Options For Tri Fold Brochure Paper

Just as there are many ways to design a tri fold brochure, there are many different kinds of tri fold brochure paper options available. The way to figure out which option is best for you will depend upon your budget, number of copies needed, the equipment you have to make copies with, the quality of the brochure and how much of an original design you want vs. preprinted design.

Impacting Your Budget

One element in deciding what tri fold brochure paper to use is knowing how much money you are willing or able to spend on your brochure. Part of this will depend on the quantity of brochures you need. Specialty tri fold brochure paper is usually sold in packages of 100 or 150 sheets. Depending upon the quality you choose, these packages range from about $8 to $30. If you have a need for, let's say, 500 brochures and choose the highest quality paper, you would be looking at about $150 just for the paper. However, coming up with the highest quality you can afford will go a long way in properly promoting what your brochure is about.

Available Equipment

Another element in choosing the right tri fold brochure paper for your needs is to consider what equipment the brochures will be printed with. There are special papers made just for feeding through a xerox copy machine. Sometimes the heat from the copy machines can melt, distort or fade paper that isn't intended for use in them. And remember that if you feed thick paper through a copy machine, there is normally a special setting to tell the machine it's running thicker paper. This will ensure less jams...hopefully! There is also special tri fold brochure paper for laser printers and ink jet printers. Again, the laser printers can get hot. The specialty papers are specifically designed to work best (heat resistant, more absorbent, etc.) for the type of machine they were made for. Clearly, the highest quality of printing you can have done will be the best promoter of the subject of your brochure. The simple black and white copy machine has the poorest quality, followed up by printing full color with ink jet, then full color with laser and best is a full color copy machine.

Tri Fold Brochure Paper Quality

There are many options available for any method of printing you will use. You can choose glossy, matte, regular paper thickness, card stock thickness, preprinted designs, solid colors or textures. The kind and color of the tri fold brochure paper you use should be determined as your brochure is being designed. You should try to keep the paper as professional and simple as possible. The majority of the paper should be solid, at least where there will be text. Generally, the lightest shade of a desired color should be used to help the text stand out and be more easily legible. The quality of the paper your brochure is printed on will be noticed and will say how important and professional your subject matter is.

Original vs. Preprinted Design

Some tips on original vs. preprinted design were touched on in the paragraph above. Making sure the majority of the paper is solid and using a light shade is helpful. Sometimes the use of preprinted design paper can enhance a brochure, making it appear more professional or using things such as a gold emblem that cannot be accomplished with a printer or copy machine. Although, sometimes the difference between the preprinted design and the graphics or text that is printed on said paper is a noticeable contrast and does not appear professional. Take care to incorporate as close to the same color schemes to print with as what the preprinted design is.

A final word on using tri fold brochure paper. Whenever possible, buy and run a few sample copies first, before loading up the whole package of paper and pushing "print" or "copy". This way you will see what the brochure will look like on that particular paper and you can make adjustments to the brochure itself or try another paper.

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