Friday, December 12, 2008

Building a Booklet From the Ground Up

Content first

When building a booklet for printing always start with the content first. Booklet printing shouldn't be done on the fly. First make an outline of the concepts that you want included in your booklet. These can be your subheadings. Try to summarize the major topic or concept being discussed for each subheading name. This gives the bonus of organizing your thoughts, "compartamentalizing" each major subject in easily managed chunks. This makes it easier to write the content.

Once you have a decent outline, start writing and expounding the details for each heading and subheading. Keep in mind that subheadings are a weak connector for different paragraphs, so try and keep the topics of consecutive subheadings related. This should keep you from going on a different tangent altogether when writing.

Layout next

When you print booklets, the layout is a crucial thing to consider. If you have pictures or cliparts make some room for them, but don't let them overwhelm the content. A booklet is about information, and not totally about flashy designs. Instead have the images illustrate what the text is saying at a particular page. Place them conveniently beside the paragraphs to avoid having pages of boring text blocks.

Design and decorate

There are Booklet templates that you can use for booklet printing. Use them if you have no particular flair in designing published works. Some booklet printing services like publishing firms offer people for hire that can design quality booklets for a fee.

If you are designing the booklet yourself however, try using full color booklets. They are always better than black and white ones, especially if you have a beautiful and colorful design or layout. They will stand out more, and would interest otherwise bored readers. Also, try adding borders, line dividers and text boxes. These enhance certain parts of the booklet. Use this as a tool to emphasize on certain facts or topics that you want people to remember. Try and experiment with these details and decorations for booklet printing.

Finally, try to look at the whole booklet you made as a whole. Examine if the layout and design compliment the text within the booklet. A formal or technical booklet should have a simple utilitarian design, with just a hint of minimalistic decoration like a line divider. Informal booklets or booklets with a lighter topic can usually have a more relaxed appearance. They can sport vibrant colors, cartoons and unconventional fonts.

Always fit the content and design to the topic being discussed when printing booklets. This makes your booklet more efficient in communicating your message or information, as well as to make it memorable for future reference.

For more information, you can visit this page on booklet printing.

No comments: