Travel Brochure Design That Survives a Rack and Still Gets Picked Up
Design a travel brochure to the rack first: an 8.5 by 11 sheet trifolded to 3.67 by 8.5 inches, or a 9 by 12 sheet trifolded to 4 by 9 inches, are the two sizes that drop into a standard literature pocket. A pocket hides everything below the top 3.5 to 4 inches, so the destination, the reason to care and your agency name have to live in that strip or the brochure never gets touched.
Travel brochure sizes and how they sit in a rack
| Flat size | Folded size | Panels | In a standard rack | What it suits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8.5 x 11 trifold | 3.67 x 8.5 in | 6 panels, 2 tucked | Fits, sits low in the pocket | Destination guides, seasonal offers |
| 9 x 12 trifold | 4 x 9 in | 6 panels, 2 tucked | Fits and fills the pocket | Flagship tour brochures |
| 8.5 x 11 Z-fold | 3.67 x 8.5 in | 6 equal panels | Fits, opens flat | Itineraries, route maps |
| 8.5 x 11 half fold | 5.5 x 8.5 in | 4 panels | Too wide for a standard pocket | Counter handouts, mailers |
| 8.5 x 14 trifold | 4.67 x 8.5 in | 6 panels, 2 tucked | Too wide for a standard pocket | Desk presentations, in-office sales |
| 4 x 9 rack card | Flat, no fold | 2 sides | Designed for the pocket | Single tour, single price, walk-in racks |
Measure the racks you actually supply before you commit a size, because hotel and airport pockets vary either side of 4.25 inches. You can order travel brochures in any of these sizes straight from the configurator.
What a rack actually shows you
A hotel or visitor centre rack is not a display, it is a filing cabinet with the drawers half shut. The pocket is roughly 4.25 inches wide, and the piece in front of yours covers everything except the top 3.5 to 4 inches. That strip is the entire advertisement. Everything else on the cover only matters after somebody has already reached for it.
So the destination name, one reason to care and your agency name go in the top strip, in that order, at a size a person reads from four feet away while walking past. A photograph that only makes sense when you can see the whole cover is wasted, because in the rack nobody can. Crop the hero image so the recognisable part, the arch, the reef, the ship, sits above that line.
The other half of the job is standing up. A brochure printed on light text stock leans back in the pocket and disappears behind its neighbours within a day. Weight and fold both feed into this, which is covered further down, but the short version is that the piece has to hold its own spine.
The two sizes that fit without argument
An 8.5 by 11 sheet trifolded gives three panels of roughly 3.67 by 8.5 inches. It drops into every standard pocket and it is the cheapest brochure to print because the sheet is a stock size. The compromise is that it sits about half an inch low in a 9 inch pocket, so the visible strip is slightly shorter than the rack allows.
A 9 by 12 sheet trifolded gives 4 by 9 inch panels. That fills the pocket corner to corner and gives you the full visible strip, which is why the tour operators with the biggest rack presence use it. It costs more per piece because the sheet is larger, and it is the upgrade worth making on your one flagship brochure rather than across the whole range. Our travel brochure guide works through the content that fills those panels.
When a rack card beats a brochure
If the offer is one tour, one price and one phone number, a 4 by 9 rack card outperforms a brochure. It is printed on cover stock, so it stands upright without help, it never gets opened to the wrong panel, and it costs less to reprint when the price changes at the start of a season.
Use a brochure when the buyer needs to compare options, read an itinerary or look at a map. Use a rack card when the buyer needs to make one decision. Agencies that put six tours on a rack card and one tour in a brochure have it backwards, and both pieces underperform. The rack card design guide covers the front panel hierarchy in detail.
Picking the fold that fits the pocket
Three folds cover almost every travel brochure: the trifold, the Z-fold and the half fold. They are not interchangeable, and the difference shows up in the artwork long before it shows up at the press.
