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Stapled Booklets

4.8 - based on 10,000 + successful jobs

One of the most versatile products around, saddle-stitched/stapled booklets can be used for brochures, catalogues, price lists, newsletters and magazines to name a few!

  • Mix and match covers and inner pages
  • Environmentally friendly materials
  • Highest quality printing guaranteed!
  • Generally VAT Zero rated
  • Saddle-stitched for sharper spine
  • 3-edge trimmed for a neater finish
  • Up to 72 pages available online
FREE Delivery with allocated time
FREE downloadable templates
FREE File-check for 10 common print problems
NEXT DAY Dispatch option available
Finished Size
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Spine Calculator Title
No. of Pages (inc. cover)
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Inner Pages Material
Printing
Cover Laminating
RECOMMENDED. adds a thin protective layer of plastic film to the outer covers of the booklet.
Proof
The time stated for dispatch is for 'approved' artwork. Requesting a proof is likely to affect this deadline if the artwork isn't approved within the time stated.
Dispatch Time
The countdown timer displays the actual date this specification could be dispatched. Change this option if you need it faster or cheaper.
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File Copies
Deliver the job directly to your client and have file copies sent to you
Quantity (1 - 5000)

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Stapled Booklets - More Info

Summary:

With our sophisticated Stitchliner Mk III booklet-making system Flexpress can make light work of booklets up to 72 pages whether portrait or landscape (or even more by request). As with all of our products, our booklets are printed and finished individually meaning no batching, ganging or 'average' settings and putting you in control of the materials you want, rather than those we'll tell you to have. Jobs are colour matched to FOGRA proofs and printed to ISO 12647-2 international colour standards at prices you'd expect to pay to printing companies more accustomed to printing multiple jobs together.

Prepress:

Whether or not you request a proof, all supplied artwork files undertake our rigorous 10 point file check to ensure your printed job turns out exactly as you intend. Naturally we'll alert you if something isn't right. Using sophisticated software, files are automatically imposed ready for printing in the most effective way to minimise waste. Every job is sent to print along with a FOGRA colour-matched proof to ensure high levels of colour accuracy.

Sizes:

Our booklets are available in most popular sizes.

Please note: if specifying landscape booklets in either A6 or DL sizes only, the maximum thickness of booklet we can produce is 3mm. Additionally, due to being unable to get the stitching heads in such close proximity, A6 landscape booklets only will be stitched with one centre staple only. If in doubt please contact us prior to placing your order.

Material:

With a wide range of gloss, silk and uncoated papers and boards at almost every weight to choose from, you can pick your preferred cover material and mix with your preferred inner pages to give you the exact choice to suit your clients needs.

High Definition Printing:

Every job at Flexpress is printed using the finest technology available. You wont receive any products printed on beefed-up photocopiers from us - another reason we back everything with our total satisfaction guarantee. Our booklets are printed either lithographically using LED UV inks or using HP Indigo offset which is arguably the finest digital technology available.

Precision Finishing:

Our automated Stitchliner booklet making system turns flat sheets into professionally finished booklets with a beautifully crisp spine. The system uses an ingenious scoring device to score the pages before folding and saddle-stitching to ensure a sharp spine that stays flatter. Each booklet is then automatically machine trimmed on all three edges before being packed in extra-strong, double-walled, unbranded cartons that will stand up to the rigours of national carriage.

Please note: when folded, fibre-cracking along the crease of paper is a natural characteristic and becomes more apparent when continual tone ink coverage is present. The thicker the cover, and heavier the ink coverage the more noticeable this becomes. Flexpress pre-crease all covers over 200gsm to minimise the effect of this problem but it is only possible to eliminate the issue completely by laminating the outer cover. Unless laminating is specified, please note that Flexpress are otherwise unable to take responsibility for what is ultimately a naturally occurring phenomenon.

All orders are packed in super-strong boxes, custom made especially for us to give your job the best chance of surviving the rigours of overnight carriage. Your job is then dispatched using reputable national carriers on a next working day service. This will usually arrive by 5pm although please be aware once goods have left our premises we have no influence on when they are delivered. If required, you can choose to upgrade to a timed delivery for additional cost at checkout.

