Create Event Invites, Flyers, Banners, and QR

An event needs at least four pieces of promotion: something personal for the people you invited, something to pin on a notice board, something to hang over a door, and somewhere online to point to. Each piece has its own size, its own print rules and its own place to go wrong. Marketing Materials Manager is a workspace that lines up five tools for these jobs: invitation, flyer, banner or sign, event page and QR codes.

This post is about the print and size decisions, because that is where most of the wasted money goes. It explains what each step makes, how big each output really is, and how to check that a file is good enough to print before you pay a print shop.

The five steps

The workspace lists the steps in this order, and each opens one tool:

1. Invitation opens Invitation Card Maker. Its note counts the guests in your project.
2. Flyer opens Brochure and Flyer Maker, with the note "Print or share".
3. Banner and signs opens Banner and Sign Maker, for venue signage.
4. Event page opens Event Landing Page Generator. Its note counts your sessions.
5. QR codes opens Bulk QR.

The project lives in your browser tab and is erased when the tab closes, so save the project file. Nothing here stores your artwork on our servers: every file is built in your browser and downloaded to your device.

Step 1: the invitation

The card maker has six occasion presets, and fields for headline, event title, message, date, time, venue, RSVP information and phone. The date and time are structured, so the card text and the optional calendar file cannot disagree. With guests in the project it makes one personalised card per guest in a ZIP, up to 300 per batch. The invitation card walk-through covers the details.

Step 2: the flyer

The flyer maker builds a one-page flyer with a business or organiser name, a headline, a subheadline, an accent colour (six choices: Indigo, Green, Red, Amber, Violet and Cyan), an optional header photo, key points and a contact line. You choose the paper: Letter (8.5 by 11 in), A4, A5 or half letter (5.5 by 8.5 in).

Two features matter for printing. The first is a warning: if the content is taller than the page, the tool says that the lowest points will be cut off in the print and downloads, and suggests shortening the text, removing a point or choosing a larger paper size. The second is the choice of exports. The image download is rendered at 300 dpi at the paper size you chose. The PDF is that image placed on a page of the same size, which means the text in the PDF is part of a picture and cannot be selected or searched. The print-shop PDF adds a 0.125 inch bleed on each side, which is the margin printers ask for when a design runs to the edge of the sheet. Lead with the single most important point, as the tool's own tip says: a flyer on a notice board gets seconds of attention.

Step 3: banners and signs, with real numbers

The banner maker works in pixels. It has presets: Web Banner (1200 by 300), Social Post (1080 by 1080), Storefront Sign (1200 by 800), Large Poster (1000 by 1400), Instagram Story (1080 by 1920), YouTube Thumbnail (1280 by 720), YouTube Channel Banner (2560 by 1440), Facebook Cover (851 by 315), X Post (1200 by 675), LinkedIn Post (1200 by 627), Yard Sign at 24 by 18 inches (3600 by 2700) and Flyer (A4, 1240 by 1754). You add a heading, subheading and footer, choose a colour scheme or a background photo, and can overlay a logo or image. Download PNG gives you the exact pixel size.

For print, the Print PDF section asks for the finished printed width in inches, from 2 to 120, with an optional 0.125 inch bleed, and shows the resolution you will get. The calculation is simple and worth doing in your head:

• The Yard Sign preset is 3600 pixels wide. Printed 24 inches wide, that is 150 dots per inch. The tool calls that fine for large signs viewed from a distance.
• The Web Banner preset is 1200 pixels wide. Printed 48 inches wide as a venue banner, that is only 25 dots per inch, and the tool warns that anything below 150 will look soft in print and suggests a larger size or a smaller finished width.
• The A4 flyer preset is 1240 pixels wide, which is about 150 dots per inch at A4 width. Fine for a notice board, not for a glossy brochure.
• 300 or more is labelled print quality.

So the rule for a banner over a door is to start from the printed size and pick a preset or custom size that reaches at least 150 dpi at that width, rather than picking the preset first.

Step 4: the event page

Event Landing Page Generator makes a single index.html with the title, venue, programme, RSVP button and an add-to-calendar button, with no scripts and nothing that tracks visitors. The full guide is make a one-page event website. Make it before the QR step, because the QR code points at its address.

Step 5: QR codes

Bulk QR takes a list of links, one per line, and makes a ZIP of numbered images plus an index.csv, up to 500 codes per batch, in PNG or SVG with colours and an error-correction level. For a poster you usually need one code, linking to the event page. Choose SVG if the code will be printed large, because it stays sharp at any size, and keep strong contrast between the code and its background. Always test by scanning the printed proof with a phone before the full print run.

Worked example: a charity fun run

You have a Saturday morning fun run. You need a notice board flyer, a start-line banner, an invitation to sponsors and a page for sign-up.

• The flyer on A4: headline, three key points and a contact line. If the lowest point is cut off, shorten the points.
• The start-line banner, 3 m wide, printed at 118 inches: a custom pixel size is needed. At 3600 pixels wide that gives about 30 dots per inch, so build it as a large poster with fewer, bigger words, and ask the printer what resolution their machine needs.
• The sponsor card, with the greeting "Dear {name}," for each sponsor in the project.
• The page, with the programme (registration 08:00, warm-up 08:45, start 09:00), the RSVP button pointed at your sign-up form and a map link.
• One QR code on the flyer and the banner pointing to the page.

Steps

1. Create a project and add your guests or sponsors.
2. Make the invitation and check the date, time and RSVP line.
3. Make the flyer on the paper size you will print, and fix any "too tall" warning.
4. Make the banner at the printed size, and read the dpi line before you export.
5. Build the page, upload it, then make the QR code from its address.
6. Download the print-shop PDFs with bleed, and print a proof on plain paper.
7. Save the project file.

Marketing Materials Manager, Invitation Card Maker, Brochure and Flyer Maker and Banner and Sign Maker are Premium Applications, with 2 trial uses a day before a day pass or plan applies. Event Landing Page Generator and Bulk QR are Professional Tools with 10 trial uses a day.

Common mistakes

Choosing a banner preset before knowing the printed size. Exporting a PDF with no bleed for a design that runs to the edge. Putting a QR code on a flyer before the page is online. Using low-contrast colours for the QR. Leaving a placeholder phone number in the contact line.

Summary

Make the five pieces from the same facts, size each for the place it will hang, and check the dpi and bleed before you print. Open Marketing Materials Manager with your event details. More planning tools are in the event tools category.

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Which print size would you like us to add as a preset? Tell us on the contact page.