TIPS FOR PRINTABLE INSERTS

Did you know we have printable inserts available our Etsy shop? Our printables shop offers more designs than what we have listed in our main shop.

Every printer is different, so unfortunately we can't provide detailed technical support for printables, but here are a few tips that may help.

Paper

For paper, I'm currently experimenting with different brands, but I always look for 28lb or 32lb bright white, and I try to avoid ones that say "smooth" since I like a little texture on my paper.

Automatic Double-Sided Printing

Make sure your settings are on "Actual Size" or "No Scaling" or else your inserts won't print at the right size. 

Also make sure your settings are on "print on both sides" and "flip on long edge". 

Manual Double-Sided Printing

Make sure your settings are on "Actual Size" or "No Scaling" or else your inserts won't print at the right size. 

Print the first side of the insert.

When you insert your paper back into the printer for the back side of the insert, make sure you insert the paper the right direction. Printers usually have instructions right on the paper tray. In the example of my printer below, the side of the paper I want to print on should be face down, top of paper in first.

Cropping Your Inserts

I use a Swingline Guillotine paper trimmer *.  Just follow the crop marks. Our crop marks are more user-friendly than the standard crop marks you usually see for printables.

Punching Your Inserts

I use an Open Industrial hole punch* for pocket size and A6 inserts (can also be adjustable for other insert sizes), this gold Michael's hole punch for personal and personal wide size inserts, and this teal Michael's hole punch for A5 size inserts.

I also use scissors to make slits in the hole punches so I can easily pop my inserts in and out of my planner.

And that's it! It's pretty simple. I know that some customers take their printable inserts to places like Office Depot to get printed and cut, so that might be another option. Although, I don't think they can hole punch inserts because their machines aren't set up for the different planner sizes.

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions! Or, if you have any other helpful tips, please do share!  

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