A5 Books
4pp Cover onto 300gsm Silk FSC Certified
Gloss Lamination to outer
46pp Inside pages onto 150gsm Gloss FSC Certified (3mm spine)
Four colour print throughout
Perfect bound
On Women’s Sports is a punchy A5 portfolio book by photographer and storyteller Madeleine Penfold, built to share recent work in a format that’s easy to hand out, post, and keep on a shelf. The brief was clear: make the images feel vibrant and alive on the page — the kind of book you want to keep flipping back through.
We love projects like this because they prove a simple point: if your work is colour-rich and full of energy, a gloss setup can be the fastest route to “wow” without adding fuss.
Explore: our photobook printing service, portfolio printing, and the wider print portfolio.
This is a photography portfolio that celebrates women’s sport with bold, joyful images and confident design choices. You see it straight away: big type, strong pacing, and spreads that let colour do the talking. It’s the sort of printed piece that works brilliantly as a leave-behind for editors, commissioners, brands, and fans — but it still reads like a proper book, not a promo flyer.
The final build is all about clean impact. A sturdy silk cover stock gives structure, then the gloss lamination adds shine and protection — ideal for a portfolio that will be handled a lot. Inside, gloss text pages help colour reproduction stay crisp and lively, especially across full-bleed photography.
If you’re weighing up finishes for an image-heavy project, our photography book printing insights page is a useful starting point.
The visual rhythm is what makes this book stick. There’s a confident mix of full-bleed images, big black section openers, and calm, airy pages where type gets room to breathe. The colour work is the headline: rich reds, deep blacks, bright skies — all the things that can fall flat on the wrong stock — come through with real punch on gloss.
The subject matter helps too. The people in these photos feel properly present: happy, loud, and full of movement. That emotion is hard to fake, and it’s exactly why a printed portfolio works so well — it holds your attention in a way a quick scroll can’t.
Like lots of exhibition-led projects, this one had a deadline in the background. We quoted, then updated the spec when the final files and page plan shifted. The files also needed a bit of practical print housekeeping: supplying pages (not reader spreads), and making sure double-page spreads “read across” correctly once the book is bound.
We guided the team through the pagination logic, suggested adding blank pages where needed, and checked everything in preflight before a final proof went out for approval.
This project is a good example of what our day-to-day support looks like: clear advice, quick checks, and calm problem-solving when time is tight. We explained what the online proof can and can’t show with spreads, made sure the sequencing was right for perfect binding, and moved the job straight into production once approval landed.
If you’re at the “are my files actually set up right?” stage, these guides help:
Planning something similar? Try our instant quote calculator, for up to 20 copies or head to contact and we’ll help you lock a spec that suits your work.
Madeleine’s work: madeleinepenfold.com / Instagram
