Print & Paper
Paper, ink and binding
A thick catalogue is a production problem before it is a design one. Weight, opacity and the way the spine opens decide what the page can do.
Catalogues are among the more demanding things to print. They are long, so paper weight multiplies into postage. They are dense with pictures, so ink coverage is high. They are consulted repeatedly rather than read once, so the binding has to survive being opened flat on a table many times. Each of those pressures pulls in a different direction, and the compromises are visible in any catalogue you pick up.
Weight against postage
Lighter stock reduces postage on every copy mailed, and with a long print run that saving dominates almost every other production cost. This is why catalogue paper is so often thinner than a reader would choose. The limit is show-through: once the picture on the reverse becomes visible behind the description, comparison gets harder and the page starts to look grey.
Opacity is not the same as thickness
Two sheets of the same weight can differ substantially in how much they transmit, depending on filler and finish. That is worth knowing, because it means show-through can sometimes be solved without adding weight. It is also worth designing around: keeping heavy black areas off the reverse of a light page costs nothing and removes the worst of the effect.
Coverage and the look of the ink
High ink coverage across many pages changes how a catalogue feels in the hand and how it dries on press. Catalogues with large flat colour areas need more care about set-off, where one page marks the next in the stack, than catalogues built mainly from line drawings and type. This is one of the quiet reasons line illustration persisted in trade catalogues long after photography was cheap: it reproduces cleanly on rough paper at high speed.
Binding decides how the book is used
- Saddle stitching is cheap and opens flat, but the page count it can carry is limited.
- Perfect binding takes thickness but resists lying open, which is a real cost for a book consulted with both hands busy.
- Sewn sections open flat and last, at a price that only makes sense for a catalogue meant to stay in use for years.
- Ring or post binding suits a catalogue whose pages are replaced in parts, which is why parts books so often use it.
The choice is not really about budget alone. It is about whether the catalogue is a mailing or a reference work. A mailing is read once and discarded, and can be bound accordingly. A reference work will be opened on a bench beside the thing it describes, and if it will not stay open it will be resented every time.
Trimming and the outer margin
Thick books trim unevenly, and the pages nearest the spine lose a little width once folded and cut. A grid drawn without allowance for that will push the outermost column of a thick catalogue uncomfortably close to the edge on the pages that suffer most. The usual remedy is an outer margin slightly more generous than the design wants, which is why catalogue spreads often look marginally asymmetric when measured.