A guide to using free templates (including Canva) to make your own newspaper

At Newspaper Club we print three different formats: mini, tabloid and broadsheet. When you’re designing your newspaper, it’s best to start with a template set up to the correct dimensions for the format you're printing. That way you'll know how much space you have to work with from the start, and you won’t have to resize your artwork down the line.

In this post you’ll learn how to get started with our blank templates for Adobe InDesign, Scribus and Canva or how to create your own templates in Microsoft Word.

Download our newspaper templates for Adobe InDesign or Scribus

You can download templates for Adobe InDesign and Scribus (a free, open source alternative to InDesign) directly from the artwork guidelines for our different formats:

MINIS

Digital mini guidelines
Traditional mini guidelines

TABLOIDS

Digital tabloid guidelines
Traditional tabloid guidelines

BROADSHEETS

Digital broadsheet guidelines
Traditional broadsheet guidelines

With these templates, you can start designing straight away — they're already set up to the correct dimensions and include margins for tabloids and broadsheets and bleed for minis.

These templates are only compatible with InDesign and Scribus and won’t work with other layout software like Photoshop or Illustrator.

Design a newspaper in Canva

Canva is a brilliant online design tool that's popular with our customers. You can access a huge library of design assets with a free account or upgrade to Canva Pro for more custom features (like uploading your own fonts).

Blank templates for Canva

To help you get started, we've created blank Canva templates for all of our newspaper sizes — they're set up with the correct dimensions for each format and include margins (for tabloids/broadsheets) or bleed (for minis).

Canva template for all minis*
Canva template for all tabloids
Canva template for digital broadsheet
Canva template for traditional broadsheet

*For minis, you'll need to eyeball it to make sure your artwork stays in the safe area, which starts 10mm from the trim line at the top, bottom and outside edge of each page. We're happy to check your file to make sure it's set up correctly — just email us at support@newspaperclub.com 

Using our Canva templates

Show rulers/guides. From the File menu, turn off Canva’s default margins (if they’re turned on) and turn on rulers and guides:

Your document should now show purple guide lines — these are the margins we need to print your newspaper. Make sure not to put any artwork in the area from the purple line to the edge of the page.

Be aware that the mini template won't have guide lines on the left-hand side — it will look like this:

Adding pages. Our Canva templates are set up with the minimum number of pages required for each newspaper format (i.e. 4 pages for tabloids and 16 pages for minis).

To add more pages, click "Add page" below the document to add as many pages as you'll have in your newspaper (remember that pages must be in multiples of 4 for tabloids/broadsheets and multiples of 8 for minis):

Save your template from the File menu:

You'll be able to go back to your template at any time from the left-hand sidebar on Canva:

 

Create your own newspaper template in Microsoft Word

You can also create a simple newspaper template using Microsoft Word if you’re printing a tabloid or broadsheet. (We don’t recommend using Microsoft Word to make a mini.)

You can download our ready-made Word template for tabloids or create your own following our guides to setting up a template in Microsoft Word for Mac or PC.

This method is recommended for digital printing only, as it’s not possible to export the artwork in the correct format for traditional printing.

How to export your newspaper as a PDF

Even if you've used one of our templates, it’s important to check your export settings are correct or we might not be able to print your newspaper. Our export guide explains how to get your file ready to print.

Need help?

If you have any more questions about using or creating a template, just get in touch with our team at support@newspaperclub.com and we're happy to help.

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