How to Design a Door Hanger Template

This content originally appeared on Envato Tuts+ Tutorials and was authored by Daisy Ein

What You'll Be Creating

In this tutorial, we'll create a custom door hanger template, perfect if you're looking for a DIY door hanger template, a blank door hanger template, or a completed door hanger design. We'll also look at some door hanger ideas to help inspire your next project.

We'll create this door hanger template design in this tutorial. Door hanger mockup from Envato Elements.

What You Will Need

We'll use the following assets in this door hanger template tutorial:

When it comes to your door hanger template, Word, Illustrator, and a host of other software options could work for you. In this tutorial, however, we'll develop a template for a door hanger sign using Adobe Photoshop. You could, however, develop door hanger templates of any size using this walkthrough, and then import them into the software of your choice.

Download Unlimited Door Hanger Template Designs on Envato Elements

Interested in downloading a door hanger template design? Check out the selection on Envato Elements for a host of door hanger ideas. The best part is, one low fee gets you unlimited access to the entire library of graphic templates. That means you can download as many door tag template designs as you want, because they're all included.

Property House Door Hanger — Use a custom door hanger template to create the perfect door tag template for your project.

But Envato Elements includes more than door hanger templates. You also get graphics, stock photos, fonts, and much more. Everything is included. You even get mockup templates, like the template below. Easily place your design concept into Photoshop smart objects to get a photorealistic preview of what your door hanger would look like, printed and ready to use. Cool, right?

Door Hanger Mockup Set — Download a printable door hanger template, mockups, fonts, and more on Envato Elements.

Now, let's begin creating our own door hanger template from scratch in Adobe Photoshop.

1. How to Make a Printable Door Hanger Template

Step 1

For this demo, we'll create an open house door hanger template. However, these techniques could work for any subject you'd like. If you're looking for door hanger dimensions for your templates, this is the perfect place to start.

We'll create a 4.5" by 11.5" inch document for our door hanger template. The intention here is to design a 4" x 11" door hanger, but we'll add an extra 0.25" on each side for our bleed.

Create a new document in Adobe Photoshop by going to File > New, using these dimensions. We'll set our resolution to 300 Pixels/Inch, so our project is appropriate for high-quality printing. Click Create to create your document.

Step 2

Next, let's create some Guides. Go to View > New Guide Layout.

Toggle the Margin on, and add 0.25" to each side of your document. This is going to act as our trim, or where the document will be cut. The 0.25" bleed here will help ensure that any full-page images extend to the edge of our project. Then click OK to proceed.

Step 3

Repeat this process by once again going to View > New Guide Layout.

Again, we want to turn to the Margin settings here. This time, add 0.50" to each side of your document. This will give us a 0.25" safety area for our design. We'll keep essentials like text within this space. Again, click OK to proceed.

Step 4

Next, turn to your Layers panel. You can open it up by going to Window > Layers.

Create a New Layer by clicking on the plus icon at the bottom of the Layers panel.

For optional, organizational purposes, we can name and label our layers. For example, double-click on the name of the layer to give it a new name. In this demo, we'll call it "Cut Area".

You can also right-click on PC or Control-click on Mac, on the layer itself, and choose a color identifier. This is cosmetic and for organizational purposes. However, since this is going to be an essential part of our blank door hanger template, it's a good idea to establish this early on.

Step 5

Now, let's turn to the Ellipse Tool in our Tools panel. We'll use it to define where on our door hanger template we'd like the hanger hole cut out.

Before drawing your ellipse, make sure you have the following settings ready in your Options panel:

Set the Fill Color to white.
Set the Stroke Color to black (or any other color of your choice).
Set the Stroke Size to 5 pixels.
Set the Stroke Options to a solid line.

Step 6

Then, with the Ellipse Tool active, click once on your document. We can define what size ellipse we'd like Photoshop to draw for us. In this example, we'll create an ellipse with a 1.25" diameter, which is a common door hanger template size.

Click OK to add the ellipse to your document.

Step 7

We'll want our ellipse aligned to the center of the door tag. Rather than eyeballing it and taking a guess, we can again turn to guides to help us position it. Go to View > New Guide.

Then, choose Vertical Orientation and input 50% as the value. Click OK to continue. This will create a guide right in the middle of our template.

Step 8

Let's create one more guide. Go to View > New Guide. This time, we want Horizontal Orientation, and input the value 0.875". This adds a guide that is 0.875" down the length of our door hanger template design. This gives us 5/8" of space from the top, after the 0.25" bleed. This is a common placement for the "hole" in our door hanger, but you could choose any alternative measurement you prefer.

Click OK to continue.

Then, use the Move tool to move our ellipse to align with these guides. We want it in the middle of the document, and aligned to that 5/8" guide from the top of the canvas, like this example, below.

Step 9

Finally, let's use the Line Tool to add a cut line that connects our door tag hole. If we don't have a cut here, we can't get the door tag on a door knob.

Select the Line Tool in your Tools panel. Make sure we have the same options from our ellipse still selected up in the Options panel. This was No Fill, a black Stroke, 5 px in Width, and a solid line.

Click and drag to draw a line from the ellipse to the edge of your document. Hold down the Shift key to create a perfectly straight line.

And now we have a basic, blank door hanger template. Keep in mind that you could create this in any dimensions you prefer. Make it longer, shorter, create a small door hanger template, or use a different shaped hole. It's up to you.