A booklet in Dubai starts at AED 150 for a single A4 12-page copy, and drops to roughly AED 2.89 per copy at 1,000 units (AED 2,890 for a 300 gsm-cover booklet, open A4 / closed A5). The three decisions that set your price are page count, binding type and cover GSM — in that order. This guide explains saddle stitching versus glue binding, why page counts must be multiples of four, how to split cover and inner paper weights, and what each option actually costs, with live VAT-inclusive prices from our catalogue and UAE-wide delivery.
Booklet, catalogue or brochure? Getting the vocabulary right
These three words get used interchangeably by clients and very precisely by printers, which is where quoting confusion starts.
- Brochure — a single sheet, printed both sides, folded. No binding, no stitching. Two folds gives you six panels. This is the cheapest multi-panel format by a wide margin.
- Booklet — multiple separate sheets bound together at the spine, typically 8 to 32 pages. Used for company profiles, event programmes, training manuals, menus.
- Catalogue — functionally a booklet, but with a heavier cover and a higher page count (32 pages and up), designed to sit on a desk and be flipped through repeatedly. Our standard catalogue build is 44 pages with a 300 gsm cover.
If you're deciding between them: under 8 pages of content, print a folded brochure. Between 8 and 28 pages, saddle-stitched booklet. Above 32 pages, glue-bound catalogue.
Binding types compared
Saddle stitch (wire stitching)
Sheets are nested inside one another and stapled through the fold. It's the cheapest binding, it lies flat when open, and it's ideal from 8 to about 40 pages. Beyond that the outer pages start to bulge and the inner pages creep outward at the fore-edge — a printer will trim for creep, but past ~48 pages the format simply stops working.
Glue binding (perfect binding)
Pages are stacked, the spine edge is milled and glue is applied, then a wrap-around cover is attached. This is what our 1,000-copy catalogues use. You get a flat printable spine (so it can carry a title on a shelf), a premium feel, and no page limit worth worrying about. It needs a minimum of roughly 40 pages to produce a spine thick enough to hold glue.
Wire-o and spiral
Metal loops through punched holes. It lies completely flat and folds back on itself, which is why training manuals, recipe books and workshop guides use it. It costs more per copy than saddle stitch, and it isn't suitable for a printed spine.
The multiple-of-four rule (this is where budgets break)
A booklet is made of folded sheets. One sheet folded once gives four pages. So every saddle-stitched booklet must have a page count divisible by four: 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32. There is no such thing as a 14-page saddle-stitched booklet.
If your content lands at 14 pages you have three options: cut to 12, expand to 16, or leave two pages blank or as a notes section. Expanding from 12 to 16 pages is usually cheaper than you'd guess — you're adding one more sheet, not a third more of everything — but stepping from 16 to 20 in a long run is a real cost. Plan the page count before design starts, not after.
Cover and inner GSM: where the "quality" feeling comes from
Almost every quality complaint about booklets traces back to paper weight rather than print quality. The standard build:
- Cover 300 gsm — stiff, holds its shape, survives being carried around an exhibition. This is what our 1,000-copy booklets and catalogues use.
- Inner pages 170 gsm — substantial enough that print doesn't show through from the reverse side, still light enough to turn easily.
- Inner pages 130–150 gsm — acceptable for high page counts where total weight and cost matter, such as a 64-page catalogue.
- 200 gsm throughout — used when there's no separate cover, as in our 250-copy A4-to-A5 booklet. Gives a uniform, premium card feel.
A practical test: if your design has large solid colour areas or dark photography, do not go below 150 gsm inner. Show-through on a dark page ruins an otherwise good job.
Real booklet and catalogue prices (VAT inclusive)
These are live prices from our Booklets & Catalogues collection.
| Product | Format | Pages / Paper | Quantity | Price (AED) | Per copy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Booklet A4 | A4 | 12 pages, 170 gsm | 1 | 150 | 150.00 |
| Catalogues A4 landscape | A4 landscape | 170 gsm | 50 | 1,420 | 28.40 |
| Booklet, 12 pages | Standard | 12 pages | 500 | 1,890 | 3.78 |
| Booklets A5 | A5 | 16 pages, 170 gsm | 500 | 3,000 | 6.00 |
| Booklets, folded A4 to A5 | Closed A5 | 200 gsm | 250 | 3,990 | 15.96 |
| Booklet, 300 gsm cover | Open A4 / closed A5 | 300 gsm cover | 1,000 | 2,890 | 2.89 |
| Booklet, 300 gsm cover | Open A3 / closed A4 | 300 gsm cover | 1,000 | 5,200 | 5.20 |
| Catalogues, glue bound | Open A4 / closed A5 | 44 pages, 300 gsm cover + 170 gsm inner | 1,000 | 3,260 | 3.26 |
| Catalogues, glue bound | Open A3 / closed A4 | 300 gsm cover | 1,000 | 5,680 | 5.68 |
Read that per-copy column carefully — it's the single most useful number in this article. A 44-page glue-bound A5 catalogue at 1,000 copies costs AED 3.26 each. The same money spent on 250 copies of a heavier 200 gsm booklet costs AED 15.96 each. Booklet economics are dominated by setup, so quantity is the lever that moves your unit cost, not paper.
