From business and association directory printing to membership and church directory printing, access the online directory printing services you need at a price you can afford—at Publishing Xpress. Request a free sample or get a quote for your project today.
While putting a directory printing together for your church or organization may seem like a daunting task, there is lots of online help that can assist with your efforts. For instance, check out this article on organizing and producing a church directory. At Publishing Xpress, we have printed many directory printing projects.
Publishing Xpress offers a full range of professional printing choices. Plus enjoy the convenience of simple online ordering—backed by a 100% satisfaction guarantee for your print directory.
Looking for inspiration for directory printing, including association directories, membership directories, and church directories? Check out our client spotlights:
Whether you’re printing an association directory, membership directory, church directory, or some other type of directory, keep these tips in mind:
Decide early on which type of binding style you want to use for your directory printing project. Depending on the type of directory and how often it will be used, you can use any of our four options — perfect bound, plastic coil, saddle stitch, or wire-o. Directories that won’t be used that often will be fine with perfect binding or saddle stitch binding. With saddle stitch binding, your page count can’t be any higher than 80 pages. For any of the other binding options, you can use up to 500 pages or more, depending on the paper thickness. Plastic coil and wire-o binding are good options for directories that will be frequently used.
Consider our heaviest cover stocks if the directory will be heavily used. A heavy cover stock adds durability to the directory. Our heaviest cover stocks are 120# and 16 pt., which can only be used with plastic coil and wire-o binding. Adding lamination to the cover will add a little more thickness and offer protection. We also offer clear plastic covers for the front and colored plastic covers for the back, if you really want to add thickness to the covers.
We offer a wide range of paper stocks for the inside pages of your directory. To decide which options are best for your directory, request our free sample packet. Not only does it include samples of our four binding options (perfect bound, plastic coil, saddle stitch, and wire-o), but the plastic coil book has samples of all of our papers stocks as well as gloss and soft-touch lamination. Many clients find this package very helpful when making decisions for their books.
Most directories list names, addresses, and phone numbers for all of the members. While we understand how tough it can be to get all of that information right, a member whose name is misspelled or whose phone number is wrong may not be as understanding. Careful proofreading is crucial with directories — you may even want two or more people to proofread the information.
Directories can be very text heavy. Consider adding photos throughout the directory to make it more visually appealing. Photos of members interacting together, events that the organization has held, meeting of the executive board — all of these are great options for adding photos to the directory.
Before you start laying out the directory, get a few directories from other organizations and go through them. Which ones appeal to you? Why? Do they use photos to break up all the text? Do they separate the list by the letter of their last name? Do they have page numbers in the directory? How do they add color? Or is it a black and white directory? Do they add other information to the directory — like the executive board, the organization’s constitution, a calendar of upcoming events? Incorporate the features you like in your layout.
If your directory will be perfect bound, plastic coil bound, or wire-o bound, keep in mind that you need an extra large margin on the bound side of the book. With perfect binding, about 1/8 of an inch will be within the spine of the book. With plastic coil and wire-o, about 1/8 of an inch will be used when punching the book. Make sure to add at least another 1/2 to the bound side margin so that all of the text is visible and easy to read.
Don’t leave any of the cover pages blank. You have four pages — front outside cover, front inside cover, back inside cover, and back outside cover. The covers are the most noticeable areas of the directory and all four should be used to present important information.
To help defray the costs of printing the directory, consider selling advertising within the directory. Advertising can come from members or local businesses. Real estate agents, banks, local restaurants, lawn services, and area stores may all be interested in paying to advertise in your directory. You can either scatter the ads throughout the directory or place them all in back, behind the organization’s information.
Ready to get started on your directory print project? Call Publishing Xpress at 1-877-977-3779 today. You can also email us at help@publishingxpress.com or chat online (our chat feature is in the bottom right corner on every page on our website). Our client service representatives can answer any questions you may have about our online print process. They’re always happy to help you in anyway they can. Or check out our other book printing ideas.
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