How to use Templates purchased from Third Parties

Here are some basic instructions on how to use press templates that are purchased from a designer. Since there are so many different designers to choose from, each with their own style of making templates in Photoshop, you will need to adjust these instructions to fit your templates.

After you purchase templates, the designer typically will email you a zip file containing your templates. Download the zip file to a location that is easy for you to access, such as your desktop. Then go to this location and find the zip file, double click the zip file and choose the option to extract files. Once you have the files extracted from the zip, go to the folder of templates and open them in Photoshop.

When you open these templates in Photoshop, you may get a message regarding the text layers and missing fonts. Just click OK when you see this message. Designers utilize many different fonts in their designs and you probably won't have all the fonts on your system. If the text layer is a greeting or message that you want to keep on the card you won't need to take any action. However, if you would like to type in your own message and use their font you'd need to find it online and download it onto your system. Some designers will send you the font name information included in the template zip.

The templates are going to open in layers, you'll want to make sure your layer window is open. In Photoshop you can hit the F7 key to show layers.

The first thing you want to do is make sure the template is sized correctly. All press products must include a .25" bleed. If your final print size is 5x7 then in Photoshop the file should be 5.25x7.25. To check your image size in Photoshop, after the template is open, go to Image>Image Size. Under document size check and make sure it includes the bleed. If it doesn't you'll need to adjust the image to include this. There are several ways you can add the extra .25". The easiest would be to modify the values in the image size window to the correct dimensions.

You should see in the layers window a layer titled, "Insert your image here". This is the layer you want your image to be below. Simply open your image file and drag and drop it into the template. It will create a new layer in the layers window with your image. Then in the layers window you can drag and drop the image layer below the one marked "Insert your image here". You need to follow these steps for each 'side' of your card. Make sure each side is sized correctly and just add your images in.

After all the images and text has been completed. Flatten the artwork. There is an option in the layers window to do this. Where it is located will vary depending on what version of Photoshop you are running.

If you are unsure of where the bleed is you can download guides from the product page on our website. Then open the .psd for the card size you are wanting. Drag the flattened art file into the guide. In the layer window drag the art layer under the guide layer.

Make sure all the things you want printed on the card are inside the lines marked safe line. If they are, then in the layer window you can drag the guide layer to the trash can. Again flatten the file and save it.

You are now ready to place your order!