May 24th in Designing by Alvaro Guzman This time I'll help you to create a ready to print three-fold brochure from scratch using only Photoshop. This tutorial is ideal for beginners and for people who want to know more about print design. Let's get it started!

Take a look at the image we'll be creating. You can view the final image preview below.

This is a practical guide on how to design a simple brochure from scratch using only Photoshop. I'm doing it without using InDesign templates, nor Illustrator, since there are many people who don't have that software, or don't know how to use it. If you're a student looking to print a Brochure in your InkJet Printer, this just might be the right tutorial for you.

There are several things we need to consider before starting to design a brochure: the size, shape, and folding type besides the concept itself. Generally, we should start with pen and paper - literally. It's a good idea to grab a piece of paper and start looking for the best way to fold it, anyway at the end you'll have only two printable sides, that means, two Photoshop documents, one for the front side, and another for the back side.

This time I'll show you how to design a three-fold brochure. Below is a quick draft of the folding guide. From here and forward, we'll name each print area a "Face," so we have "Face 1," "Face 2," "Face 3"... until "Face 6."

It isn't hard to imagine a design once the folding type is chosen. Once you've folded your piece of paper, draw something over it and see how it looks. This is the most creative step, so feel free to do whatever you want.

In the following example, I've used my tablet to draw something for you (did the same on paper actually). This forms the basic guidelines of the design and some of the graphic ideas. Drafting will help you to see where you'll put the content of your brochure and if the layout will help the reader find the info quickly, besides it's a good way to keep your info ordered. E.g. in my draft you can see how I placed the "Contact us" text in field number 2 (see the previous graphic), so when the brochure stays folded, the reader will still be able to read the title of the brochure and the contact info as a quick reference.