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 or Scribus or how to create your own templates using Microsoft Word or Canva.

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.

Create your own newspaper template in Microsoft Word

Not using InDesign or Scribus? You can 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.

Design a newspaper template in Canva

We've heard great things about Canva, a free online design tool that some of our customers have used to make their newspapers. We're working on a detailed guide to designing your newspaper in Canva, but in the meantime you can create a blank template following the steps below:

1. Create or log in to your Canva account

2. Click the "Create a design" button at the top right of the homepage

3. At the bottom of the drop down menu, select "Custom size":

4. Change the units to mm and add the dimensions for the newspaper format you're printing — in the example below we've used the dimensions for our digital tabloid:

5. This will open Canva's design tool and show a blank document set up to your dimensions. Add a title to your newspaper at the top of the screen — in the example below we've called it "Tabloid Newspaper Template."

Click "Add page" below the document to add as many pages as you'll have in your newspaper (remember that most of our newspapers need pages in multiples of 4):

A note on margins: Canva adds a 25mm margin around your document by default, which is bigger than our minimum required margins. You can use Canva's rulers or guides to set smaller margins — just make sure you keep within the margins specified in our artwork guidelines.

For minis, you'll need to add bleed — check the artwork guidelines for our digital minis or traditional minis. Canva explains how to set up bleed in their guide to margins, bleed and crop marks.

7. Save your template from the File menu:

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

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.

More questions?

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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