The path to the FORMAT catalog

98 million pages, 14 production steps, 52.000 catalogues: That’s our FORMAT catalog in numbers. It will be published in a few weeks – and we were allowed to take a look behind the scenes of the printing process! We would like to thank one of our printers, MohnMedia, for their hospitality and the interesting guided tour!

It is a complex and long way to the finished product. At the beginning, the printing plates are lasered before there is a first test run. In this, it is checked whether all colors are displayed correctly and it is ensured that everything is printed correctly. Meanwhile, the presses are brought up to temperature and the paper and plates are clamped in parallel.

After that, the first correct printing process takes place, which is approved by us. This is an important step in which attention must be paid to various things: Do the colors harmonize? Is everything in the correct FORMAT red? Are all pages at the same height? In addition, there are many other details.

Once everything has been approved, the grand finale takes place: first, sheet after sheet is printed. Then the sheets are folded, pressed and stored before all 32 sheets are sewn together. The final step: the resulting book is glued together with the book covers and back inserts.

The printing process of the FORMAT catalog in numbers:

Number of catalogs: 52,000
Languages: 8
Total number of printed pages: over 98,000,000
Duration of the production process: 4-6 weeks
Weight of paper roll: 2.300 KG