The New Year is upon us, and that means annual report season is almost here. Although the numbers they contain may or may not be pretty, annual reports still need to look their best. For many companies, it’s the most visible piece they’ll send out all year. With that in mind, here are some suggestions for creating attractive and functional reports without blowing your budget or schedule.

Determine the appropriate binding style
Before your reports are printed, determine which binding style best suits your budget, schedule, and design. Although a very thin report (12 or 16 pages, for example) may be saddle stitched, the majority of annual reports are adhesive or mechanically-bound. If adhesion is an issue because of difficult stock or ink bleeding into the spine, notch binding or PUR glue may be required.

Layout and planning tips
There are some production factors that must be considered in order for the project to turn out properly:

Leave a glue trap and glue catch – On adhesive-bound reports, leave at least an 1/8” glue trap at the foot and a 1/16” glue catch at the head of your covers. These margins help prevent glue from seeping onto text sheets or other covers during binding.

Knock out ink and coatings – Paper fiber-on-paper fiber adhesion is always optimal. On perfect bound annual reports, be sure to keep inks and coatings clear of the spine and side glue areas. PUR can avoid some of these problems.

Grain direction is important – The grain direction of your printed sheets is very important to the overall look of a project. Make sure paper grain is parallel to the binding edge to prevent unsightly blemishes such as nailheads and web growth.

Use a bulking dummy – Always make a bulking dummy prior to printing covers. This will help you properly place color breaks on the spine and other images.