How to make and print envelope liners at home
by Bitz n Bobz Co.
An envelope liner is a printed sheet glued inside the envelope so that the pattern shows when the flap opens. It is the cheapest upgrade in stationery: the envelope itself stays plain and inexpensive, and the moment of opening does the work.
The whole job comes down to two things. Measure the envelope rather than the card, and cut slightly smaller than you think.
Measure the envelope, never the invitation
The most common mistake is sizing a liner from the invitation. The liner lives inside the envelope, so the envelope is the only thing that matters.
Take an envelope you are actually going to use, open the flap flat, and measure the inside width, the inside depth from the bottom fold up to where the flap begins, and the height and shape of the flap itself.
Envelope sizes are not as standard as the names suggest. Two suppliers selling an A7 will not always give you identical interiors, so measure the batch you have bought rather than trusting the label.
The flap shape decides the template
There are two shapes you will meet, and they are not interchangeable.
- Pointed, sometimes sold as a Euro flap. A triangular point. The liner needs a matching angled top, and the angle has to be right or the liner corners will show past the flap edge.
- Square or straight flap. A simple rectangle with rounded corners. More forgiving, and the easier one to start with.
Check which you have before you print anything. A pointed liner in a square envelope is immediately obvious and cannot be rescued with trimming.
Cut small, deliberately
Make the liner around two to three millimetres narrower than the inside width, and stop it a few millimetres short of the flap crease.
Both gaps are on purpose. The width gap means the liner slides in without catching or buckling, which matters when you are doing eighty of them. The gap at the crease means the flap still folds cleanly. A liner that runs right up to the fold makes the flap stiff, and it will crack the print along the crease after a few opens.
Paper: lighter than instinct suggests
Use something around 100 to 120 gsm. Heavier feels more luxurious in the hand as a loose sheet, but it fights the fold, adds bulk to every envelope, and can push you into the next postage band across a large send.
Matte takes a fold better than gloss. Gloss tends to show a white line where it creases.
Printing
Print at actual size or one hundred per cent. Do not use fit to page. Fit to page silently scales the artwork by a few per cent to allow for printer margins, which is exactly the few per cent you spent time measuring.
Print one, cut it, put it in a real envelope and fold the flap before you print the rest. This single test costs one sheet and catches nearly every problem.
If you are sending the file to a print shop, ask for actual size, no scaling, and give them the finished dimensions in millimetres in writing.
Glue only at the top
Put a thin line of glue across the top of the liner only, in the area that sits under the flap. Nothing on the sides, nothing at the bottom.
A liner glued all over will not let the envelope flex, which makes it awkward to insert the invitation and causes the paper to ripple as the glue dries. Glued at the top only, the liner hangs naturally and the envelope still behaves like an envelope.
A glue stick is easier to control than wet glue and does not warp the paper. Double-sided tape works and is instant, but leaves no room to reposition.
Batch it properly
Do not make liners one at a time. Print all the sheets, then cut all the liners, then glue all of them, then insert all of them. Each stage sets up differently, and switching between them is where the time goes.
Print two or three extra sheets. There is always one that tears at the glue stage, and matching paper later is a nuisance.
The mistakes worth avoiding
- Sizing from the invitation rather than the envelope.
- Using fit to page, which scales everything slightly wrong.
- Running the liner to the flap crease, so the flap stiffens and the print cracks.
- Paper that is too heavy, which costs you at the post office.
- Gluing all four edges.
- Cutting all eighty before testing one.
Templates with the sizes already worked out
Our Ultimate Envelope Liner Bundle covers the common envelope sizes with both pointed and square flap shapes, already set at the right finished dimensions with the fold allowance built in, at 300 DPI. You edit it in Canva with a free account, print at actual size and cut. Instant download.
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