Color brochure printing can have many kinds of folds. There is the common tri-fold brochure, and there is the unique French fold brochure. One of the most popular in use nowadays however are gate fold color brochures. In this article we will guide you on how gate fold color brochures work and how to create and use them effectively.



How gate folds are folded - First, let us know more about how gate fold brochures are folded. Gate folds are made by folding a landscape type paper at the ends of its page inward so that they meet in the middle. Afterwards you fold the folded pages in half again in the same direction. The end result should be that you can open the inner part of the brochure by unfolding the panels outwardly to the left and right, much like opening a double door gate. Once folded, a gate fold brochure has a total of eight panels, four on the front and four on the back, all side by side. The outer panels at the edge of the paper are usually narrower than those in the center so that they can fit better once the whole brochure is folded.

Parts of a gate fold brochure ? A gate fold brochure as described above has two major sections the outer ?cover? section with four panels, and the inner gate section with four panels as well. For this article we will name the panels for clarity's sake. On the outer section, the one that is shown outside, we have four panels which we will number 1,2,3 and 4 from left to right while facing the section. In the inner section, we shall number the panels 5, 6, 7, 8 from left to right while facing the section as well.

All four inner panels 5 to 8 are usually used for the main body of the color brochures. This is where usually people write about the benefits of the product or service being advertised. Also, all major content like descriptions, contact numbers and project or promotional details etc are printed in these body pages.

After the body pages, we also have the cover pages. These require more attention when it comes to presentation and design. Cover pages are part of the outer section of the brochure and are panels two and three in our description. They are the ones that people can see when the brochure is fully folded. So design these panels with the best layout as possible to attract people into reading your brochure.

Finally, we have the flap pages. These are panels 1 and 4 in our description. Typically, people just put supplementary materials in these panels that help explain the content in the body panels. Sometimes people even leave these panels blank, or they become extensions of the cover panel designs if possible.

When to use gate folds ? Gate folds can be used for many different kinds of brochures, from business brochures, advertising brochures and even informational leaflets. The advantage however with gate fold brochures over others like tri-fold brochures are its panels. With four panels for the body, plus two auxiliary panels in the flaps you can put a lot of information in a gate fold brochure. Brochures with a lot of image and content usually use this configuration. So if you have a lot of things that you need to print in your brochures, gate folds might be your ideal fold for the project.

Great! I hope you have learned a lot about gate fold brochures. It is a nice example of a different style of folding for brochures that can make your own brochure printing unique when compared to the common tri-fold brochure. So make sure you use this type once just to try out its effectiveness.