A Complete Guide For Planner Printing And Binding

Posted by susu on May 8th, 2023

This is a complete guide for planner printing and binding, to help you quickly to custom your own planner and save more time on pre-process.

Picture by Erin Condren

What's planner?

Planner is a type of notebook that helps you to organize your daily schedule, which includes a diary, calendar, address book, blank paper, etc part. Planner is available in a daily planner, weekly planner, monthly planner, etc.

What's the difference between a planner and a notebook?

A planner is usually used to organize daily plan, while a notebook is often used for record daily events.

Planner, which design is included a diary, calendar, address book, blank paper, etc part, while a notebook usually is blank paper. A notebook, which allows you to use all pages the same as a planner, but don't need to select daily or weekly planning layout. Also, you can add the monthly calendar page that has not been indicated or add any other page you like to the notebook.

What material is used for printing planner?

The material of planner includes two main parts: cover material and inner page material.

Planner cover material:

Planner cover design will directly affect the first impression of consumers for planner. An excellent planner not only with a design of exquisite appearance, also needs to select suitable material to print the cover. The common materials for printing planner cover are leather, cloth, coated paper, plastic, special paper, etc. Among them, leather cover planner and cloth cover planner are the most popular in planner printing. Because of these two types of cover material looks more high-end and durable.

Picture from BookPrintingChina

Planner inner page material: The common material for planer inner pages is 100g and 140g offset paper. 100g offset paper is thinner than 140g offset paper. The difference between them, 100g offset paper is relatively thin, pen touching is more soft and brings more comfortable writing experience. 140g offset paper is relatively hard, but the appearance is more high-end. Both have their own pros, which depends on your needs.

Besides, the inner paper can't be too thin or thick. If the inner paper is too thin, the characters written in a pen will be deformed due to too much ink; written in ballpoint pen, because of the characteristics of the paper and ballpoint pen, it will easily leave marks of unevenness on the next page. If the inner paper is too thick, first, it will add the weight of planner and affect the portability of the planner; then, because of the paper is too thick, the writing experience will not be good.

Planner printing size

The planner printing size is depends on personal choice. The popular printing size in the planner market is 8.5x11”, A4, A5, etc. Apart from choosing the popular size, you also can custom size for your planner printing, the custom size is based on your design.

Planner printing

The most cost-effective way for mass planner printing is offset printing, not only promise 100% high quality printing, also save cost. If your planner has color cover and black and white inner pages, we often recommend with CMYK printing to print cover, with pure black and white printing to print the inner pages. Because the cost of 100% black and white printing is cheaper than CMYK printing.

Planner finishing

Surface finishing is a post-process technology used to planner printing, to make your planner more stand out and special. The common surface finishings for custom planner printing are emboss and deboss, foil stamping, spot UV, lamination, etc. Like emboss and deboss on the planner cover, which can achieve a 3D effect on the surface. This finishing is often used on leather cover planner. You can emboss or deboss your logo, image, etc. on the cover to make your planner more special. Besides, emboss can combine with foil stamping to achieve a high-end and 3D effect on your planner. We provide many finishing options for you to choose from. We can give you the best suggestion to meet your printing effect. Usually, the finishing is more complex; the cost is more high and production time is longer.

Planner binding

Binding is the last part for planner printing. Selecting suitable binding is very important. Different binding way, the printing effect is different. The common binding method for planner we often see in the bookstore are paperback planner, spiral bound planner and hardcover planner. Among them, spiral binding and hardcover are most popular in custom planner printing.

Picture from BookPrintingChina

Wire-o/spiral bound is one of the most binding way in planner printing. Wire-o/ spiral bound can select the ring color and size based on your planner design and page counts. With this way to binding planner, consumer can open flat and easier to replace page and bring better writing and reading experience for them. Wire-o/ spiral bound is often used for the normal planner printing.

Paperback planner is the most cost-effective way for custom printing planner. Compared to spiral bound and hardcover, which cost and production time is relatively lower. But a paperback planner can't open flat, which is not convenient for readers to read and record their schedule. So most clients will choose spiral bound or hardcover to custom print their planner project.

Hardcover is the most high-end and durable way for printing planner. Hardcover planner has more cover material options, like gray board, Kraft paper, cloth, leather, etc. Yo make your hardcover planner more special, you also can do one of several finishing on the cover finishing. Such as lamination, foil stamping, spot UV, emboss and deboss,etc. But the cost of hardcover planner printing is higher than other binding ways, and the production time is longer than them.

Besides, if you want to custom a planner as a gift, custom planner with a gift box is a good choice. Not only looks more high-end, also can better protect your planner.

Where to print your own planner?

Where to print your own planner when you decide to print it? Select local printing house or online printing?

Local printing house-It's no doubt that printing at the local printing house is a feeling comfortable way for you to print planner. But printing the local printing house, there are many choice limit and cost is relatively higher than online printing.

Online printing-Online printing is a cost-effective way for you to print your own planner. There are thousands of online printing house for you to choose form. You can select several planner printers to compare and then select a suitable one to print your planner. Second, printing online can help you save more cost. Take it printing at BookPrintingChina as an example, we provide various of high quality planner printing services for you to choose from. As a china leading printing company, most of our products are printed with large offset printing machine. For most of bulk printing product, under the premise of ensuring 100% premium printing, we can help you save 40-50% cost .