Custom Printed Leaflets.

A leaflet folds and a flyer doesn't. The fold lets a leaflet carry more content in a smaller footprint and gives it a reading order, with panels opening in sequence.

It also changes the distribution route. Flyers get handed out or dropped through doors, while leaflets mostly live in display racks at receptions, tourist offices and surgeries, which is where the sizing and layout rules come from.

Because only the top third is visible once the leaflet is standing in a rack. Everything below the lip of the holder is hidden until someone picks it up, so the hook, the brand and the reason to reach for it all have to sit in that band.

We plan artwork around that visible area before anything else. Headlines placed lower on the cover are the most common design fault we see on rack leaflets.

A single fold is usually enough, and the more folds you add, the more the message dilutes. Bi-fold, tri-fold and Z-fold are all standard, and a roll fold works when you want panels to open one at a time.

On a roll fold the inner panels have to be cut slightly narrower or the piece won't close flat. We calculate those panel widths on the dieline before you lay out any type.

130gsm silk for volume distribution and 150gsm silk for anything going into a rack. The lighter sheet is economical and folds cleanly. The heavier one stands upright in a holder instead of curling forward after a week.

Above roughly 170gsm the sheet needs creasing before folding, otherwise the fibres crack along the fold and show a white line through the print.

Most leaflets go out unlaminated, which is the cheapest and most recyclable option. Matt lamination earns its place when a leaflet sits in a rack for weeks and has to survive being handled repeatedly without scuffing.

Gloss lamination suits photographic tourism pieces where colour saturation matters. For text-heavy information leaflets, matt or uncoated stock reads more easily because small type fights with a glossy surface.

DL at 3.9 x 8.27 inches and A5 at 5.83 x 8.27 inches are the two sizes almost every rack is built for. DL is an A4 sheet folded into thirds, and its footprint of roughly 99 x 210 mm is the rack standard.

Check the holder before designing anything oversized. A leaflet a few millimetres too wide won't sit in a standard DL rack, and we don't produce oversized rack formats for that reason.

We print leaflets from 500 pieces. Leaflets are a volume product and the cost per unit falls steeply as the run grows, with tiered pricing once you pass 1,000.

Short runs suit a pilot, an event or a test of two layouts. For ongoing distribution, ordering a larger quantity in one go is nearly always cheaper than repeating small runs.

A leaflet job turns around in 7 to 10 business days from artwork approval, and 5 to 7 business days on a rush. If you want to check the fold and stock in hand first, a sample takes 5 to 7 business days.

The cost of the sample leaflet is deducted when you place the print run. Recycled and uncoated stocks run on the same schedule as silk, so choosing them doesn't slow the job down.