A catalogue often stays on your customer's desk after a sales meeting, sits on your dealer's counter or arrives by email before you do. So catalogue design is not just about lining products up on pages; it tells the story of your brand, your range and your reliability in one publication. In this guide we cover print and digital catalogues, from content all the way to the printing press.
Print or digital?
A printed catalogue is strong at trade fairs, on customer visits and on a dealer's shelf; a quality publication you can hold adds weight to a brand. A digital catalogue, usually a PDF, is emailed, downloaded from your website and easier to update. For many companies the right answer is both.
The two formats are read differently, though. A PDF needs a clickable table of contents, links from products to your website and a file size that emails comfortably. In print, paper choice, binding and page layout come first. Before you start on catalogue design, decide which format will be used most and build the design around it.
Content plan and a standard for product information
Content plan
Content comes before design. Be clear about who the catalogue is for, what the reader wants to know and what you want them to do next. A machinery manufacturer's technical catalogue, a pet food brand's dealer catalogue and a beauty salon's service brochure meet very different needs. Even a restaurant menu is a small catalogue: dishes are grouped, the plates you want to highlight go where the eye lands first, and the text must be readable in dim light.
Next, draw up a page plan: cover, a short company introduction, product groups, technical information and a contact page. Knowing which product goes on which page keeps the catalogue design balanced. Saddle-stitched catalogues usually need a page count in multiples of four; confirm this with your printer for your chosen binding.
A standard for product information
A common problem is products described with different information on different pages. Giving dimensions for one product but not the next leaves the reader unsure. Decide from the start which details each product group will show:
- Product name and product code
- Dimensions, weight or volume
- Material, colour and variant options
- Area of use or key benefit
- Packaging and ordering information
Taking this information from a single source, such as an up-to-date product spreadsheet, reduces errors, and texts that reach the design stage already approved mean shorter revision rounds.
Grid, typography and photography
Grid and typography
A grid divides pages into invisible columns and rows. With a good grid, product boxes, headings and tables sit in the same place on every page, and after a few pages the reader knows where to look. In catalogue design, consistency is worth more than a handful of beautiful pages.
Use a few typefaces and a clear hierarchy so that section headings, product names, descriptions and technical details are easy to tell apart. White space is not emptiness but room for the page to breathe; a cramped page is hard to read, however much it carries. Colours, typefaces and logo use should match your corporate identity, as we explain in our brand identity guide.
Photo quality
A catalogue can never look better than its photos, which often take up the largest area on the page and are the first thing the reader sees. Shots taken at different times, in different light and on different backgrounds make even the best layout look messy. Shooting each product group from the same angle, on the same background and with the same lighting unifies the pages. Print also needs high-resolution images: a file that looks sharp on screen can come out blurry on paper. We cover the shoot step by step in our product photography guide.
Preparing for print: technical checks
Print preparation is the most technical stage of catalogue design. A catalogue that looks flawless on screen can disappoint if the print settings are wrong. Check these points before you send the file to the printer:
- Colour mode: Files for print are prepared in CMYK. RGB colours used on screen can look duller in print, so define print equivalents for your brand colours.
- Bleed: Images and backgrounds that run to the page edge are extended beyond it, so no white line is left after trimming. Leave the bleed your printer asks for.
- Resolution: Photos for print are generally expected to be around 300 dpi at their printed size.
- Safe area: Keep important text and page numbers away from the trim line.
- Fonts: Make sure the fonts are embedded in the file.
- Proof: Ask for a colour proof or sample print before the full run; the paper has a noticeable effect on colour.
Export a separate PDF for screen: optimised, in RGB and smaller in size. Emailing the heavy print file only burdens the recipient.
Multilingual catalogues: adapt, don't just translate
If you export, or exhibit at trade fairs with international visitors, your catalogue needs versions in other languages. In multilingual catalogue design, text length is the biggest surprise: the same sentence takes up noticeably more space in some languages. So build a layout flexible enough to hold together when the text grows.
Check that your typeface supports the special characters of both your own language and the target language. Adapt units of measurement, date formats and technical terms to the target market, and have texts rewritten for its readers rather than translated word for word; that is what gets a catalogue read.
Plan for updates from the start
Product ranges change: new models arrive and some products are discontinued. So that you don't have to redesign from scratch every time, set up your catalogue design as an updatable system from day one. Master page templates, paragraph and character styles and ready-made layouts for product boxes make this much easier.
Information that changes often, such as price lists or promotions, works well in a separate insert. A version date on the back cover or imprint tells your team and dealers which edition is current. And replace the PDF on your website with every update: an old catalogue can lead to requests for a product you no longer make.
Let's create your catalogue together
Effective catalogue design comes from a clear content plan, a consistent layout, quality photography and careful print preparation. If you are getting ready for a trade fair, it helps to plan your catalogue and your stand together; our exhibition stand guide can help with that. You can explore our catalogue and print design work for print-ready and digital catalogues, and get in touch with us about a new catalogue or a refresh of your current one.