An art catalog is the thing that outlives the show. Collectors keep them, art galleries archive them, and the artist hands them out for years. It deserves to be printed right, and most of what goes wrong is decided before the file ever reaches a press.

Here is what to know before you print a catalog.

How many pages decides how it is bound

Under about 64 pages, the catalog is saddle-stitched, which is two wire staples through the folded spine. It lies flat when open, which matters for a book of images, and it is the least expensive binding. Most show catalogs are stitched.

Over 64 pages, the staples cannot punch through the stack cleanly, and the book is perfect bound, the glued spine you see on a paperback. Perfect bound gives you a printable spine, which looks right on a shelf. It is not as tough as stitching. A glued book that gets forced flat on a scanner many times can come apart over time, but a catalog that is opened a few times a month will last for years.

Page counts

Saddle-stitched books must be divisible by four. Perfect-bound books must be divisible by two. Blank pages at the back are normal in art books and often look intentional.

Self cover or plus cover

Self cover is the same paper inside and out. Plus cover puts the cover on heavier stock. For a catalog that will be kept, a plus cover is worth it. It protects the inside pages, and it feels like a book rather than a brochure.

Color is the whole point

Screens show color with light. Presses print it with four inks. Saturated colors on a monitor get pulled back when the file converts to CMYK, which is why a painting that glowed on screen can look flat on paper. Convert the images to CMYK in the design software before you place them and look at them again. That is the color you will get. If a color matters, adjust it there.

Ask the printer whether the press is calibrated to G7, the industry color standard. A G7-calibrated shop can match the proof to the printed page because the press and the proofer are set to the same gray balance. For a book of artwork, that is the question to ask before any other.

The file

One PDF, single pages in order, CMYK, 300 DPI, eighth-inch bleed on any image that runs to the edge. Big image files are normal for a catalog, so if the PDF is too large to upload, send it by a share link.

Do not send reader spreads, which are two facing pages side by side. The press prints pages in a different arrangement, and the shop builds it. Single pages only.

On a stitched book over about 40 pages, pull captions, page numbers, and anything near the outside edge of the center pages in toward the spine by an eighth of an inch. The inner pages of a stitched book push outward and get trimmed, and a caption close to the edge on page 30 can get clipped. This is called creep, and it is the most common surprise on a first catalog.

Quantity

Most first catalogs are 500 to 1,000 copies. The setup is the same at any quantity, so the price per book drops sharply between those numbers. Print enough for the show, the mailing list, and the years after.

The proof

Every order gets a PDF proof. Page through it, check the image order, check the center pages for anything tight to the edge, and approve. Nothing prints until you do.

When the file is ready, Custom Booklet Printing prices stitched and perfect-bound books on the site by page count and quantity, and the file guidelines there match the ones above.