On a trifold one panel tucks inside the other two, so that panel has to be cut about 1/16 inch narrower. On an 8.5 by 11 sheet the panels are 3.625, 3.6875 and 3.6875 inches, not three equal thirds. Set three equal panels and the folded edge bows out and the fold creeps as the run goes on. Every 4OVER4.COM blank template already has the uneven panel built in.
A Z-fold folds like a concertina, nothing tucks, so all three panels are equal at 3.667 inches. It opens flat in one motion, which makes it the right fold for a route map, a day by day itinerary or a price grid that has to be read as one wide surface.
Panel order and the sequence a reader follows
Lay a trifold out flat with the outside facing you. Left to right the panels are the tuck-in flap, the back cover, then the front cover. That trips people up constantly, because the front cover is on the right of the sheet, not the left. The inside sheet reads plainly left to right across all three panels.
The reading sequence is cover, then the tuck-in flap as the reader lifts the cover, then the full inside spread, then the back. Put the hook on the cover, the single strongest offer on the flap because it is seen alone, and the detail across the inside spread. The back panel carries contact details, licence numbers and the map, and it is also where the mailing panel goes if you ever post the brochure.
Where a photograph breaks at the fold
A fold is a physical hinge with a crease running through it, and any image crossing that hinge loses a hairline of detail and shifts a fraction as the sheet is folded. A beach horizon crossing a fold is fine. A face, a logo, a headline or the mast of a ship crossing a fold is not, because the eye reads the shift as a printing fault.
Keep type at least 0.125 inch clear of every fold line, and give the whole document 0.125 inch bleed on all four outside edges. If you want one image running the full width of the inside spread, choose one with soft detail where the folds fall, and check it on a folded proof rather than on screen.
Paper, coating and the curl on a counter
Weight decides whether the brochure stands up, and coating decides whether the photography does its job. Neither is a taste question in a rack.
100lb gloss text is the working weight for a rack brochure. It holds a fold cleanly, it stands in the pocket, and it feels like something rather than a photocopy. 80lb text is cheaper and it leans, so the brochure ends up hidden behind whatever is in front of it. Going the other way, 100lb cover in a trifold is stiff enough that the fold wants to crack unless it is scored first, and it costs more than the extra rigidity is worth on a piece that gets picked up and thrown away.
Gloss coating is the default for travel because it deepens blues and greens and makes water look like water. The cost is glare: racks sit under downlights, and a gloss cover throws a hot spot straight back at the person walking past. Where the rack lighting is harsh, a silk or matte coat reads calmer and the photography still holds. Matte also takes a pen, which matters if your counter staff write a departure date on the back.
Curl, humidity and the counter display
Paper takes up moisture from the air and expands across the grain, which is why a brochure sitting on a counter in a coastal office curls at the corners after a week. Folding across the grain makes it worse, and heavy solid ink coverage on one side only pulls the sheet toward the printed face.
Two things fix most of it. Fold parallel to the grain, which a printer sets for you when the fold is specified at order time rather than decided afterwards. And balance the ink: if the outside is a full-bleed sunset and the inside is white with black text, the sheet will curl toward the sunset. Adding a light tint across the inside panels evens the pull and costs nothing extra on a full colour job.
What to print alongside the brochure
A brochure does not travel well in a pocket or a handbag. Print a companion piece that does. Travel flyers at $39.54 work for a single seasonal offer taped in a window or handed out at a trade show, and travel postcards at $16.48 are the cheapest way to follow up with somebody who took a brochure and has not called.
Keep one travel agent business card tucked in the rack pocket beside the brochures too. People take a card when they are not ready to carry a brochure, and a card with a named agent on it converts better than a general office number printed on a back panel.
Travel brochure pricing and specs at 4OVER4.COM
Brochure pricing moves with the flat size, the stock, the fold and the quantity, and the per piece cost drops as the run grows. The numbers below come from the live configurator, so you can size a season’s print budget before you commit to a design.
