Design Templates

Design templates are for customers who would like to create their own designs (brochures, posters, flyers, postcards, etc.) but may not be familiar with how to set up files for professional printing. These templates include guides for trim lines, bleed lines and safe print areas, as well as instructions on how to save a print ready PDF with cropmarks.

A common mistake most people make when providing print ready files is to not add bleeds and cropmarks. If the final print needs to have color, graphics or images that extend to the edge of the paper with no white border, the file needs bleeds. To accomplish this, the file is printed on oversized paper, trimmed and folded (if needed) to the finish size. Cropmarks provide a guide for where to trim and bleeds allow for any shifting when trimming. For more information on bleeds, check out our Resources page or view our instructional video, Does Your File Bleed?.

Another thing to keep in mind when setting up a design file is to keep content at least one quarter inch away from the trim line. This is shown on the templates as the safe print area. Then, when the file is trimmed, important information does not get cut off.

The following tables show the type of template and these details:

• Print size – use oversized paper to allow for cropmarks and bleeds;
• Trim size – the size the file will be trimmed to; and
• Finish size.

The trim and finish size will be the same unless the document is folded. If it’s folded, then the trim size is the unfolded size and the finish size is the folded size.

One-Page Templates

The following templates are one page templates. Pages may be added to include a backside, all guides and marks will be identical for additional pages. To download a template, click on the desired software icon and save it to your computer. Open the desired software, choose file > open and select the saved template.