Creating a Postcard File in Adobe Illustrator: Step-by-Step Guide

In this video, we'll be creating the file for our postcard. So, let's begin.

We'll start by creating a new file, going to 'File, ' 'New, ' and next, we'll go over to 'Print' to look for a postcard template. If we select 'View All Presets, ' we'll see that we don't have one of the measurements we want. However, we can create one.

To do this, we'll go into 'Preset Details' and first start by double-clicking our title and giving it a new name.

We'll title this 'Postcard.' Next, let's work on the proportions of our artboard.

We'll start by changing the units of measurement from points to inches. For our width, we're going to double-click and type 'six.'

For our height, we'll set it to four inches.

Finally, under 'Artboards, ' we're going to increase this by clicking the top arrow to two artboards, since we'll have a front and a back of our postcard.

Moving down, we're going to add a bleed to our postcard.

A bleed allows us to have art outside of our artboard. However, it will print so that when we cut across it outside the artboard, the colors will run all the way to the edge.

For our bleed, we want to increase it to one-eighth of an inch or 0.125 inches.

Next, we'll scroll down and make sure that our color mode is set to CMYK, since this is the color mode that will be used for printing.

We'll increase the raster effects to high at 300 PPI, and for our preview mode, we'll leave it at default.

We'll then click 'Create, ' and we've now created the file for our postcard.

Let's start by saving our file. Go to 'File, ' 'Save As, ' and here we'll see that we have our file name.

It's called 'Postcard, ' and it has the extension Adobe Illustrator (.ai).

We'll then go to our unzipped folder and save it here, along with our icons and interface files.

Next, let's quickly reset our workspace in case we made any changes throughout.

We'll go to the top to 'VDCI, ' and we'll simply select 'Reset VDCI.'

That way, all of our proportions and panels are in the correct spots.

Now, let's begin by discussing the strategy for our postcard.

To do this, let's open a File Explorer window, go into our C drive where our unzipped folder is, and preview our postcard preview PDF.

We'll double-click, and here we can see a preview of the postcard that we'll be creating.

From the looks of it, we have one side that's in full color with some text, a title, event details, and a subline. We also have a background pattern, a shape, and a woman who will be the recruiter.

Below this, we have the front of our postcard.

On the front, we have lines for the address, a separating line of dots, as well as a title, some information, and three of the icons we've previously created with circles around them.

As we begin designing this postcard, feel free to open this PDF for reference.

Let's now go back into Illustrator and start by creating some guides.

On the left-hand side, we'll have our Front artboard with the address lines, the separator line, as well as the title, paragraphs, and icons.

So, let's start by creating a couple of guides for our artboard.

We'll shift our perspective over using the hand tool shortcut (H) on the keyboard, drag over, and zoom in using CTRL + PLUS (+) on the keyboard to get a better view of our artboard.

From here, we can add guides.

To do this, we need to make sure that we have our rulers on. We can either go into our properties panel and add rulers by using the Selection Tool, and simply select 'Click to Show Rulers.'

In addition, we can access these by right-clicking outside of our artboard and clicking 'Hide or Show Rulers, ' or by going to 'View' > 'Rulers, ' and 'Hide or Show Rulers' will be displayed here.

Additionally, if we want to change our units of measurement, we can do so by going to 'Edit, ' 'Preferences, ' and then 'Units.'

From here, we can change our general units of measurement to inches or pixels.

In this case, let's choose pixels, and we'll click 'OK.'

We'll see now in our rulers that it has been changed.

In addition, if we go to 'Edit Artboards, ' we can click here, and we'll see that our artboard is now displayed in width and height in pixels.

To change this back, we can exit, and either go back into 'Edit Preferences, ' or with the Selection Tool and nothing selected, go to 'Units' in the properties panel and select inches.

Here, if we click 'Edit Artboards, ' we'll see that our artboard is now displayed in inches.

We'll click 'Exit.'

Next, let's create our guides. I usually like to start by creating a guide by clicking and dragging from the left and simply adding a center line.

We'll hold Shift and snap our guide right to three inches.

Next, let's add an additional line right through the middle so we can see where our center is easily.

To do this, I'll click the ruler from the top and drag it down to two inches since two inches will be halfway between the top and bottom.

I'll then release.

As we can see around our artboard, we have a red line. This indicates the bleed.

While it's not part of the actual art, it will be important to have any art that comes to the edge of our artboard extend all the way to the bleed so that when the postcard is cut, the art goes all the way to the edges.

Next, let's create a couple of guides close to the edges so that we can make sure that all of our important art isn't too close to the edge.

To do this, we'll add guides one-eighth of an inch on the inside of our artboard.

We can click and drag, and we'll leave a guide right here.

We'll do the same thing on top, leaving a guide an eighth of an inch, and do the same on the right and bottom.

These guides will help us ensure that all the important aspects of our postcard are well within the artboard and the area that's been cut.

As one final step, let's now rename our layer, titling it 'Front' for the front of our artboard and then 'Guides, ' since all the guides are currently contained within this layer.

We'll then hit ENTER, and let's save our work using CTRL + S on the keyboard to save. In the next video, we'll start designing the front of our postcard.

See you there!