How to Make a Print-Ready Notepad in Photoshop
With the growth of print-on-demand technology, more and more online businesses are popping up that allow you to print your own designs on products they offer. From gifts to business use, these custom designed products are both fun and useful.
The print-ready notepad we'll create in this Photoshop Tutorial is designed to be very cute, hip, and perfect for gift-giving. Using the same process, though, you can adjust a few things (like color or font and name) to make these notepads a great promotional item, recognition gift, or 'prize'.
Of all the print-on-demand printers out there, VistaPrint continues to remain one of the most popular for its quality and pricing. You can download the official VistaPrint Photoshop template for notepadshere (yes, the file says "Postcard Vertical" but you do have the right template).
If you will be using another printer, locate and download their official notepad template to use. It's important to use the official templates to ensure that color codes, resolution, and size are perfectly suited to your printer's needs.
Step One: Choose a Color Palette
The design we'll be creating has one major focus color, and 3 accent colors. Start with your focus color, and play around with the H (Hue) and S (Saturation) sliders in the color picker inside Photoshop. As you find colors based off your main color that you like, paint them on a separate layer on your notepad template. Continue until you have your main color and 3 accent colors that either contrast or compliment the main color.
If you aren't sure about what kind of color palette you'd like to use, check out ColourLovers.com where you can find hundreds of amazing, ready-to-use color palettes.
In the illustrations, I've used #B5B7D2 for my main color and #D2B5B5, #D2CFB5, #D2B5CC for the accent colors.
Step Two: Fill it Up
This is the easy step. On the "Your Design" layer (or a new layer, if you're using a different template), fill the canvas with your main color using the paint bucket tool.
Step Three: Give it Stripes
The real "design" of this cute little notepad template is a series of lines at the bottom of the page in varying widths.
Grab your rectangle shape tool and start creating boxes at the bottom of your template, making sure that you go past the edges on all bottom sides. Randomly pick up colors off your color palette as you make the boxes so that each box is a different color as well as a different width. Don't worry about how tall the stripes are - we'll make them all even in a minute.
Continue across until the entire bottom of your template is filled in with stripes. Then, highlight each stripe layer, right-click and choose "Merge Layers".
Reference the second illustration attached to this article.
Now, in the darkest color on your palette, create a horizontal stripe that runs the entire width of the template. Use your move tool to position the stripe at the "cut off" point you'd like the bottom work to have. This should be under 1/3 of the page size.
With your divider in place, use your rectangle selection tool to select everything above the divider. Then, select your "stripes" layer and hit the backspace key to delete all the stripes poking above the divider. You may want to adjust the height further - just repeat the selection and delete until you're happy with the height.
Step Four: Personalize It
This is a really cool looking little notepad, but there's nothing personal about it. Now we get to make it our own.
Consider different ways you can personalize it. An obvious choice is your name (or the name of the recipient) or a business name. You can also do a short quote, though, or write an inspirational word.
Placement of your text is another personalization option - you don't have to center it at the top of the page. You can line it along the edge above the divider, run it along either side of the notepad, or even make it very light and scrawl it across the main spread of your notepad.
Reference the first illustration attached to this article for my finished product and a couple variations.Once you're happy with the final look, right-click your stripes layer and choose "Merge Visible". You're ready to upload it to your favorite printer and wait for the beauty to arrive!
