Print, PDF or web: the three forms in one table
You do not have to pick one. Each form has a job. The facts in all three should be the same, so a buyer who sees a printed page and later opens the web page finds nothing that disagrees.
| Form | Fits best when | What it does well | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Printed catalogue | A trade fair, a dealer visit, a plant reception, a meeting where you hand something over. | A buyer can flip through it and keep it on a desk. It shows the range in one place. | It goes out of date the day you print it. Print a smaller run, and put the version date on the cover. |
| You answer an enquiry on email or WhatsApp, or a buyer asks for a datasheet. | It is quick to send, it opens on a phone, and it keeps the layout the same. | A big file is hard to open on a weak network. Send the datasheet for one product, not the whole range. | |
| Web catalogue with product pages | Buyers search before they call, and you want them to find one model. | It can be found by search, it can be changed on the day a model changes, and it links to the enquiry form. | It needs one page for each product. A list of PDF links is not a web catalogue. |
People also call the web form an online product catalogue or a digital catalogue. The word digital also covers the PDF. In this guide, the web catalogue is the set of pages on your site, and the PDF is the file you download or send. Our page on catalogue and brochure design covers the design work for the printed and PDF forms.
A printed catalogue earns its place at a fair, and the work starts after the fair. Our note on trade fair follow up shows how to turn the cards you collect into replies. Dealers also ask for printed copies, so check what they hold before you print again. Our guide to planning a dealer meet covers what to give them.
What goes in one entry
Use the same parts for every product, so a buyer learns where to look. This table is our own method. The web page version of the same list, with the search parts, is in our guide on SEO for manufacturers.
| Part | What to put | If you do not know yet |
|---|---|---|
| Name and model | The product name a buyer types, then the model code that goes on an order. | Do not leave blank. Fix the model code first. |
| One line of use | What the product does and where it is used, in one plain sentence. | Ask your sales team how they say it on a call. |
| Specification table | Size, material, rating, tolerance and the other main facts, each with its unit. | Ask your engineer. A blank cell is better than a guess. |
| Standards and certificates | The name and number of each standard the product meets, and the certificates you hold. | Write nothing you cannot show a paper for. |
| Dimensions and drawing | A dimensioned drawing, or a link to one. | Offer the drawing on request, with a contact. |
| Photos | Real photos of the product, with the same product name in the file name. | Take them in daylight against a plain background. |
| Packing and lead time | Pack size and the usual time to deliver. | Write: ask us. Do not state a time you cannot keep. |
| Contact route | A phone number, a WhatsApp number and an email or form for an RFQ, on every page. | Name one person who answers. |
The contact route matters most. A buyer who is ready to ask should find the way in under a few seconds. Our guide to RFQ meaning and qualified RFQs shows what to ask on the form and how to reply.
How to organise a long range
A range of fifty items needs little order. A range of five hundred needs a plan, or a buyer gets lost. There are three common ways to group products. Choose the one your buyers use when they speak.
| Group by | Fits when | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Use or application | Buyers know the job (lifting, sealing, joining) but not your model names. | One product may fit several uses. Show it once and link from the others. |
| Size or rating | Buyers know the size from a drawing or an old part, and need the next one up or down. | Long tables. Split them by family, and keep the size order the same everywhere. |
| Industry served | You sell the same range to a few industries with different rules, such as cement, power or food. | It can repeat products. Keep the entries in one place and link to them. |
You can mix them. Many makers group by use first, then by size inside each family. Your enquiry sheet tells you which way buyers think. Read the last 50 enquiries and note the first word each buyer used for the product.
Naming matters as much as order. Use the name your buyers type, not the name your factory uses. If the shop floor calls a part by a code and the buyer calls it by what it does, show both on the entry. Use one name and one model code in print, in the PDF, on the web and on the marketplace. According to Google Search Central's URL structure page (updated October 2026), readable words are better than long ID numbers in a web address. It recommends hyphens, not the underline mark, to separate words. The path is case sensitive, so keep one case.
One datasheet for each product
A catalogue gives the range. A datasheet gives one product in full. Engineers ask for it by name, and a purchase team files it with the order. Make one datasheet for each product or each close family, and use the same layout every time. Our guide to industrial marketing lists the items a good datasheet holds, so we do not repeat that list here. This part is about keeping versions.
Our own rules for versions:
- Put the version number and the date on every datasheet, in the same corner, for example: Datasheet FB-204, version 3, 12 October 2026.
- Use one file name pattern, such as fb-204-hex-bolt-datasheet-v3-2026-10.pdf, in lower case with hyphens.
- Keep old versions in a folder marked archive. Sales should never pick a file from there.
- Write one line about what changed, in a change log, so a buyer who holds version 2 can ask the right question.
- Link only the current datasheet from the web page. Replace the file when a model changes and keep the same address if you can.
A buyer who holds an old datasheet can place an order for a part you changed last year. A version date turns that mistake into a short call.
Catalogue design for manufacturers: the basics
Design here is for reading, not for show. A buyer is checking a number, often on a phone. These are our own basics.
- Use tables for specifications, with the unit in the column head or next to each value.
- Keep the same layout on every page, so the eye finds the model, the table and the contact in the same place.
- Use plain, large enough type. Dark text on a light background is the safest choice.
- State the units and the standard on the page. Do not make the buyer guess whether a size is in millimetres or inches.
- Use real photos. Add a line drawing where a photo hides the dimension.
- Leave space. A page with one product and a clear table is easier to read than a page with six.
