Designing a funeral Order of Service for a loved one is a beautiful, personal thing to do and can result in something incredibly special. Alongside choosing photographs and finalising music choices, there will also be the design and layout to consider, to reflect your special person.
Here are some of my top tips for designing a funeral Order of Service, to ensure that the printed version looks its very best.
TIP ONE: Make sure it’s a UK paper size.
This might seem obvious, but it’s a common pitfall as many of the templates available to use or buy on sites like Canva or Etsy are set up to USA proportions. In the UK, A5 is the most common paper size for a funeral Order of Service (A4, folded in half) – measuring 148mm x 210mm. The USA uses “half letter” which is sized at 5.5” x 8.5” (or 140mm x 216mm) – making it taller but slimmer. This small but vital difference will mean either stretching, squashing, cropping or adding two borders to your artwork when printed in the UK, which could significantly change the look of your design. If using a template, check whether it’s available in international sizes before buying/starting – many are, but this might not be the default!
TIP TWO: It must be a multiple of four pages
A printed Order of Service booklet is made up of large sheet(s) folded in half and joined together with staples. Every sheet therefore creates 4 pages in the finished printed booklet. A single sheet would make a 4 page booklet, two sheets an 8 page booklet, and so on. It’s not possible to print booklets of 5, 6 or 7 pages, for example, as they can’t be fastened together.
TIP THREE: Save decorative fonts for your headings
Whilst it can be tempting to choose a beautiful, creative font that reflects your person, save this for headings and use something clear and simple for your main text, to make it easy to read. I would strongly recommend keeping it in black (on white paper), or white (on black/dark coloured paper) for maximum contrast. Crematoriums and places of worship are not known for their bright lighting and it’s important that the congregation can read the information easily – especially for hymn or song words that they need to join in with.
I hope these tips are helpful in helping ensure your printed Order of Service booklets look their very best, to do justice to the love and hard work you have put into creating them.
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