by Anna Cruz

Created on: March 11, 2009

No matter the industry, most business owners find themselves needing to print booklets for one reason or another. Manuals, catalogs, magazines, references, and pamphlets are all examples of common booklet types that you may find necessary in your line of business. Whatever its purpose, knowing how to print booklets that are professional requires following a few necessary steps.

Look For The Right Booklet Printing Company
The most important aspect of printing a quality booklet online is using a professional online printing company. Even if your booklet contains only 8 pages, the time it takes just getting your inkjet to print it correctly is worth using a commercial printer. When you take into account the cost of paper, ink, and toner, using an online printing company does not cost much, if any, more than trying to print on your own. Just be sure to get your money's worth by using a printer that provides the options and services that you need. You may even decide you want a company that also provides extra benefits like mailing services. Never go with a printing company that won't guarantee your satisfaction, otherwise you could be stuck on the other side of printing with booklets that aren't worth distributing, even to your employees.

Make Sure Your Artwork Is In The Right Color Mode
Most booklets require some kind of color, whether it's on every page, only one or two pages, or even just the company logo. Usually, there is no reason not to print in color, since a top-industry printing company often provides full color as a standard printing feature. What you need to know about color is that commercial online printers use the CMYK color scheme for printing. Often, the default color scheme that a design program uses is the RGB scheme because this is what is used for digital design. Although your printing company will match the colors for you, you still need to convert to the CMYK color mode when you're done with the design to be sure of the exact shade. Just remember that your computer screen will not display an accurate hue, so you will need to print a sample to see what the colors look like on paper.

Make Sure That Your Design Is At Least 300 dpi/ppi
When including graphics in a booklet, there are some factors you need to consider to ensure that your printer receives the overall design in a format they can work with. First, images and everything else that's part of your catalog design needs to be saved at 300 dpi or higher to prevent a pixellated effect. If you want

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