How to Make a

Tri-Fold
Brochure
Template in
Photoshop
by Abbey Esparza8 Sep 2020
Difficulty:IntermediateLength:LongLanguages:
Brochure Graphic DesignAdobe PhotoshopTemplates
 Wh
at You'll Be Creating
In today's tutorial, we will be creating our very
own tri-fold brochure mockup! We will be putting
together a tri-fold brochure template in Photoshop
perfect for a creative agency or small business.
However, you can also use the same steps to create
other sizes and styles as well! Just change the
colors and images, and you're good to go. 

What You'll Learn in This

Tri-Fold Brochure Tutorial
How to set up a tri-fold brochure sized
document
 How to make a tri-fold brochure template in
Photoshop
How to create a business tri-fold brochure
design
How to copy and paste layer styles in Adobe
Photoshop 
Where to find tri-fold brochure template
Photoshop downloads

What You'll Need

To complete this project, we are using the
following resources:

Geometric Shapes Seamless Patterns

Team Working
Business Woman Holding Phone 
Wooden Dominoes
Water Drop Logo
Adventure Logo
Real Estate Logo
Planet Logo
 15 Space and Astronaut Icons
Blackboard or Chalkboard
UI Icon Set
Find more resources on Envato Elements!

1. How Set Up a Tri-Fold

Brochure Sized Document
First, we have to set up our document and make
sure it's ready for printing. Let's look at the
specifics.

Step 1
One of the most common tri-fold brochure sizes in
Photoshop templates is 8.5 x 11 inches. Though
sizes do vary, we will be going with 8.5 x 11
inches today!

You'll also want to set the Resolution to 300 to

ensure a nice crisp and clear printing experience. 
 Advertisement

Step 2
Now, let's set up our guides, which will help us
know where to place what.

Our first set of guides will be our "bleed" guide, as

well as our "fold" guides. These will show us
where the tri-fold brochure will be folded once
printed. 

Turn on the ruler by hitting Control-R, and

then right-click > Millimeters.
Click and drag on the ruler to create a guide. Use
the left "height" ruler for a vertical guide and the
top "length" ruler for a horizontal guide. 

Place four vertical guides at the 3, 102,

201, and 300-millimeter marks. We are creating
three 99-millimeter columns. 

Step 3
Place two horizontal guides at 33 and 213
millimeters. 
Step 4
Now let's create our content areas. We want any
important content and text to stay within these
lines, unless we want the content to reach onto a
different panel.

First, place vertical lines at 11, 94, 110, 193,

209, and 292 millimeters. 
 Advertisement

Step 5
Finish the guides by placing two horizontal guides
at 11 and 20 millimeters. 

This will leave us with three 83 x 194-

millimeter panels! Keep in mind that there are
different tri-fold brochure sizes in Photoshop
templates. So this number will vary from template
to template. 
If you're making a tri-fold brochure with both a
front and back like I am, then go ahead and save
two versions of this document to save yourself
some time.

You can also save this as a blank tri-fold brochure

template for Photoshop and use it over and over
again! 
2. How to Design a
Background for a Tri-Fold
Brochure
With our document prepped, let's lay down our
backgrounds. As I mentioned above, I will have
two documents in total: one for the front side and
one for the back. 

Step 1
On the front side document, create a white
rectangle the same size as the canvas, using
the Shape tool.  

Add a Pattern Overlay layer effect to the shape,

using the black and gray pattern from this pattern
pack.

Bring the Opacity of the Pattern Overlay down

to 10%, setting the Size to 25%.
Step 2
While still in the front side document, create a 303
x 153-millimeter rectangle towards the top of the
canvas. 

Set it to any color. 

Step 3
Clip a photo of a Blackboard or Chalkboard into
the rectangle shape. Enlarge the image so that only
the chalkboard texture is showing if needed.  
Step 4
Change to the backside document, and place the
same chalkboard texture, filling up the full
canvas. 
Step 5
Place a light gray  #e6e7e8  102 x 216-
millimeter rectangle on the right-hand side of the
"Back" document. This rectangle should line up
with your right-most "fold" guide. 
Step 6
Switching to the frontside document, place and
clip an image of your team above the chalkboard
texture. Set the Layer Mode to Overlay. Add a
reasonably harsh Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. 

