With all the new tools around these days, people can now do things that once took years of training — and for the pros, those same tools can cut hours of work down to minutes. I love that! Platforms like Canva and Etsy are brilliant for making documents, posters, signage, flyers — all the marketing bits and pieces. But (and here’s the catch) they can bring their fair share of headaches when it comes to actually getting things printed. I see it happen all the time.
You’ve bought a gorgeous print on Etsy. It looks perfect online. All you need to do is print it and pop it in a frame… sounds easy, right? But then — surprise! — the sizes you’ve bought are in inches. You head to your local printer and suddenly they’re talking in paper sizes, not inches. Cue confusion.
BUYING PRINTS ON ETSY
In Australia, paper sizes are A5, A4, A3. Photos and frames, though, are often in inches. To make it more confusing, some printers can only print as “photo” sizes, others only as paper sizes. And then the frame sizes don’t always match up neatly either. Files can’t just be “stretched” to fit, and print staff (trust me, I’ve been behind that counter) aren’t allowed to fiddle with your file. You have to bring it in ready to go. All you wanted was a print for your wall, and suddenly it’s a full-blown headache.
TIP: Pick your frame first, then buy a print that fits your frame. Saves so much stress!
CANVA TEMPLATES for posters, signage and flyers – getting it right
The same kind of trouble pops up with marketing materials and event signage. Someone wants to print a DL flyer (that’s the tall skinny one — 99x210mm, about a third of an A4 sheet). But they’ve actually designed it in an A5 template, which is much wider. Hours have gone into setting it up in Canva, only to discover the size is wrong. Or worse — the printer can’t turn around DL flyers in a couple of days because it uses a different process.
And that’s before we even get into the design side of things — branding, colours, logos, fonts. The “creative” parts are usually what people expect to be tricky, but honestly, it’s often the print specs, quantities, and different printer capabilities that trip people up.
As a designer (and yes, a former counter person), the very first questions I ask are:
What size do you need?
How many are you after?
Where are you planning to print?
Once that’s clear, it’s much easier to figure out the best way forward, the best value for money, and then move onto the fun design stuff.
So, what’s the point here?
These tools are amazing — but they can also cause a few headaches if you’re going it alone. If you’re making your own templates, think about the end result first — the size, the printing costs, the quantities — before you dive into design. Same goes for prints: work out the frame before you buy the artwork file. Once you know the destination, then you can get creative.
And that’s where I can help. My experience means I can save you a lot of time with just a few quick questions. I’m happy to set things up in Canva so you can keep editing them later at the right size. For example, I’ve created flyers and brochures with consistent branding so businesses can roll out more materials on their own.
This week, I’ve launched some Canva templates especially for artists and designers — A1 pages with 8×10″ print layouts so you get better value from your printing. More designs are on the way, and if you’ve got a request, let me know. You can check out the first batch of templates here:https://www.creativehardt.com.au/a1-canva-templates/
I help support business owners in finding their way through their design, marketing and digital challenges and provide design & digital services with a personalised and down to earth approach.