UK company with a reliable track record:

Flexpress started life back in 1989 and are UK based keeping British people in jobs. Everything we offer is printed and finished in-house by us as at our 8000 square foot premises in Leicestershire. We're proud of our facilities and welcome visitors at any time.

Your satisfaction guaranteed

We take quality and customer service very seriously. Our right-first-time approach coupled with cutting edge technology and professional team mean we're confident enough to offer a total satisfaction guarantee. If through any fault of ours, there's an issue with your printing, we'll always arrive at a solution to leave you 100% happy.

FAQs - Stapled Booklets

What's the difference between saddle-stitching and stapling?

Booklets can be either stapled together using fixed length staples or 'stitched' together using staples formed on the fly from reels of stitching wire. Stapled booklets are usually stapled whilst the sheets are flat, then folded, whilst with saddle-stitched booklets, the sheets are folded first, then gathered together over a fulcrum or 'saddle' and stitched afterwards. This gives a far shap crease meaning saddle-stitched booklets suffer from far less 'bulge' than stapled booklets. Whilst saddle stitching looks similar in appearance to stapling, the length of the 'stitches' can be optimised to suit the number of pages ensuring a neater and often stronger bind. 

Can you make booklets with pockets built into the cover?

Yes we can but it is a much slower process than our automated booklet-making so we prefer to quote these as bespoke jobs.

Why has the printing cracked down the spine of the booklet?

Fibre-cracking on folds is a natural characteristic of paper and is more noticeable where heavy ink coverage is intended to go over the spine. This can be reduced by pre-creasing covers which Flexpress do as a matter of course on cover-weights over 250gsm or can be eliminated completely by choosing to laminate your covers, prior to booklet-making. Unfortunately, on lighter paper stocks there is little we can do to prevent a degree of cracking so it's best to avoid designing covers where there this is likely to be a concern. Please be aware: Flexpress can't be held responsible for fibre-cracking when laminating is not chosen. We can, of course custom quote for bespoke sizes.

I've got a booklet over 40 pages would I be best to have it PUR Perfect-bound?

This depends on the books use and your budget. Saddle-stitched booklets tend to lay flatter when opened than perfect-bound books, and are a cheaper option, but a perfect-bound booklet gives a better-quality, more professional impression. The thicker the saddle stitched booklet, the less flat it will sit when closed and the more bulge out you'll need to compensate for in the design (the V spine pushes the central pages beyond the cover width meaning more is trimmed off - often causing issues with images or text, such as page numbers that have been designed close to the edges). Perfect-bound books have the same trim off all pages so this is not likely to be an issue.

I'd like an obscure size. Can I assume it will be the same price if it fits within the same area?

Unfortunately not. Whilst at first glance this would seem fair, custom sizes require more work for us to produce. For example: our pre-press department can automate the imposition of standard sizes but custom sizes have to be done manually. We have programmes ready set up on our guillotines for standard sizes but not for custom sizes and custom sizes are much more difficult, and expensive for us to pack.

 

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Artwork Templates - A4 Stapled Booklets

Please select a template from the options below. Templates are available in Adobe InDesign or Adobe PDF formats. In your chosen design software, please duplicate the template page to your required amount of pages.

Template ref: FXP-A4-Page
Finished Size: A4 (210mm x 297mm)
Size with Bleed: 216mm x 303mm
Download:  
Template ref: FXP-A4-Page-Landscape
Finished Size: A4 (297mm x 210mm)
Size with Bleed: 303mm x 216mm
Download:  
File Set-up Information
We would always recommend using Adobe InDesign to create your booklet artwork, with the easiest way being to download one of our templates above and use that as your base. When exporting your file as a PDF, please ensure you select 'Press Quality' in the output settings, and ensure you have 3mm bleed and trim marks. We work to FOGRA39 colour standards too, so please ensure you are using that colour profile.

For saddle stitched (Stapled) booklets, please ensure your pages are supplied in 1 file, in running order as per this sample PDF.

File Check

All files supplied go through our 10 point file check

Quality

We use only high quality, responsibly sourced papers

Dispatch

Express, Standard or Saver dispatch options available

Delivery

Completely FREE delivery to all mainland UK addresses