Folded Leaflet Artwork & Design Guide: How to Prepare Print-Ready Files
Most reprints we see are caused by the same handful of artwork problems, and every one of them is avoidable. This guide covers what we need, why we need it, and the specific things about folded work that catch people out — because a leaflet is not just a flyer with a crease in it.
The short version
- Format: print-ready PDF
- Size: flat size, not folded size
- Bleed: 3mm on all four edges, plus trim marks
- Safe area: keep important content 5mm inside the trim
- Colour: CMYK, not RGB
- Images: 300dpi at final size
- Fonts: embedded or outlined
- Pages: two — outside and inside — in that order
Get those right and your job runs without a phone call. The rest of this explains the ones that are easy to get wrong.
Supply flat size, not folded size
The single most common error. An A4 tri-fold is supplied as a 297 x 210mm document — one page for the outside, one for the inside. Not three separate 99mm panels, and not a folded 99 x 210mm document.
Set up your artwork at flat size, add guides where the folds fall, and design across the whole sheet. Panels that need to align across a fold only work if they're laid out together.
Flat sizes for our range:
| Product | Flat size |
| Bi-Fold | 198 x 210mm |
| A4 Tri-Fold | 297 x 210mm |
| A4 Folded to A5 | 297 x 210mm |
| Gate Fold | 297 x 210mm |
| A3 Folded to A4 | 420 x 297mm |
| Multi-Panel DL — 4 / 5 / 6 panel | 396 / 495 / 594 x 210mm |
| Multi-Panel A5 — portrait | 444 x 210mm |
| Multi-Panel A5 — landscape | 630 x 148mm |
Panels are not all the same width
This is the folded-work detail that catches out even experienced designers.
On any fold where a panel tucks inside another — a tri-fold, a gate fold, a concertina — the inner panel must be slightly narrower, typically 2-3mm. If all panels are equal, the leaflet won't close flat. It bows, the fold creeps, and the edges don't line up.
On a 297mm tri-fold the split is roughly 99mm, 99mm and 97mm, with the narrow panel folding in first. On a gate fold, each door is a little under half the width so they meet without overlapping.
Our templates have this built in. Download the one for your product, design inside it, and you don't need to think about it. If you're building artwork from scratch, ask us for the panel dimensions before you start rather than after.
Two pages, in the right order
Supply a two-page PDF: page 1 is the outside, page 2 is the inside. The outside is the side carrying the front cover and back panel; the inside is the spread the reader sees on opening.
Please don't impose the file — don't rearrange panels into printer's pairs or rotate anything. We handle imposition. A file that's been imposed by the designer and then imposed again by us produces a leaflet that makes no sense.
Bleed and safe area
Anything touching the edge of the finished leaflet must extend 3mm past it. Trimming has a small tolerance, and without bleed you get a white sliver along the cut edge.
The reverse applies to content you want to keep: pull text and logos at least 5mm inside the trim. Near a fold, give yourself more — 5mm clear of the fold line on both sides. Text that runs right up to a crease is hard to read and looks like a mistake even when it isn't.
Colour
Build in CMYK. If you supply RGB we'll convert it, but the conversion is a compromise and bright screen colours — vivid blues, oranges, greens — will shift. Better to see that shift in your own file than on delivery.
Two things worth knowing:
Rich black. For large solid black areas, use a rich black build rather than 100% K alone — around C40 M30 Y30 K100. Single-channel black looks washed out over a large area. Keep body text at 100% K only, though; rich black on small type causes registration problems.
Uncoated and recycled stock. These absorb more ink, so colours print slightly softer and darker than on silk. It's normal and it's part of the character. If exact colour matching matters, ask us for a printed proof on your chosen stock.
Images
300dpi at final printed size. A 300dpi image scaled up 200% is effectively 150dpi and will look soft.
Watch this on A3 Folded to A4 in particular — a photograph that looks fine on a tri-fold panel is being asked to cover four times the area on an A3 sheet. Check resolution at actual size before you commit.
Fonts
Embed all fonts in the PDF, or convert type to outlines. Missing fonts get substituted, and substitution changes line breaks, which changes the layout. If you outline your type, keep an editable copy — outlined text can't be corrected without going back to the original.
Before you send
Open the PDF and check it as a reader would.
- Is it flat size with 3mm bleed and trim marks?
- Two pages, outside first?
- Does content near the folds have room to breathe?
- Are phone numbers, emails and web addresses correct? Click them. Dial them.
- Has someone other than the designer proofread it?
That last one matters more than anything technical on this page. We check files for print suitability, not for spelling — a typo in a phone number will print perfectly.
Templates
Every product page carries a download link for its template, set up at flat size with bleed, trim and fold guides already in place. Use them and most of this page takes care of itself.
If you'd rather we did it
Our in-house design team can build the artwork for you, charged at £35 per hour. You'll get a PDF draft to approve and can request changes before anything goes to press. Send us your content and a rough idea of what you're after and we'll quote the time.
Call 0141 237 1924 or email sales@printstudioscotland.com. Or read the complete buying guide, the folds explained, or the paper stock guide.