Quantity and price
Travel brochure pricing and specs
Real configurator numbers, where a bigger run pulls the per piece cost down.
| Quantity | Price Per Unit | Total |
|---|---|---|
| 50 | $1.14 | $57.11 |
| 100 | 82.4¢ | $82.38 |
| 200 | 53.3¢ | $106.55 |
| 300 | 41.0¢ | $123.02 |
| 400 | 34.9¢ | $139.49 |
| 500 | 31.2¢ | $155.97 |
You can also earn coins on every order and put them against the next season’s reprint, which matters when rack stock gets refilled several times a year.
Stock, coating and what they do to photography
Travel sells on photography, so the coating decision is a commercial one. Gloss deepens blues and greens and is the reason a reef photograph looks like a reef rather than a swimming pool. Silk keeps most of that saturation while cutting the hot spot that rack downlights throw back at a passer-by. Matte reads calmest, holds fine type best, and takes a pen if counter staff write a departure date on the back panel. Pick by the light in the rooms your brochures actually stand in.
Print it
Travel brochures, folded and ready to rack
Trifold and Z-fold options on gloss text, scored so the fold does not crack.
Stock weight is a separate call from coating, and it is the one that decides whether the piece stays visible. A brochure has to hold its own spine in a pocket that is only supporting it at the bottom inch. 100lb gloss text does that. Anything lighter leans, and once it leans it is behind whatever sits in front of it. If you need a piece that stands rigid on its own, print a travel flyer or a rack card on cover stock instead of trying to make a brochure do it. For a wider view of the format choice, brochure printing for travel and rack card design are worth reading side by side.
How different travel businesses should fold
The right fold changes with who is reading and where they are standing.
- Retail travel agencies. One flagship 9 by 12 trifold for the destination range, plus rack cards per season. Reprint the rack cards when prices move and leave the brochure alone.
- Tour operators. Z-fold for the day by day itinerary because it opens flat, gloss stock so the landscape photography carries, and a back panel with the licence and bonding details.
- Hotels and resorts. The brochure lives in other people’s racks, so the top strip has to say the town before it says the property name. Visitors know where they are, not who you are.
- Visitor centres and DMOs. A Z-fold with the map on the full inside spread beats a trifold, because a tucked panel breaks a map into pieces nobody reassembles.
- Cruise and rail specialists. Long itineraries need the wide inside spread of a Z-fold and a price grid that survives being read at arm’s length in a lobby.
Whatever the fold, the commercial pages behind it stay the same. Browse the travel printing collection for the full range, and rack card design if the rack is where most of your walk-in business comes from.
Templates and print-ready blanks
Do not build the panel widths by hand. 4OVER4.COM sizes its brochure blanks to the exact fold, including the narrower tuck-in panel, with bleed and fold lines already marked, so the artwork lands where the folder puts the crease.
Start fast
Brochure templates and print-ready blanks
Fold-correct blanks with bleed and trim marked, plus design templates you can edit.
Wally walks a travel brochure from idea to rack
Design the top four inches, then design the rest
A standard pocket is about 4.25 inches wide and covers everything below the top 3.5 to 4 inches, so put the destination, the reason to go and your agency name in that strip. Trifold an 8.5 by 11 sheet for 3.67 inch panels, or a 9 by 12 sheet for 4 by 9 panels that fill the pocket. Keep type 0.125 inch clear of every fold, add 0.125 inch bleed, and print on 100lb gloss text so the brochure stands instead of leaning.
Order travel brochures →What to remember about travel brochure design
Design tips that hold at every size
- Design the top four inches first. Build the visible strip as its own artboard, then design the rest of the cover around it. If the strip works alone, the cover works in a rack.
- Name the place before the offer. A traveller scanning a rack is looking for a destination, not a brand. Put the place name in the largest type on the piece.
