Ayup! If you’ve created your leaflet or any other artwork with Designer or Publisher, here’s how to export print-ready files with Affinity software. With the ongoing Adobe drama, more and more designers are switching to Affinity. I recently did the same and couldn’t be happier with the decision. Also, team Nottingham! They’re based right here in NG11 at The Software Centre. Brilliant apps with everything you need to create highly visual and noticeable print materials. I’d go as far as saying it rekindled my somewhat dwindling passion for design. Happy days! Here’s how you can quickly set up and export your file ready to send to your leaflet printers.
All three of Affinity’s desktop apps work very similarly when it comes to exporting your files for print. With that said, Publisher is specifically designed to produce leaflets, brochures, and publications. Note—I’ve not used the iPad versions yet. Most of our clients are currently working on laptops and desktops, but I’ll possibly look at this option in the future. Furthermore, the screenshots and walkthroughs that follow are based on Affinity Publisher. The steps are similar to those with Designer, except for the difference in how you set up your pages. Using Canva instead? How to export print-ready files with Canva.
Layout: Firstly, let’s get your doccument set up. Nine and a bit times out of ten, you’re probably designing an A5 flyer. Affinity’s got your back! From the new document screen, select from a list of popular paper sizes. This will automatically set your page width and height. Units should be in millimetres and the DPI should be 300. Pages: Go ahead and select two pages—one for the front and one for the back of your flyer. If you were thinking of just having one side, I’d advise against it. It’s almost as expensive to print a single-sided flyer as a double-sided flyer. Additionally, when it comes to leaflet distribution, a double-sided flyer will help increase the response rate. Uncheck Facing Pages, as we’re working with two single sides here. However, if you were working on an A4 folded to 4pp A5 leaflet, we’d go with some facing pages action. Note – Pages aren’t an option with Designer. Tick Create Artboard when setting up your document, then select the Artboard tool, then Insert Artboard for your second side. Colour: Select CMYK, and if you really want to impress your printer, find out the exact profile they use. Otherwise, just leave it on the default. Margins: The margin is a handly little border around the edge of your document. I recommend including it so that you can line text up with it. In this example, I’ve gone with 10mm. Bleed: Lastly, head to the Bleed tab and set all sides to 3mm. This is a fairly standard setting with commercial printers but can sometimes vary. Double-check with your print company if you’re unsure.
Secondly, on to the fun part; harnessing your creative superpowers. It’s important to realise that any images that go right to the edge of your design must extend out to the bleed line. This should now be visible on your document. The bleed is an area that gets trimmed off after printing. The artwork needs to fill this area to prevent any unsightly thin white lines around the edge of your flyer. Note: Keep all of your text inside the margin lines, leaving plenty of breathing space between your elements and the edge of the paper. 
Finally, once you’re happy with your design, let’s export it as a print-ready file. As mentioned above, this process will be very similar (if not the same) with any of the Affinity apps. 
Head to File, then Export. Select PDF, then from the presets, go ahead and choose PDF (press ready). As we’ve already set the colour profile and DPI, there’s not much we need to do at this stage. However, we do need to check the bleed and add the print marks. Scroll down until you see Include bleed and Include printers marks. Make sure both are ticked. You’ll now have some options in regards to exactly which printers marks you want to add. Here at Leaflet Lion, we only need the crop marks, but always double-check with your printer. Take a final look through your export settings to make sure it’s set to CMYK and 300dpi, then hit export. When your print-ready file has landed wherever you’ve saved it, go ahead and open it up ready for inspection. It will look slightly different depending on which print marks you selected, but as a rough idea, it should look something like this. 
You can see the artwork extends over the edge of the paper size, and also the crop marks which is where the machine will cut out your flyer.
Sorted! Your files are now ready to send over to your printing company. Run it by the good folks, and they’ll let you know if any further changes are needed. All in all, once you’ve done it a couple of times it’s super-quick and easy to export print files from any of the Affinity apps. Such a joy to use. Hopefully, this article helped you set up, export and check your work ready for the glorious world of print. If you still have any questions, give me a shout. I’d be happy to talk you through the process.
My name’s Mike Hindle. I’m the founder of Leaflet Lion and Clearcut Derby. I help businesses promote themselves sustainably through print and distribution. I also dabble in web design and love photography, exploring and butter beans.