On contrast, according to the W3C's Understanding page for WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.3 (updated September 2026), normal text needs a contrast ratio of at least 4.5 to 1 against its background. Large text needs at least 3 to 1. Large text means at least 18 point, or 14 point bold. Light grey text on white, or text over a photo, often fails. Your designer can check this with a free contrast checker.
Size and sharing: WhatsApp and email
Most catalogues reach buyers as a file on WhatsApp or email. Send the datasheet for the product the buyer asked about. Send the full catalogue only if the buyer asks for it.
On email, according to Gmail Help (the page has no date, read October 2026), a personal Gmail account has an attachment limit of 25 MB. Above that, Gmail puts a Google Drive link in the email instead. For work accounts, a Google Workspace administrator sets the limit. So a buyer at a firm with its own mail system may have a different limit from the one you see.
On WhatsApp, we state no document size limit for the ordinary app. We could not open a WhatsApp help page for it. The WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy (last updated September 2026) states no document limit either. It does say a business may message a person only after it has received opt-in permission from that person. So ask before you add a buyer to a broadcast list. For firms that send through the WhatsApp Business Platform, which connects by an application programming interface (API), Meta's developer page (no date on the page, read October 2026) lists 100 MB as the maximum for a document, with PDF among the types. Our page on WhatsApp marketing explains the set-up.
A file under any limit can still be too heavy for a phone on a weak network in a plant or on a road. Ask the sales team to test: open your own PDF on a phone on mobile data. If it takes long to open, split it by product family.
Make the PDF searchable and the web catalogue findable
According to Google Search Central's list of indexable file types (last updated February 2026), PDF is one of the encoded document formats Google can index. The page does not cover scanned or image-only PDFs, so we state nothing about how Google treats them. The plain point stands: a scanned page is a picture, and a picture of a table cannot be searched or copied.
Here is a test of our own. Open your PDF. Try to select a model code with the cursor. Press the find key and search for a size. If you cannot select the text, or find does not work, you hold a picture. Export the PDF again from the design file, which keeps the text. If you only have the scan, you will need to rebuild the pages or run text recognition, and check every number after.
For the web catalogue, give each product its own page, link it from its category, and show the specification in text on the page. Link the PDF from the page and describe it in a line. Give the PDF a plain file name. The steps for search are in our guide on SEO for manufacturers. If your site cannot hold a catalogue like this, a website rebuild may be the answer.
Google's guide on helpful content (last updated October 2026) asks whether a page gives a complete description of the topic and shows first-hand expertise. A datasheet written by your own engineer, with real figures and photos of your own product, fits that well. A page copied from a supplier's brochure does not.
Keep it current: an owner and a version date
A catalogue stays right only when someone owns it. Name one person, and give that person the right to say no to a change that is not checked. A small firm can do it with a sheet. Here is our own layout.
| Column | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Product and model | The name and the model code. |
| Datasheet version and date | The version in use now, and the date of the last check. |
| Checked by | The engineer or the person who confirmed the facts. |
| Web page updated | Yes or no, and the date. |
| Print and PDF state | Which printed run and which PDF carry this version. |
| Next check | A date. Many firms check each product once a year and at once when a model, a standard or a certificate changes. |
Say a buyer asks for a catalogue and your last printed run is two versions old. With the sheet, you can see this in a minute. You send the current PDF the same day and take the old print stock off the fair shelf.
Prices need special care. A price in a printed catalogue is wrong the day it changes. We suggest no price lists in the catalogue. Write price on request, or send a dated quotation. A quotation has a validity date, and our RFQ guide explains how to write one.
A made-up example: a maker of industrial fasteners
Say a maker of industrial fasteners has a printed catalogue of about 200 pages. It has a scanned copy on the website. A purchase officer who wants a bolt in a given size, grade and finish cannot search the file. An engineer cannot copy a size from it. A dealer cannot send two pages of it on WhatsApp without sending all 200. This example is made up.
The maker rebuilds the catalogue from the design files. It groups the range into nine product families by use, and inside each family by size. Each family gets a datasheet with a version date. The printed catalogue is cut to a slim fair edition with the nine families and a code that points to the web pages. Each family gets a web page with a specification table in text and the datasheet PDF linked from it.
The entries use one name and one model code in all three forms. Packing and lead time say ask us until the firm can state them. Each page has the same phone, WhatsApp and RFQ form. One named person in the sales office owns the sheet and checks each family once a year. We make no claim about results. The change is that every buyer, in every form, finds the same facts.
For the documents buyers keep asking for in this trade, see our page for industrial manufacturing.
Mistakes to avoid
| Mistake | Why it hurts | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| A scanned PDF of 200 pages | Nobody can search it, copy from it or open it fast on a phone. | Rebuild from the design files, split by family, and add a web page for each product. |
| No units on the numbers | A buyer cannot tell millimetres from inches, or a rating from a size. | Put the unit in the column head or beside each value. |
| Old prices in the catalogue | A buyer quotes your old price back to you. Trust drops at once. | Print no prices. Write price on request, or send a dated quotation. |
| Different names in print, PDF and web | A buyer cannot match the printed model to the web page. | One name and one model code, everywhere. |
| No version date | Nobody knows which file is current. | Version and date on every datasheet and on the catalogue cover. |
| One huge file for everything | It fails to send and opens slowly on a phone. | Send the datasheet for the product the buyer asked about. |
| No contact on the page | A ready buyer has to hunt for a number. | Phone, WhatsApp and the RFQ route on every page. |
| No owner | Each person fixes what they see, and the files drift apart. | One named owner and a sheet with a next check date. |
