Our ultimate guide to printing and cutting invitations and party decorations
Our printable invitations and party printables are designed to make the party planning and invitation process as easy as possible for you. From start to finish, we customize all our invitation files for you; all you have to do is print, text or email. There are several printing options to choose from if you get your customized invitations from us.
For those of you who have purchased a printable invitation or party printable from our Etsy shop, or for anyone considering purchasing one of our designs and looking for more information on the process, we’ve put together this handy how-to guide to hopefully answer all your printing questions!
Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links, meaning we may receive a small commission from the website or sellers if you click a link and purchase a product. This does not cost you anything; it is simply a commission provided to us by the sellers for advertising or promoting their product.
Saving your file
When you purchase an invitation or printable from our Etsy shop, we’ll provide the files to your through Etsy Messages. Once you’ve approved your file, we’ll send you a final PDF for printing. You need to:
- Double click the file to open it full-size in a new window. This is VERY important and you need to make sure aren’t trying to save only the thumbnail image in the message.
- Once you’ve opened the file full-size in a new window, right-click and “save as” like you would any other file to your computer.
- To print your file, simply upload it to the printing service you’re choosing to print with (see more on this below) or save to a USB key if you’re taking it somewhere for printing in person.
**** YOU MUST SAVE THE FILE TO YOUR COMPUTER FIRST IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO PRINT. IT WILL NOT WORK IF YOU TRY TO SUBMIT THE FILE FOR PRINTING FROM YOUR PHONE ****
Printing your file
Printing option #1: A professional print service
If you purchase printable invitations from me, I highly recommend Prints of Love. My shop has partnered with them to offer fast, high-quality, affordable printing. Better yet, they offer free 2-3 day U.S. shipping and free envelopes! Simply follow this link: https://printsoflove.com/ref/prettyprintablesink/
To print our invitations through Prints of Love, follow these easy steps:
- Go to https://printsoflove.com/prettyprintablesink/
- Select “cards” along the top menu
- Under printing type, click on “cards.”
- Click on your occasion (wedding, birthday, etc.)
- For card type, select “flat” and select the proper layout (either vertical or horizontal, depending on what design you purchased).
- Select “5 by 7” for the size.
- Select whether you want square or round corners
- Click whether you would like free envelopes or decline if you don’t
- Select the quantity you want to print
- Choose your finish (we recommend matte finish)
- Upload the PDF file
Then sit back and wait for your invitations and envelopes to ship in two to three business days! Simple and easy. You can even have them address the envelopes for you for a small additional fee.
Printing option #2: A copy or print centre
We recommend this option for anyone purchasing our instant download files, like our printable games. We create the files as single 5 by 7 inch PDF file as well as 8.5 by 11 inch PDFs with two games per page, so for these files, we recommend a print/copy centres like Staples, Office Max, UPS, Kinkos, etc. Be sure to following our guidlelines for saving your file properly above.
If you are printing at Staples, visit their print centre website and then follow the instructions to print a file. Simply upload the file, make sure you select print in colour, and print on white cardstock.
Printing option #3: At home
If you have a home printer that can print on cardstock, then a DIY print-at-home option may work for you. However, we only recommend this ONLY if your printer can print on heavier cardstock, prints at 300 DPI, and if your printer can reliably print colour close to what appears on your printer screen. We usually find most home printers end up printing a lot darker than what appears on your computer screen, so if you want to aim for reliable colour printing, we recommend taking using an online printer or print centre.
Choosing the right paper
We recommend printing on at least 100 lb. white cardstock. A general rule: the heavier the cardstock, the thicker and more luxurious your invitation will look and feel. Any copy/print centre and professional printer has matte white cardstock available for you to print on and just charges a nominal additional fee to upgrade from regular copy paper.
If you’re going the home printer route, be sure your printer can print on heavy cardstock first. Otherwise, you’ll end up jamming your printer or the ink may not print properly and you can end up with white streaks through your printed invitation.
Do a test run
Before you print your entire quantity, we HIGHLY recommend doing a test run first to ensure the quality and colour are close to what you were expecting. Each printer is different, especially if you are going the home printer route, so be sure the invitation and print quality is what you are hoping for before you do the entire print run. We also recommend doing a test print to catch any last-minute spelling, grammar or spacing errors.
Selecting the right print settings
Each printer prints differently, so be sure you know all the different print settings before you submit your print job. If you are printing at a print centre or at home, the one thing that we ALWAYS recommend checking before you submit your print job is to ensure that you have the “Print actual size” box checked off and do NOT have “fit to page” or “stretch to print” selected.
All our designs are created to print 300 DPI and high-resolution. If you choose “fit to page” or “stretch to print,” it will actually distort your file and can result in your image become pixelated and blurry, which is NOT want you want. So to ensure it prints properly, make sure “print actual size” is selected so that you don’t accidentally pixelate the file.
A note about the bleed
Your file will come with a bleed around the edge. The bleed is a design term used to refer to the 1/4″ around the outside of the invitation that may get cut off during the printing process. When you see a print preview, you may notice this area is grey or trimmed off – that is normal! We make sure our text doesn’t run into the bleed area so that it’s not cut off.
Trimming your invitation files
As mentioned earlier, once we’ve gone through the proof and approval process, we provide a single file PDF as well as an 8.5 by 11 inch PDF with two invitations per page that’s print-ready. If you print through Prints of Love, you can print as 5 by 7-inch files that will come sized as needed and you won’t have to trim anything. If you print at home or at a copy/print centre, you’ll likely need to trim the invitation our yourself.
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This is super easy to do! Simply use a paper trimmer to cut out your designs. This Fiskars paper trimmer is our favourite inexpensive paper trimmer and makes it easy to line up using the sizing guides to make sure you trim properly and retain the invitation size.
Most copy/print centres can often also cut them out for you for a small additional fee.
Adding extra touches to your printed invitation or party printables
The great part about printing your own invitations is that you can add extra accessories and embellishments to personalize your invitation and make it stand out! Add some sparkly self-adhesive rhinestones to an invitation for a hint of bling, or tie some satin ribbon around for a luxurious touch.