Taking the Wrinkles out of Folding

By Joe Haddad

 

Looking for an easy way to make your business or organization’s print communications stand apart from the rest? Try a new fold. Accordian, gate, French, letterfold – these are just a few of the hundreds of folding styles to choose from. Yet if you monitor your mail for a month, you might conclude that there are only a few folding options. Designing documents for folding can be tricky, which is why the same traditional folds are used in many print communications. Here’s some advice to take the wrinkles out of document design and ease the complexities of folding.

 

Take time to plan

Planning for the project and setting up the digital document are essential steps in the folding process. It is much harder to work backward – and easier to make mistakes.

 

For starters, determine the purpose of the brochure. Will it be a self-mailer, handed out at a trade show, mailed in an envelope or distributed in multiple ways? If the piece is a self-mailer, don’t overlook postal regulations for wafer seals, weights, sizes and standards. Talk to your print consultant or local post office. Many reference materials and guidelines are available for standard and business reply mail.

 

Based on your project’s budget, your print consultant or designer can help you determine the best design, printing and folding options to maximize your message. If the piece will be mailed in an envelope and you’re on a tight budget, choose a size and fold that will fit into a standard envelope. A simple change, such as switching paper or slightly reducing the finished size to fit two documents on a printed sheet can yield dramatic savings.

 

Once you’ve chosen a folding style, determine the finished size (the dimensions of the piece once it has been trimmed and folded) so you can begin to design the piece digitally.

 

Think “flat” in terms of design

When designing for output to the printed page, you must design flat. For example, take any folded brochure, unfold it, lay it out flat and see what it looks like. This is exactly how the document should be set up. If it’s printed on both sides, flip it over and you have page two of the digital document.

 

Common mistakes include making separate documents for each side of the piece, or designing a piece that “floats” on a larger page with crop marks. The document should be set up to the exact dimensions of the flat size with bleeds (text or graphics running off the page) extending past the document edge at least 1/8”.

 

Paper is three-dimensional, and therefore if one brochure panel is to fold into another, the inner panel must be slightly smaller, usually by 1/8” or 3/16”, but will vary based on the folding style. If the panel is not reduced in size, the folded sheet won’t lie flat.

 

If you’re unsure about the proper space to allow for a given folding style, don’t hesitate to call your print professional or bindery person and request a diagram or digital template. This will help you avoid any potential wrinkles in your finished document.