When a folded brochure beats a booklet
If your content genuinely fits on six or eight panels, a folded brochure will cost a fraction of a bound booklet. Prices from our brochure printing collection:
| Brochure | Paper | 1,000 pcs | 2,000 pcs | 5,000 pcs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A4, wood-free | 100 gsm | 475 | 590 | 735 |
| A4, glossy | 115 gsm | 525 | 690 | 840 |
| A4, glossy | 135 gsm | 580 | 710 | 990 |
| A4, glossy | 170 gsm | 610 | 750 | 1,100 |
| B4 (34 × 24 cm), glossy | 170 gsm | 650 | 840 | 1,260 |
At 5,000 copies an A4 glossy brochure is AED 0.22 each. No bound booklet comes close. The trade-off is that a brochure gets read once and discarded; a catalogue sits on a procurement manager's desk for a year.
Preparing artwork that won't come back with problems
- Supply single pages, not spreads. Send page 1, page 2, page 3 in order as individual PDF pages. The printer handles imposition — sending pre-made spreads is the most common cause of a delayed job.
- 3 mm bleed on all four edges, with crop marks. Anything that touches the edge of the page must extend 3 mm past it.
- Keep text 5 mm inside the trim, and 8–10 mm away from the spine on a glue-bound catalogue — glue binding swallows a few millimetres of the inner margin.
- CMYK, 300 dpi. RGB images will shift, and a photo pulled from a website at 72 dpi will print soft no matter what paper you choose.
- Embed or outline your fonts so the file opens identically on our system.
Don't have print-ready files? Our design team can build the layout from your content — request help through the designer request page.
How to order in Dubai, and how long it takes
Choose the product and quantity on the collection page, upload artwork or ask for design support, approve the digital proof, and we produce. Glue-bound catalogues take 7 business days after final approval; saddle-stitched booklets and folded brochures are faster. Delivery is included across Dubai, with UAE-wide shipping to Sharjah, Ajman and Abu Dhabi.
One scheduling note for exhibition work: build in a week of buffer. If your stand opens on a Sunday and your catalogues are due the Thursday before, one round of artwork corrections eats your entire margin. Order two weeks out.
Frequently asked questions
What is the minimum order for booklet printing in Dubai?
One. A single A4 12-page booklet on 170 gsm is AED 150 — useful for a prototype, a tender submission or a single board presentation. Realistic marketing runs start at 250 or 500 copies, where the per-copy cost falls to AED 6–16.
How many pages can a saddle-stitched booklet have?
Any multiple of four, practically from 8 to about 40 pages. Above that, switch to glue binding. Glue binding needs roughly 40 pages minimum to form a spine that holds.
What's the difference between "open A4, closed A5" and just "A5"?
It describes the flat sheet before folding. Open A4 / closed A5 means each sheet is A4, folded once to give an A5 booklet — four A5 pages per sheet. Open A3 / closed A4 gives you an A4 booklet. The closed size is what your customer holds; the open size tells the printer which press sheet to use, and it's why the A4 version costs around double.
Can I mix paper weights between the cover and the inner pages?
Yes, and you should. The standard specification is a 300 gsm cover with 170 gsm inner pages — our 1,000-copy catalogue at AED 3,260 is built exactly this way. Matte or gloss lamination on the cover only is also a common upgrade; it protects the cover without making inner pages hard to write on.
Do the prices include VAT and delivery?
Yes. Every price shown is VAT inclusive, and delivery within Dubai is included. Ask us about lead times for Abu Dhabi and the Northern Emirates when you order.
Can you print bilingual English–Arabic catalogues?
Yes, and it's very common in the UAE. Two approaches: run both languages side by side on each spread, or produce a flip book — English opening left-to-right, Arabic opening right-to-left from the back cover. The flip book reads better but needs the page count planned around the mid-point from the start.
Get a quote on your booklet or catalogue
Browse the full range on our Booklets & Catalogues collection, or compare the folded option in brochure printing. Send us your page count, closed size and quantity and we'll come back with an exact price.
Call or WhatsApp: 0522100909 (WhatsApp +971522100909)
Related reading: Brochure Printing in Dubai: Folds, Sizes, GSM & Real Prices and the complete exhibition printing checklist.
