Softback Booklets

Soft Cover Booklets

Softback booklets, also known as soft cover booklets, offer a polished, professional finish that makes them a favourite across creative and commercial sectors. With their sleek covers and clean, square spines, they’re an excellent choice for brochures, catalogues, magazines and any project that needs a refined, high-quality presentation.

How we produce softback booklets

Each booklet is crafted through a precise two-stage process. Your inner pages are printed and collated, while the cover is produced separately on your chosen stock. The pages are then securely glued into the spine of the cover, creating a strong, durable book that stands up to frequent handling.

Make your booklet your own with a wide range of custom options

• Flexible sizes up to A4 to suit any project

• There are several options to choose from for both the internal materials and the cover materials.

• Three premium lamination finishes to boost durability and style

• Order from a single booklet upwards

• Quantities up to 500 printed using advanced digital presses; larger runs via high-quality litho production

• For covers with heavy ink coverage, we recommend adding lamination to protect against scuffing or ink transfer during transit or storage. Choose from Soft Touch, Matt or Gloss to give your booklet a long-lasting, professional finish.

Who uses softback booklets?

• Businesses: Product catalogues, brochures, training manuals

• Publishers: Magazines, newsletters, periodicals

• Education: Course guides, programme materials, yearbooks

• Non-profits: Campaign booklets, informational materials

• Individuals: Photo portfolios, event booklets

• Retailers: Product listings and promotional catalogues

• Estate agents: Property brochures and showcase books

• Event planners: Programmes, schedules and guides

Whatever your project, our softback booklets provide a reliable, premium solution tailored to your needs. If you need help choosing the right spine width, our calculator makes it easy to find the perfect fit.

UK shipping is free, exceptions apply.

Technical Specification for Softback Booklets

How to set up design files for Softback Booklets

Artwork Submission:

1. Submit Two Files:

•    Cover Pages: Submit as a spread including the spine. Use our spine width calculator to ensure the correct spine size.

•    Inner Pages: Submit as individual pages in running order.

For example, for a 40-page brochure, supply an inner PDF of 36 pages and a cover PDF of two pages (page 1 is the outside cover spread, and page 2 is the inside cover spread).

File Requirements:

• Page Total: Booklets must contain a page total divisible by 2.

• Safe Zone: Do not place words, page numbers, or images too close to the edges. Maintain at least a 10mm safe zone on all sides.

• Non Printable Area: Leave the spine area on the inside cover blank, ensuring 5mm on both sides of the fold, including the spine, for optimal glue adhesion.

• Bleed: Include a 3mm bleed on all sides.

• Colour Mode: Supply as a CMYK PDF.

• Fonts: Outline or embed all fonts.

• Resolution: Ensure a 300dpi resolution.

Lamination Recommendation:

We recommend adding lamination to the cover pages for protection. During production, the spine is glued to the inner pages using a clamp, which may cause scuffing or printer marks around the spine area and any other heavy ink coverage area on the cover. If lamination is not desired, reduce graphics or background colours crossing into the outer and inner spine area.

Additional Resources:

Looking for help setting up your Perfect Bound Book artowrk? Check out some of out helpful articles below.

• How do I supply artwork for a perfect bound booklet?

• How to calculate Perfect Bound spine width

• Non Printable Area Explained on Cover

• Tips on Setting Up a Perfect Bound Book with Crossover Images and Text

For more guidance on setting up and submitting your artwork, see our Booklets and Brochures Help Pages. For help with booklet printing, visit the Resource Hub where we have a handy booklet help section.

Download our free Design Guide PDF to help you create your Perfect Bound Book artwork. – Download Now

UK shipping is free, exceptions apply.

High Quality Printing with Sustainability in mind.

We are working hard to mitigate our environmental impact and are following an emissions reduction program to lower our direct and indirect emissions which will lead us to Net Zero by 2040.

We are working hard to introduce more environmentally credible products in our range and we encourage you to consider using more of those products.

Tradeprint supports Two Sides, the print and paper advocacy group that aims to dispel myths around greenwashing and promote paper as a truly sustainable product.

We are committed to reducing waste and in particular aiming to eliminate problematic plastics from our printing and fulfilment operation.

Read full Environmental policy here.