A flyer has seconds to work. Someone glances at a noticeboard, a shop window or a message in a group chat, and either understands it instantly or moves on. A good flyer is mostly about what you leave out. The PDF part is about making sure it looks as sharp printed as it does on screen.
Decide the one thing it must say
Before designing, write one sentence: what, when, where, and what to do next.
"Winter craft market, Saturday 5 December, 10am to 4pm, St Mark's Hall. Free entry."
Everything on the flyer should support that sentence.
Lay it out in three levels
- Headline: the event or offer, in the largest type.
- Key details: date, time, place, price.
- Call to action: book, call, visit, scan.
Use no more than two fonts, generous margins, and one strong image. Text over a busy photo is hard to read; place text on a plain area or a solid band.
Size and orientation
Common flyer sizes are A5 or A4 (half letter or letter in North America). Portrait suits noticeboards; landscape suits screens. If you will share it mainly in messaging apps, check how it looks small on a phone.
Use good images
Photos should be at least 300 DPI at the printed size for sharp results. A photo that fills an A5 flyer needs to be roughly 1,750 by 2,500 pixels. Logos are best as vector files (SVG or PDF) so they stay crisp.
Add a QR code if people need to act
A QR code to a booking or ticket page helps people act on the spot. Make it big enough to scan from a short distance and print the short URL next to it. See how to add a QR code to a PDF.
Export for print
Export to PDF from your design tool or word processor with high-quality settings. If a print shop is producing it, ask whether they want bleed (extra image area beyond the trim edge) and crop marks. For colour accuracy in professional printing, see PDF/X print format explained.
Make a lighter copy for sharing
A print-quality PDF can be several megabytes. For email and messaging, make a compressed copy. Docento.app can compress a PDF in the browser without uploading it. Keep the high-quality version for printing. If you also want an image for social media, see how to convert PDF to PNG.
Proofread twice
Wrong dates and times are the most common and most expensive flyer mistakes. Check them against the calendar, ask someone else to read it, and print one test copy before printing a hundred. Our proofreading checklist helps.
Takeaway
Decide the one sentence the flyer must say, design in three levels with one image and two fonts, export a high-quality PDF for print and a compressed one for sharing, and proofread the date, time and place more than once.