- One price, printed once. A from-price on the cover and the full grid inside. Repeating prices across panels guarantees one of them is wrong after the next season.
- Keep type off the folds. Hold headlines and logos 0.125 inch clear of every fold, and give the document 0.125 inch bleed on all four outside edges.
- Check a folded proof, not a screen. Fold a printed proof and stand it in the actual rack. Panel order mistakes and lost crops are invisible on a monitor and obvious on paper.
Explore more
More ways to print and promote travel
Related products, categories and reading on 4OVER4.COM, one card each.
Product Travel Brochures Trifold and Z-fold brochures sized for a literature rack. 
Product Travel Flyers Single seasonal offers for windows, counters and trade shows. 
Product Travel Postcards The cheap follow-up to somebody who took a brochure. 
Product Travel Agent Business Cards A named agent beats a general office number. 
Category Rack Card Printing One tour, one price, standing upright on cover stock. Category Travel Printing Collection Every print piece a travel business puts in front of a customer. 
Guide Rack Card Design That Gets Picked Up Front panel hierarchy for a piece seen at four feet. 
Article Minimalist Brochure Design What to cut when a panel is doing too much work. Ready to print your travel brochures?
Pick the flat size and the fold, drop in your artwork or a fold-correct blank, and 4OVER4.COM prints and folds it on gloss text stock to your deadline.
Common questions about travel brochures
What size travel brochure fits a standard literature rack?
Two sizes fit reliably. An 8.5 by 11 sheet trifolded gives 3.67 by 8.5 inch panels, which drop into every standard pocket and cost the least because the sheet is a stock size. A 9 by 12 sheet trifolded gives 4 by 9 inch panels, which fill a standard pocket corner to corner and give you the full visible strip. What does not fit is an 8.5 by 11 half fold at 5.5 by 8.5 inches, or an 8.5 by 14 trifold at 4.67 inches wide, because a standard pocket is about 4.25 inches across. Both of those are good counter and mailing pieces and poor rack pieces.
Should a travel brochure be a trifold or a Z-fold?
Use a trifold when the reader works through the brochure panel by panel, as with a destination range or a set of separate tours, because the tuck-in flap gives you one panel that is seen entirely on its own. Use a Z-fold when something has to be read across the full width at once, which means maps, day by day itineraries and price grids. A Z-fold also uses three equal panels rather than the uneven panels a trifold needs, so the artwork is simpler to set. The practical test is whether a fold running through the middle of your content would ruin it. If it would, Z-fold.
What paper weight should a travel brochure be printed on?
100lb gloss text is the working weight for anything that goes in a rack. It folds cleanly, it stands up in a pocket instead of leaning back behind the piece in front, and it has enough hand to feel like a considered piece. 80lb text saves money and costs you visibility, because a leaning brochure is a hidden brochure. Going heavier, 100lb cover in a trifold needs scoring before it will fold without cracking the coating along the crease, and the extra rigidity buys little on a piece designed to be taken away and eventually binned.
Why does my brochure curl on the counter?
Paper expands across the grain as it takes up moisture, so a brochure sitting in a humid office curls at the corners within about a week. Two causes are fixable at order time. Folding across the grain instead of parallel to it stresses the fibre and encourages the curl, and a printer sets grain direction correctly when the fold is specified with the order rather than added later. The other cause is unbalanced ink: a full-bleed photograph on the outside against a mostly white inside pulls the sheet toward the printed face. Adding a light tint across the inside panels evens the pull and costs nothing on a full colour job.
How many travel brochures should an agency print at once?
Print to how long the information stays true, not to the cheapest unit price. Anything carrying a season price or a departure date has a fixed shelf life, and the per-piece saving on a large run disappears the moment you throw half of it away because the fare changed. A practical split is a longer run of the evergreen destination brochure, which changes rarely, and short runs of rack cards or flyers for the pricing that moves. That way the expensive piece stays valid and the cheap piece carries the volatility.
