How to Set up Folded Leaflets for Print

Hi! I’m Leanne, the Head of instantprint’s Studio team. When there are folds involved in your print design, it can sometimes be a little tricky to get your head around. 

Making sure your folds are correct, that text won’t be cut off in the crease and that the bleed and that safe areas are correct are all really important steps to setting up your folded leaflets. Here, I’ll guide you through all of the different fold types we offer and how to set artwork up for your own folded leaflets.

Folded Leaflet Sizes

When you order folded leaflets, it’s important to remember that you’re ordering the flat size – not the folded size. For example, an A4 folded leaflet will be smaller once it’s folded. Keep this in mind when you’re creating your design.

Page Layout

The layout of your design will depend on the style of fold you choose. Your panels should be in the right order depending on the fold to make sure they’re printed in the order the user would view them in.

The following diagrams show how to visualise your artwork up for each type of fold.

Half Fold

Four sections, or pages, for you to design.

This style of leaflet folds like a greetings card, directly down the middle. There are 4 equally sized panels you can design for this type of leaflet – 2 on the front and 2 on the back.

6pp Flyer

Six pages to design, with two different fold types. The below diagram will show you how C-fold, and Z-fold will look.

C-Fold

A C-fold leaflet has 6 sections size (3 on one side and 3 on the other). First, the right panel will fold over the middle panel, then the left will also fold into the middle to make the folded leaflet. Having an image of how this works in your mind will help you when designing each panel.
*Although the front panel of the C-fold leaflet is slightly wider than the rest, please design all panels at equal size and our Studio team will fix it before it goes to print.

Z-Fold

Like the name suggests, this fold resembles the letter Z. There are 6 equally sized panels (3 on one side and 3 on the other). The left panel is folded across the front middle panel, whereas the right panel is folded across the back-middle panel, as pictured below.

8pp Flyer

This style of folded leaflet will need eight sections, or pages, of artwork. You can choose between roll fold or cross fold.

I’d recommend setting your artwork up as two separate spreads: One for the front and back sections, and the other for the inside sections.

How to Set Your Folded Leaflet Artwork Up for Print

Size

Our folded flyers come in a range of sizes. It’s important to note that our size options listed onsite are the flat, unfolded size. For example, a 4pp A5 flyer’s finished size is actually A6 size once it’s been folded in half.

The sizes, including bleed, are available on the website under the folded leaflet specifications.

For more information, have a look at our document size guide.

Orientation

We can accept a 1up file, but to avoid possible corruption or artwork problems, we’d recommend setting up all the pages as portrait, preferably with a page for each side of the leaflet made up of the different panels.

Artwork Specifications

We use CMYK colours for printing, so make sure to set this up in your artwork file. Read our colour guide for more help with this.

We also ask that you make sure all images are set up to 300dpi resolution for high quality printing. See our resolution guide for more help.

How Do I Upload My Artwork?

Here are a few different things you need to check before you upload your artwork:

1. Make sure you set your artwork up as two spreads as shown in the diagrams above. A spread is a set of pages that you view together – it’s how you’d see the flyer when it’s unfolded.
2. Make sure your design has the correct number of equal-sized panels.
3. You’ll need an additional 6mm total bleed and safety area.
4. Check that none of the text runs across the central fold on either spread.

If your file is over 200MB, you can still send it over to us via email or WeTransfer after you've placed your order. Simply send it to us at artwork@instantprint.co.uk with your order reference number as the subject.

How Do I Check My Proof?

Once you’ve uploaded your artwork, we’ll create a proof for you to approve. Nothing gets sent to print before you tell us you’re happy with your design. Using our special 10 point check, we’ll look out for a range of things: is the bleed set up correctly, are the fonts embedded – that kind of thing.

One thing we can’t check for is spelling and grammar. Make sure you proofread your whole document before approving the artwork – especially things like contact and event details.

Check out our proofing guide to find out more about what we check and what you can do to make sure your artwork is print ready.
 

Extra tips

• Once you’ve uploaded your artwork, we’ll send you a proof via email to check that the fold guides match your artwork and show you where the front and back covers will be. You’ll need to check that you’ve set your artwork up to match the correct folded product.
• Remember that text and images running across a fold may be lost in the crease.
• Always include a 3mm bleed area and 3mm safety zone. If you’re not sure about these, check out our setup guides.
• Depending on the type of fold you’ve ordered, the finished product will open differently. Make sure you match your artwork to the way the user will open and view it.