--- title: What Are F&Gs? description: Learn what F&Gs are in book printing, when they're used, what to review, and how they fit into the approval process. image: https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/hubfs/iStock-2286771108.jpg --- [Skip to Content](https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/blog/what-are-fgs#body) **[InSite Login](https://insite.bradford-bigelow.com/PortalSite/) *•* [Customer Portal](http://portal.bradford-bigelow.com/) *•* [Request a Quote](https://resources.bradford-bigelow.com/quote)** [![BB-Logo](https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/hs-fs/hubfs/BB-Logo.png?width=250&height=67&name=BB-Logo.png "BB-Logo")](https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/) Toggle Menu - Who We Are Toggle children for Who We Are - [The B&B Story](https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/the-bb-story) - [Meet the Team](https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/meet-the-team) - [Build a Career](https://careers.bradford-bigelow.com) - [What's New](https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/whats-new) - [Ink, Insight & Impact Blog](https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/blog) - Printing Toggle children for Printing - [Long-Run 4-Color Printing](https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/manroland) - [Long-Run 1 and 2-Color Printing](https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/timson) - [Medium Run 4-Color Printing](https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/hp) - [Short Run 4-Color Printing](https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/screens) - Finishing & Logistics Toggle children for Finishing & Logistics - [Binding Styles](https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/binding-styles) - [Warehousing & Fulfillment](https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/warehousing-fulfillment) - Quality & Sustainability Toggle children for Quality & Sustainability - [Leading Quality Solutions](https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/leading-quality-solutions) - [ISO 9001:2015](https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/iso-9001) - [G7 Master](https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/g7-master) - [Environmental Initiatives](https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/environmental-initiatives) - [FSC & SFI](https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/fsc-sfi) - Open Search Search Submit Search - [Get In Touch](https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/contact) [back to blog](https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/blog) [Manufacturing](https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/blog/topic/manufacturing) # What Are F&Gs? Read Time **5 mins** ![](https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/hubfs/iStock-2286771108.jpg) What Are F&Gs? 8:11 F&Gs stands for folded and gathered sheets. They are the printed signatures of a book that have been folded and gathered together in the correct page sequence before final binding. At this point in production, the interior has been printed and assembled in order, giving you an opportunity to see the actual printed product before it becomes a finished paperback or hardcover book. F&Gs can be a useful part of the manufacturing process because they show much more than a PDF or prepress proof can. You are looking at the actual production paper, printing, signatures, and page sequence. For publishers who request F&Gs as part of their workflow, understanding when they are produced and what they are intended to show can make the review more valuable and help avoid unnecessary delays once the job is already on press. Where Do F&Gs Fit Into the Book Manufacturing Process? Book interiors are typically printed in signatures, with multiple pages arranged on a larger sheet in a specific configuration. Once printed, each sheet is folded so that the individual pages fall into the proper sequence. The signatures are then gathered together in order to create the complete book block. Before that book block moves through the remaining binding and finishing processes, the folded and gathered signatures can be reviewed as F&Gs. At this stage, you can physically move through the interior in much the same way you would a finished book. You can see the page sequence, the actual paper selected for the job, and the way text, images, screens, and other elements reproduced on press. You also get a better sense of the physical characteristics of the interior, including opacity and show-through, that can be difficult to evaluate from a PDF or other prepress proof. Where F&Gs fall in the process is important because the interior has already been printed. They are a review of actual production output rather than an additional prepress proofing stage. How Are F&Gs Different From a Proof? Most proofing happens before the full production run begins. Depending on the type of proof, publishers may be reviewing content, pagination, image placement, color expectations, or other elements before giving approval to move forward with printing. That is the point in the process when file corrections are generally the easiest to address. F&Gs are created later, after the pages have gone to press. If you discover a typo or decide to change a piece of content while reviewing them, correcting that page may require much more than submitting an updated file. Because pages are produced as part of a signature, a change to a single page could require the affected signature to be reprinted. On a large run, that can add significant time and cost to the job. For that reason, an F&G review is most useful when the focus stays on the manufactured product. Publishers can check that the book has been gathered correctly, confirm the page sequence, review print reproduction, and make sure what was produced matches what was previously approved. What Should You Look for When Reviewing F&Gs? Start by looking at the book as a physical product rather than approaching the F&Gs as another editorial review. Move through the pages and make sure everything appears in the correct sequence. Look for missing, duplicated, inverted, or incorrectly gathered sections and review the overall print reproduction for anything unexpected. This is also an opportunity to evaluate the interior on the actual paper specified for the job. Paper choice affects more than the feel of a book. Basis weight, opacity, brightness, and the amount of ink coverage on a page can all influence the final appearance. Seeing the production sheets can give you a much more realistic understanding of show-through and overall reproduction than viewing the same pages on a screen. If color is critical to the project, expectations should already have been established during the appropriate proofing and approval process before production. The F&Gs show the actual result from the press run, so they can be reviewed against those expectations rather than serving as the first color approval. What Happens If You Find a Problem? What happens next depends on what you find. A manufacturing issue should