Group these layers into a group named

"Background." Do the same to the back
document's background layers. 
3. How to Create the Front
of a Business Tri-Fold
Brochure Design
Let's focus on each side of the brochure separately
so we don't have to keep switching back and forth.
We'll start with the front.
Step 1
Starting with the right-most panel, extract and
place a subject of your choice using your preferred
method. 

I will be using this stock image of a  Business

Woman Holding a Phone, and I extracted her using
the Select Subject tool, which worked great here
as we are going for more of a graphic style look!

Next, make your subject greyscale with Image >

Adjustments > Hue/Saturation.   
Step 2
Create a pink ( #ef5591 ) to orange
( #f26f64 ) Gradient fill layer. Set it to Style:
Linear and Angle: 90, and clip it into the subject. 
Step 3
Use a soft black Brush to mask out the gradient
covering the subject's face and upper body.  
Step 4
Finish up by placing a white version of your logo
above the subject. I used this Planet Logo, and I
turned it white with a Color Overlay layer effect. 

Group the subject, gradient, and logo, naming the

group "Right Panel."
Step 5
Now, on to the middle panel. Let's start by creating
a row of featured clients, sponsors, or any other
logos you may want to feature, depending on your
needs!

I used the same Color Overlay layer effect on all

logos as I did on the "Design Planet" logo, turning
them all white.

Group all of the logos to keep things nice and

organized. 
Step 6 
Create an 83.1 x 22.1-millimeter rectangle using
the Shape tool—any color. Place it similarly to
what you see below.  
Step 7
Add a Gradient Layer Effect to the rectangle in
the same pink ( #ef5591 ) to orange
( #f26f64 ) Linear gradient with an Angle: -105.
Step 8
Add icon "10" from the 15 Space and Astronaut
Icons pack.

Change the icon to white by copying the Color

Overlay layer style from one of the previous logos
onto the icon.

You can copy a layer style by holding Alt and then

clicking and dragging the style from one layer to
another. 
Step 9
Add your phone number and a call to action or
phrase. For today's design, I will be using the
font Neue Haas Unica!

Use the Light font weight at around 10 pt for the

call to action, and the Bold font-weight at
approximately 26 pt for the phone number.
Change the text size to suit your needs!

Make sure the text is set to Center Text and white.

Step 10
Finish the middle panel by adding any more
contact information like your address, any other
phone numbers, or a website URL. 

I used Neue Haas Unica in Bold at 11 pt in a soft

gray  #58595b  color.

Group your layers, naming it "middle panel."

Step 11
Let's finish by designing the left panel! 

Type out the first half of your tagline using Neue

Haas Unica in Black at 32 pt in any color.

Copy, drag, and drop the same orange to pink

gradient layer style from the phone-number
rectangle onto the first half of your tagline. 
Step 12
Type out the second part of your tagline
using Neue Haas Unica in Regular at 30 pt in
white. Place it directly below the first half of the
tagline. 

Both lines of text should be pressed up against the

left-most content guide. 

Group the two lines of text, naming the group "tag

line."
Step 13
Place any additional flavor text below the "tag
line" group using Neue Haas
Unica in Regular at 11 pt in white. 

Remember, keep all the text in between the two

left panel content lines, so they don't end up in the
fold of the brochure!
Step 14
Create a second orange to pink gradient rectangle
towards the bottom of the left panel. To save time,
you can always copy the first smaller rectangle
from earlier and then resize it! My rectangle is 83
x 53 millimeters. 
Step 15
Add icon "1" from the 15 Space and Astronaut
Icons pack, placing it in the top-middle of the
rectangle. 

Turn it white like all the other logos and icons. 

Step 16
Finally, place some quote Centred Text inside the
rectangle. Below, I used Neue Haas
Unica in Italic at 11 pt in white.

Group all of your left panel layers, and you are

done with the front side!
4. How to Create the Back
of a Business Tri-Fold
Brochure Design
Let's move on to the back of the brochure! We will
be using the same fonts, layer styles, and icons for
the back of our design as we did the front. 

