How to design custom posters

What you can make

Full-colour posters in A3, A2 or A1: for classrooms, events, shops, birthdays and the walls at home. Design as many as you like in one order, and each one can be a different size.

Before you start

All you need is a web browser, on a computer or a phone. There is nothing to install.
You do not need an account to design or to order. You only need one to save a design and come back to it later.
Everything you add can be moved, changed or deleted until you approve your proof. Nothing is printed before that.

Starting your design

On the product page, press Start designing. The designer opens straight away.

Finding your way around

On a computer, your poster is in the middle. The list of pages runs down the side: Design, Text and the rest, ending with Your poster. The price is at the bottom of the side panel and updates as you go. Along the top are Save, Help (this guide, in a new tab), Menu, and the undo and redo arrows.

On a phone, your poster fills the screen.

The round + button adds things: Text, Picture, Graphics, Shape, Background and Templates.
The price at the top opens Your poster.
The bar at the bottom has Menu, Undo, Redo, Save and Finalise. Menu → Help: how to use this designer opens this guide.
When something is selected, a button above the canvas, such as Edit text, opens its settings.

Your design: the list of everything on it

Design shows Your design: every item on your poster, one per line. When it is empty, big buttons offer the ways to start.

Click a line, or the item itself, to select it.
The eye hides an item or shows it again. The arrows move it in front of, or behind, the others. The bin deletes it.
Below the list, Add more gives you the same buttons again.

Adding text

Open Text and type in the box that says Type your text.
Choose Straight text or Curved text, a font, bold or italic, and the alignment.
The sliders set the Size, the Curve (a dome, a cup, or flat), the Spacing between letters and the Line spacing, and Outline thickness for a line around the letters.
Pick the Text colour and the Line colour.
Press Add your text.

To change text later, click it on your poster. Its settings open again and every change shows straight away.

Pictures and QR codes

Upload adds a photo or picture from your computer or phone. Posters are big, so photos need plenty of detail. See the tip below.

QR Code: type a web address in Link or text, choose the Color and Background, check the preview, and press + Add QR code.

Tip: scan the QR code with your phone before you order, to check it opens the right page. A QR code is never smaller than 10 mm, so phones can read it.

Will my photo be sharp? For a crisp print, a photo should be about 3500 × 5000 pixels for A3, 5000 × 7000 for A2 and 7000 × 9900 for A1. A recent phone photo is fine for A3. For A2 and A1, use the largest original you have, not a copy sent through a chat app, which makes photos smaller.

Graphics

Graphics is our library of ready-drawn pictures. Search it, or pick a category, and click one to add it. It prints in full colour.

Click a graphic on your poster to change it: Swap it for another, set its size and angle, flip it, or Duplicate it.

Shapes

Shapes draws a Rectangle, an Ellipse or a Polygon (choose how many Sides), with rounded Corners if you like.

Give it a Fill colour or a texture, make it see-through with Transparency (even all over, or fading in a line or a circle), and add an outline with Outline colour and Thickness. Then press Add shape.

Background

Background is one of the buttons on Design (and in the + menu on a phone). Choose a flat Background colour, or a texture or pattern and its Texture size. No texture goes back to a plain colour. Press Done.

Your poster: sizes and your set of designs

Your poster is where you choose the size and build your order (on a phone, tap the price at the top, or the size chip under your poster).

Poster size: A3 (297 x 420mm), A2 (420 x 594mm) or A1 (594 x 841mm). This sets the size of the poster you are working on now. Posters already saved keep their own size.
Save this design to the queue adds the poster to your order and clears the canvas for the next one.
Click a saved poster’s picture to change it (the canvas is saved first, so nothing is lost). The × removes it.

There is no minimum: one poster is fine. The price drops as you add more.

Moving, resizing and layering

Move: drag the item.
Resize: drag a corner handle. Turn: drag the round handle.
Centre: on a computer, the bar under your poster has Centre ↕, Centre ↔ and Centre on poster for the selected item.
In front or behind: use the arrows on Design.
Undo and redo: the curved arrows at the top (on a computer, Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Shift+Z work too).
Fine work: zoom in with the + and − buttons, and use Pan to move around.

The edge warning

Posters are trimmed after printing. Background colours and pictures print 3 mm past the edge, so no white border shows when the poster is trimmed, and that 3 mm is cut away. Keep words and anything important at least 5 mm inside the edge.

The designer checks for you. When something is too close, the side panel warns you, for example: 1 item may be trimmed — check Your design. On Design the item is marked, with a Fix it button that pulls it back into the safe area. With more than one, Fix all does them all. You can also just make the item a little smaller.

Checking it before you order

Preview shows your poster full-screen, as it will be printed. 3D mock-up shows the finished poster as an object: drag to spin it, scroll to zoom, and 📷 Save image to keep a picture. Neither changes anything.

Saving and coming back later

Save keeps your design under a name you choose. You need an account for this; if you are not signed in, the designer offers Register or log in, and it only takes a minute.

To open it again later: Menu → Open a saved design.

Approving your proof and ordering

Press Review & check out (Finalise on a phone).
The proof shows every design in your order side by side, with the total.
Read every word. Spelling, layout and pictures are your responsibility once you approve.
Tick the box to say you have read and agree, then press Finalize & Add to Cart.

Approving is final. We print exactly what the proof shows, so a mistake in an approved proof cannot be refunded. If anything is wrong, go back and fix it first.

At checkout you tick once more to confirm you have checked the spelling and layout, then pay securely through Payfast.

After you order

We start making your order once you have approved your proof and paid. How long it takes, and how it reaches you explains production times, Rush production, courier delivery and lockers.
Collecting from our Wilro Park collection point is free. We email you when your order is ready to collect.
Want to send us your own finished artwork instead? Choose Email us your artwork later where it is offered, or send us an enquiry.