What is creep, and why your booklet allows for it

If you have ever prepared a booklet and been asked to keep content away from the outer edge, creep is usually the reason. It is a normal part of how folded booklets are made, and once you understand it, it is easy to design around. Here is what it is and what it means for your file.

What creep is

A stapled booklet is made from sheets that are folded and nested inside one another, then stitched at the spine. Because each sheet sits inside the one before it, the pages nearer the middle have to wrap around a little more paper at the spine, so their outer edge pushes out slightly further than the outer pages. That small progressive shift is called creep.

When the booklet is trimmed, all the pages are cut flush at the outer (fore) edge. The pages that pushed out furthest lose the most in the trim, so their outer margin ends up tighter than the outer pages. The more pages your booklet has, and the thicker the paper, the more pronounced it is.

What it means for your artwork

The good news is that we handle the technical side. When we impose your booklet for print, we shift each page's content slightly back towards the spine to compensate, so your margins stay even through the finished booklet. You do not need to build creep into your file yourself.

What does help is giving that compensation room to work:

• Keep important content clear of the outer edge. Anything sitting right against the fore edge, such as page numbers, folios or a thin border, is the first thing to suffer if margins tighten.
• Supply single pages, in reading order. That is what lets us impose the booklet and apply the compensation. Spreads tie our hands.
• Avoid full-page borders that run close to the trim. Small differences in the margin become very visible on a border, even after compensation.

The short version

Creep is the natural push-out of inner pages in a folded booklet. We correct for it when we impose your job, and all you need to do is keep anything important away from the outer edge. For the full file requirements, see our guide to preparing artwork for booklets.