When time and money is tight, decent print templates can help you out.
Print templates may not always be a professional designer's first choice – you'd probably rather create one from scratch. But sometimes the demands of restricted budgets and tight deadlines means cutting corners is unavoidable, and that's where a print template (maybe even a free print template) might come in handy. You could tweak it slightly in Photoshop, or build on its structure to create something unique, but either way templates can save a lot of time and guesswork when creating a design.
Great print templates can also be a learning tool. Graphic design students can dissect the elements in another designer's creation to better understand the process that goes into certain types of design. If you'd like to brush up on some skills, see the best Photoshop tutorials and Illustrator tutorials. Or, for more help getting started with a project, see these top resume templates and website templates.
Doing the leg work
The main drawback to using a PSD or AI format template for commercial work is that many of the most popular print design templates have been overused by other designers. So to create a successful design using a print template, you have to dig deep and find something that both looks great and hasn't been seen before.
It's a task that's easier said than done, so in this article we've done some the leg work for you. The following websites have been hand-selected for their abundance of high-quality templates for print – both free and paid-for.
01. Creative Market
Unique designs from real designers (Image credit: Creative Market)
One of the best places to find print templates is Creative Market. Essentially an online marketplace for creatives to sell their wares, you'll find all kinds of stunning templates here, created by genuinely unique and talented designers. Search for templates for every purpose imaginable from business cards to flyers, magazines to brochures.
There are no free print templates here, but prices start at $2 and range up to $80 so you can choose your budget – and you know you're getting a great quality product.
02. GraphicRiver.net
GraphicRiver.net offers an extensive collection of print design templates
With an extensive collection to choose from, Graphic River is an excellent source of print templates, although it should be noted that many of the templates require a small fee. However, the cost is relatively small and helps prevent these templates from becoming overused by amateur designers and business owners.
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03. Envato Elements
Templates for every occasion imaginable (Image credit: Envato Elements)
Envato Elements is packed full of a whopping 38,000 print templates, including flyers, magazines and even calendars. You're buying from the designers, who list their products on the site. There is some truly high quality work available on here, but this site is best suited for a heavy user as the subscription price begins at €14.50/m for an individual plan.
However, alongside print templates there are music templates, video templates, presentations, fonts and photos (and others) – meaning if you're in the market for a lot of different types of resources, it may be perfect for you.
04. psdGraphics
psdGraphics is a great source of templates for Photoshop
If you use Photoshop, you'll want to check out psdGraphics for their extensive collection of resources, including not only print template designs, but customisable vector art, backgrounds and other design downloads.
05. Pixeden
Pixeden has both paid-for and free premium templates
Pixeden has a lot of high-quality templates and premium templates, though some of the designs will cost a small fee to use. Thankfully, the website has a free section that continuously updates with new free templates.
06. Adobe Stock
Signing up for a free trial gets you 10 templates (Image credit: Adobe Stock)
If you're a heavy Adobe user, Adobe Stock's vast collection of artist-designed templates could be the perfect solution. Designed to be used inside the Creative Cloud apps, the collection really is beautiful – and can be tweaked and redesigned to your heart's content. Choose from Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign templates for print (and Motion Graphics templates for Premiere Pro).
Though there's a subscription fee, you can sign up for a free 30 day trial and get 10 templates for free, so if you're in need some a few specific templates you can download them for nothing. Win.
07. Deviantart
Art community site DeviantArt harbours some creative print templates (Image credit: DeviantArt)
Featuring such a huge community of talented artists allows DeviantArt to be a great source for just about anything related to design - including print templates. You have to do a little digging, but there's some great gems in here for any type of print project.
