Design a Flyer, Poster or Invitation Online

Three formats, three reading distances

• Poster. Read from several metres away, often in motion. One strong image, one headline, the essentials in small print. Typical sizes: A3, A2, 50 × 70 cm or 70 × 100 cm; in the US, 18 × 24 or 24 × 36 in.
• Flyer. Handed over or picked up, read at arm's length in a few seconds. A5 and A6 are common, A4 when you need more detail. Front: the hook. Back: the details.
• Invitation. Read closely and often kept. It can be quieter and more personal: an A6 or A5 card, with a matching envelope size. Tone matters more than impact.

Build a clear hierarchy

Decide the order in which things should be read, then make size, weight and colour obey that order. Level 1 is the headline or the image; level 2 is date, time and place; level 3 is everything else — links, small print, credits. If everything is emphasised, nothing is.

Typography: few fonts, strong contrast

• Two typefaces at most — one for headlines, one for text. Contrast in size and weight does the rest.
• Readable at a distance. A poster headline should still read when the page is shrunk to the size of a postage stamp.
• Short lines, generous spacing. Short blocks of text with room around them get read; dense paragraphs get skipped.

Colour and contrast

Choose a dominant colour, a secondary colour and one accent for the call to action. Text must contrast strongly with its background — light on dark or dark on light — especially over busy photos. Our guide to colour theory covers palettes in detail.

Margins, bleed and print

Keep important text and logos at least 5 mm from the edge. If your printer asks for bleed (a few millimetres of background beyond the trim line), build the artwork slightly larger than the final size and extend the background accordingly. Print at 300 dpi, and ask for a proof if colour matters: screens use RGB light, printers use CMYK ink, and some saturated colours shift.

Design it in plim

Open plim and choose a page size in the Document sidebar — A-series, US paper, posters up to 70 × 100 cm, photo prints, business cards and envelopes are all there at 300 dpi. Then drop in your image, add text with any installed font, place colour blocks and shapes, and align everything. Export as PNG or PDF for your printer or for sharing online.

Invitations: a quick checklist

• Who is invited, and by whom
• What the event is
• Date and time — with the day of the week
• Place — the full address, and how to get there if it is not obvious
• How and by when to reply (RSVP), plus any dress code

Need a starting point? The Greeting card template (A5 landscape) is a ready-made base for an invitation — see the templates guide.