Picking brochures as your marketing material presents plenty of ways to maximize the space you have. You pay for a single sheet but it can have 1 to as many as 8 panels, allowing you to take its appeal up a notch.

Multi-paneled

With a typical 8.5” x 11” paper, you can have them folded once lengthwise or crosswise to get a total of 4 panels, 2 in front and 2 more at the back. Folding it thrice gives it 6 sections, 3 for each page. This gives you several options to play with the layout and design of your brochures.

There’s even a variety of folding patterns that you can choose from. Basics are half-fold and letter fold which creates 4 and 6 panels, respectively.

There is also what you call a Z-fold. The paper is divided into three parts by folding it twice, but instead of a simple fold overlap as in letter fold, all edges are exposed in the Z-fold and at side view, brochure edges follow the pattern of the letter Z.

Other options are accordion fold, gate fold, barrel fold, French fold and parallel fold.

More color, more appeal

Depending on your design strategy, you can use 4/4, 4/1 and 4/0 color options. For 4/4, both the front and back pages are printed in full color. With 4/1, on the other hand, although both sides are printed on, one is in full color and the other is black-inked only.

The simplest of the three is 4/0 in which the brochure is printed in full color on one page while the opposite page is kept blank.

The advantage with 4/0 is its lower price compared to the two. However, 4/1 and 4/4 give you more freedom and opportunities to make your brochures stand out, especially with 4/4.

Color brochure printing comes with numerous options to make it different from what’s already out there. Mix and match the specs, and be creative. Before you know it, you’ve got a brochure with a strong sales statement and a unique look.