Templates

Action Printing offers a library of free templates to help you layout your designs for our presses. Using our templates, you'll be able to see exactly where documents will bleed, cut, and fold so you can design accordingly.

How The Templates Work

How The Templates Work

Our templates are meant to be used in conjunction with your page layout program (Adobe InDesign, Corel Ventrua, or Quark) and designed to give you an idea of how to set up your files to be ready for our presses. (Except for our mailing list template that demonstrates how to set up your mailing database.)

Once you're finished, be sure to check out our Time-Saving Preflight Checklist to double-check that your file is ready before submission.

Template Demo

The pink area indicates the bleed area
You do want your backround to fill up to this area, but make sure all the important elements of text and images are within the safe zone. The bleed is in place so when we cut your document down to size your artwork will truly fill the entire page and we won't cut off anything important or leave a white border.

Green lines indicate a fold
It's important to leave at least .25" of space from either side of the fold - you don't want any text or pictures getting lost when we fold it.

Red dotted lines indicate cuts
Everything within these lines represents the way your document will look once we cut it out and the outer "bleed" is cut off.

Everything inside the blue lines is a "safe zone"
You'll want to keep all the important content within the safe zones to make sure it isn't cut off or lost inside a fold.

How Bleed Works and Why it Matters

How Bleed Works

A bleed is when an image extends beyond the trim edge of the printed sheet. It is important to include bleeds in your artwork files if you want the image to extend to the edge of the paper for your final printed piece.

This is because without it, even the slightest cutting error will be visible. As illustrated to the left, if the trim is even slightly off, the bottom left hand corner in this case will look fine, but we will pick up a white area on the top and the right.

As illustrated to the left here, even though the cut is slightly off, no white area is shown.

In the example above, the version with the proper bleed gets only part of the pawprint background cut off and not any of the dog artwork or text. In the version with no bleed, the dog's foot and part of the text gets cut off.

Basically, you intentionally create your design to be cut off around a certain spot and you don't put anything you'd mind losing in that area. This way, even if the cut is slightly off, you won't end up with a white edge on your design anywhere.

Types of Bleed

Types of Bleed:
You only have to bleed where you intend for your design to extend all the way to the edge of the page.

Types of Bleed Illustration

How to Use The Templates Inside Your Design Program

How to Use The Templates Inside Your Design Program

In Adobe Illustrator:

Download the .eps or .pdf version of the template
Open a New File
Then place the file by going to File > Place...
Browse to the Template and Double Click On It. It should appear in your document
You can then design on top of it (lowering the opacity might help) or drag guides onto the screen to mark the safe area, bleed area, and trim line and delete it after you're finished
Once your design is finished, be sure to delete the original template before submission

In Adobe InDesign:

Download the .eps or .pdf version of the template
Open a New File - make sure you select "Print" as your format
Then place the file by going to File > Place... or by pressing Ctrl+D on PC or Cmd+D on Mac)
Browse to the Template and Double Click On It. It should appear in your document
You can then design on top of it (lowering the opacity might help) or drag guides onto the screen to mark the safe area, bleed area, and trim line and delete it after you're finished
Once your design is finished, be sure to delete the original template before submission

Other:
We'd recommend you design your file in a true page-layout program, but if you'd like to use another program, we've provide the .jpeg files as a guide.

Download a Template

Download a Template

Just click on the appropriate file icon to download it to your computer.

	EPS File	PDF File	JPEG File	Excel File
Mailing List
Business Cards (3.5" x 2")
Post Cards (4" x 6")
Brochures
8.5 x 11.5 Tri-Fold (80lb Text)
8.5 x 11.5 Tri-Fold (100lb Text)
11 x 17 Tri-Fold Brochure
CD Inserts
CD / DVD Sleeves
Greeting Cards and Invitations
Horizontal Fold
Vertical Fold
Letterhead
Envelopes (Standard #10)
Menus
Half-Letter (8.5." x 5.5")
Letter (8.5" x 11")
Table Tents
4.125" x 8"
4" x 4.125"
Poster (11x17)
Leaflet / Rack Card (4" x 9")
Door Hanger (3.5" x 8.5")