential artwork issues can often be spotted early, helping the whole process run more smoothly from design through to final printing.

Yes. Nearly 80% of our customers are other commercial printers and print professionals such as designers and agencies, so we provide a fully confidential white-label trade printing service. 

This allows trade clients to deliver high-quality brochures to their own customers while maintaining their brand relationship and reputation. 

Customers choose Bishops Printers because we combine high production capacity, dependable turnaround times and competitive pricing with reliable quality.

With more than 40 years of experience producing millions of brochures each year, we focus on delivering consistent quality, reliable service and straightforward communication on every project.