be discussed with the printer so the cause and appropriate next steps can be determined. A change to previously approved copy, artwork, or other content is a different situation because the printer has already produced those pages according to the approved files. If a publisher decides that something needs to change at this stage, the printer will need to determine which signature is affected and what would be required to replace it. Depending on the run length and where the job is in production, that could mean new files, new plates or setup, another press run for the affected signature, and additional folding and gathering. The impact can extend to both the cost of the job and the delivery schedule. This is one reason the approval process before printing carries so much weight. Catching an issue while reviewing a file or proof generally provides more flexibility than finding the same issue once thousands of sheets have already been printed. Do You Need F&Gs for Every Book? F&Gs are not necessarily required for every project. Publishers have different approval processes, and the need for them can depend on the title, manufacturing method, production schedule, and internal requirements. An established program that has been printed many times may have a very different review process from a new title or a book with unusual production requirements. They can be particularly useful when there is a reason to evaluate the actual printed interior before binding. A publisher may want to see a new paper stock in use, review an important new title, or have a physical production sample available for an internal approval process. In those situations, F&Gs provide something that an electronic file cannot: a sample made from the actual printed production sheets. The additional review does need to be considered when planning the schedule. If production is being held while F&Gs are shipped, circulated among several people, reviewed, and approved, those days become part of the overall manufacturing timeline. A quick approval process can keep the job moving, while an open-ended review can create delays further down the line. Plan for F&Gs Before the Job Goes to Press If F&Gs are important to your approval process, discuss them with your printer when the job is being planned. Establish whether production will be held for approval, when the F&Gs will be available, who should receive them, and how quickly approval needs to be returned. If several stakeholders need to see them, having an internal review process in place before the samples arrive can prevent the job from sitting unnecessarily. It also helps to understand what is being approved at each stage. Electronic proofs, physical color proofs, F&Gs, and finished samples provide different information about the book. When everyone involved knows what to evaluate at each point, issues are more likely to be identified when they are easiest to address. The Bottom Line F&Gs give publishers a chance to review the actual printed, folded, and gathered interior of a book before final binding. You can see how the pages reproduced on the selected stock, confirm that the signatures have been assembled correctly, and get a much better sense of the physical book than you can from a file on a screen. The best time to decide whether you need F&Gs is before the job goes to press. Talk with your printer about how they fit into the production schedule, what your team will be reviewing, and whether manufacturing will be held for approval. With those expectations established upfront, F&Gs can provide a useful production checkpoint without adding unnecessary time to the schedule. ## Have questions about proof, F&Gs or planning your next book project? [Talk to the Team](https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/contact) ![](https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/hubfs/EK%20Headshot%20yellow%20bg.png) [mailto:](mailto:) ##### Emily Kotecki Emily is the Marketing Manager at Bradford & Bigelow, where she leads brand strategy and content development that helps publishers navigate the world of print and fulfillment. Share the Love [mailto:?subject=What%20Are%20F%26Gs%3F&body=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bradford-bigelow.com%2Fblog%2Fwhat-are-fgs](mailto:?subject=What%20Are%20F%26Gs%3F&body=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bradford-bigelow.com%2Fblog%2Fwhat-are-fgs) You May Like These ## Related Articles ![](https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/hs-fs/hubfs/hp%20person.jpg?width=700&name=hp%20person.jpg) Manufacturing ### [What Turnaround Times Can Publishers Expect from Digital Printing?](https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/blog/what-turnaround-times-can-publishers-expect-from-digital-printing) Learn what affects digital book printing turnaround times, including file readiness, binding, paper ... Keep Reading ![](https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/hs-fs/hubfs/offsetprint.jpg?width=700&name=offsetprint.jpg) Manufacturing ### [What is Ink Coverage?](https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/blog/what-is-ink-coverage) You may have heard your print vendors talking about ink coverage. What is it and what does it mean f... 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[**Request a quote *⟶***](https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/quote)   ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Emily Kotecki", "url" : "https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/blog/author/emily-kotecki" }, "dateModified" : "2026-10-07T19:37:41.112Z", "datePublished" : "2026-10-07T18:55:35.000Z", "headline" : "What Are F&Gs?", "image" : [ "https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/hubfs/iStock-2286771108.jpg" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/blog/what-are-fgs", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/hubfs/Logo600px-1.png" }, "name" : "Bradford & Bigelow" } } ``` ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@id" : "https://www.bradford-bigelow.com/blog/what-are-fgs#blogposting", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "about" : [ { "@type" : "Thing", "description" : "F&Gs stands for folded and gathered sheets. They are the printed signatures of a book that have been folded and gathered together in the correct page sequence before final binding. F&Gs are produced after the interior has been printed and assembled in order, giving publishers an opportunity to review the actual production paper, print quality, signatures, and page sequence before the book block moves through binding and finishing.", "name" : "F&Gs (Folded and Gathered Sheets)" }, { "@type" : "Thing", "description" : "Prepress proofs are reviewed before the full production run begins and are the point in the process when file corrections are generally easiest to address. F&Gs are created after pages have gone to press. If a content change is identified during an F&G review, correcting a single page may require the affected signature to be reprinted, which can add significant time and cost to a large-run job. 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