Books & Booklets

Booklets are where in-house printing usually stops being sensible. A 32-page programme run on the office MFP means someone standing at the machine collating, a stapler that cannot reach the centre of the spread, and covers that curl. It is the one job that reliably eats an afternoon.

Our bureau takes the file and returns finished work. Day-to-day colour and mono jobs are produced on our own kit in-market; larger runs, perfect-bound books and specialist finishing are routed to Alpine Print in Auckland, the group’s commercial print business. One account manager handles the brief, the proof, the production routing and the delivery either way — you are not chasing two suppliers for one job.

Binding is picked to suit the document. Saddle-stitch is right up to about 64 pages; past that the spine needs perfect binding or PUR, and a manual that will be opened flat on a workbench every day wants wire-o instead.

Where it fits

• Annual reports and board papers — Short runs, a hard deadline, and a document that has to look like the organisation behind it.
• Training manuals and course readers — Wire-o so they lie flat, on stock heavy enough to survive a workshop.
• Event programmes and conference handbooks — Saddle-stitched, produced to a fixed date rather than a hopeful one.
• Catalogues and lookbooks — Perfect-bound with a laminated cover, where the print quality is part of the pitch.
• Government gazettes and statutory publications — Recurring, brand-templated and scheduled, produced on the same cadence each cycle.