Branded notepads, notebooks and diaries for the office: ordering in bulk without ending up with a cupboard of them
Notepads and notebooks are the corporate print item most likely to be over-ordered, under-used and quietly given away at the year end. They are also, when done properly, the branded item that spends the longest on a client's desk. The difference is in a handful of decisions: the format, the paper, the binding, how many are ordered and who they are for. This guide sets out the options for a Singapore company ordering writing pads for its own staff, notebooks for clients and events, and dated diaries, and how to structure the order so the stock gets used before it goes out of date.
Who gets which
A simple split saves money: staff get the notepad, clients and event delegates get the notebook, and only named senior contacts and long-standing clients get the dated diary. Companies that give every visitor a case-bound notebook spend a great deal on people who will never open it. A pad on the meeting-room table, refilled from a cupboard, does the internal job for a few cents a copy, and the notebook budget goes where it is noticed.
Notepads: the internal workhorse
A notepad is a stack of sheets glued along the top edge to a card backing, with a printed header on each sheet. It is the cheapest branded paper item, used in meeting rooms, at reception and in every drawer. Specification points:
- Size: A4 for meeting rooms and desks, A5 for general use, A6 or DL for reception and telephone notes. A5 with 50 sheets is the standard.
- Paper: 70 to 80 gsm uncoated. Anything heavier is wasted on a tear-off sheet; anything lighter shows the writing through.
- Printing: one or two colours for the header, and a light grey ruled or dotted grid at 10 or 15 percent tint. A full-colour header adds cost across every sheet for a logo that is looked at once.
- Padding: the glue along the top. Ask for a strong padding compound and a stiff 300 gsm or greyboard backer; a soft backer bends in a bag and the sheets start to fall off.
- Sheets per pad: 25, 50 or 100. Fifty is the usual; a hundred-sheet A4 pad is thick and the last forty sheets curl.
A useful variation for firms that take a lot of meeting notes is a pad with a printed layout: date, attendees, actions. It costs the same as a plain ruled pad and makes the notes usable.
Notebooks: the client-facing item
A bound notebook with a printed or embossed cover is a different product. It is handed to clients, put in delegate bags and given to new hires, and it has to look like a thing someone would buy. Specification points:
| Choice | Options | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Binding | Perfect bound, sewn, wire-o, case bound with elastic | Wire-o lies flat and is cheapest for short runs; case bound with an elastic strap is the premium option |
| Size | A5 is standard; A6 pocket, B5 for planners | A5 fits a laptop bag and the standard notebook slot in a delegate bag |
| Cover | Soft-touch laminated card, PU leatherette, kraft, linen cloth | Leatherette with a blind deboss or foil is the classic; laminated card with full-colour print is the budget route |
| Cover branding | Print, foil, blind deboss, embossed patch | A debossed logo with no ink is the most restrained and dates least |
| Pages | 80 to 200, 80 to 100 gsm, ruled, dotted, plain or squared | Dotted grid suits the widest range of users; 100 gsm stops ink bleeding through |
| Extras | Ribbon marker, elastic closure, pen loop, pocket inside the back cover, printed endpapers | Each adds a little; the pocket and ribbon are the ones people use |
Inside pages can carry a light brand presence, a small logo in the footer, page numbers, or a printed first page with the company details. Keep it subtle; a notebook with the logo on every page is one the client does not want to be seen using.
Diaries and planners: the ones with a date on them
A dated diary has a shelf life. It is useful from December to about February, and after that every unissued copy is waste. That changes the ordering rule: order fewer than you think and order early. Diaries are printed in a rush from September to November across the whole industry, and a diary order placed in mid-November for December delivery is in the queue behind everyone else's. Place it by September.
Formats: the week-to-view A5 is the standard corporate diary; day-per-page suits firms where staff use it for time recording; a slim month-to-view A5 or pocket diary is the cheapest and easiest to give away. Singapore public holidays, the school holiday dates, and the week numbers should be on it, and if the firm has regional offices, the Malaysian and Indonesian holidays too. Ask the printer for a dated proof of January and one week in June, and check the holidays against the MOM list yourself; a wrong Deepavali date in a thousand diaries is a conversation nobody wants.
An undated planner, with the user writing in the dates, avoids all of this and can be ordered in bulk and used across years. It is the better choice for a company that gives notebooks out through the year rather than in one December distribution.
Quantities and the cupboard problem
The economics push towards big orders, because the set-up for a cover deboss or a printed pad header is the same at 200 or 2000. The cupboard pushes the other way. A workable rule for most firms:
- Notepads: a year's supply, estimated from the last year's use plus 10 percent, ordered once. They keep indefinitely if stored flat and dry.
- Notebooks: six months' supply of client and event notebooks, stored in their cartons, with a reorder point set at two months' stock. The article on storing and reordering printed stock has the method.
- Diaries: the number of named recipients plus 5 percent, and no more.
Keep the branding on notebooks free of anything that dates: no tagline from this year's campaign, no address if the office might move, no names. The rules in our guide to corporate stationery print specs cover the artwork side, and a notebook cover is treated like any other stationery item.
Notepads, notebooks and diaries from us
Our custom printing service produces branded notepads from 100 units, bound notebooks in wire-o, perfect bound and case bound formats with print, foil or deboss on the cover, and dated diaries and undated planners with Singapore and regional holidays set by us and checked on a dated proof. For firms that give notebooks out through the year, we hold the cover tooling and reprint to a standing spec, so a reorder of 300 notebooks matches the first 300. If you are not sure whether a diary or an undated planner suits your distribution, tell us how they are handed out and we will suggest the format. The full stationery range is on the general printing page, and the estimating team on the contact page can price a sample set so your marketing and HR teams can hold the options before the order goes in.