Try copying and pasting them from one to the

other to save some time!

Step 1
First, let's add some information to the right-side
panel.

Create a title labeled "Services" towards the top of

the gray rectangle using Neue Haas
Unica in Bold at 32 pt.

The color doesn't matter as we are going to add

a Gradient Layer Effect to the text in the same
pink ( #ef5591 ) to orange
( #f26f64 ) Linear gradient with an Angle of -
105. 
Step 2
Create an orange and pink gradient rectangle
coming from the side of the gray square. My exact
size is 94 x 31 millimeters. 

Step 3
Add a brief description of your services
using Neue Haas Unica in Regular at 11
pt in white.

Left Align the text. 

Step 4
Now, let's list our services! 

Start by creating a text box that is 56

millimeters in width. Using Neue Haas
Unica in Medium at 17 pt set to hot pink
( #EF5591 ), type out the name of your service. 
Step 5
In the same text box, type a brief description of the
service.
Below I used Neue Haas
Unica in Regular at 10.5 pt set to a medium gray
( #414142 ).

Step 6
Add icons related to the service to the left of the
text. Again, I am using the 15 Space and Astronaut
Icons pack. 
Copy and paste the same pink to orange gradient
from the rectangle onto the icon.

Step 7
Repeat this step for all of your services!

Group each service into a group, keeping the text

and icon together.
Once done, group the different service groups into
one final group named "Services Offered."
Step 8
Finish up the "Services" panel by adding some 1
px medium gray ( #414142 ) lines between the
different services using the Line Tool. 

Group all of the layers you just created into a

group named "Services."
Step 9
For the rest of the back side of the brochure, we
are going to combine the middle and left panel to
create one large panel!

Start by adding a 201 x 52 millimeter pink and

orange gradient rectangle towards the bottom-
middle of the left canvas. 
Step 10
Take a copy of your previously extracted subject
and place her on the left side of the canvas,
aligning the bottom edge of the image with the
bottom edge of the gradient rectangle.
Create a pink ( #ef5591 ) to orange
( #f26f64 ) Gradient fill layer. Set it to Style:
Linear and Angle: 90 and clip it into the subject. 

Use a soft black Brush to mask out the gradient

covering the subject's face and upper body.  

Group these two layers, naming the group

"Model."
Step 11
Create a second rectangle below the Model group
and above the gradient rectangle. 
Step 12
The color of the shape doesn't matter as we are
going to clip a background image into it!

I will be using this Wooden Dominoes image. 

Step 13
Adjust the Image > Adjuemnts >
Hue/Saturation so that the image is grayscale.
Give it a slight blue tint with Image >
Adjustments > Color Balance set to +15 blue,
-15 red. 
Lastly, up the Contrast to +56 using Image >
Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast. 

Step 14
Add all of your company facts onto the gradient
rectangle using Neue Haas Unica.
Below, I used Heavy for the "Our Company" title
and Medium for the statistics.

Add any extra fun icons or branding, set to white,

to fill up any space if you have it!
Step 15
Add a title to the top of the brochure using Neue
Haas Unica in Bold Italic. 

Place the same pink to orange gradient onto the

text, from the rectangles. 
Step 16
Finally, fill the bottom half the brochure with a
short "about us" section and a list of results!

For the subtitle, I used Neue Haas

Unica in bold at 11 pt set to a hot pink
( #EF5591 ), changing the font to white for the
extra text below. 

For the right-side list, I used the same Neue Haas

Unica in bold at 11 pt set to white.
Step 17
To finish things off, I added some pink to orange
gradient checkmarks to the side of each list item
using this UI Icon Set!
Group all of your checkmarks into their own group
and then group the "checkmarks" group with the
list text, and you are all done!
That's It!
That's all there is to creating a tri-fold brochure
mockup! While it may look like a lot, in reality, it's
just using the same design themes over and over
again to keep things readable, minimal, and
cohesive! Sticking to one font and only a hand full
of colors will not only ensure an attractive design,
but it will also save you time.

Remember, you can always copy and paste your

layer styles from one layer onto another; there's no
need to apply the same settings over and over
again!