Whether you’re designing a calendar, planner, journal, or printable template, Affinity Designer gives you the precise tools to turn your ideas into polished, sellable products. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how I create templates that I use and sell—from calendars to digital planners —using Affinity’s move tools, vector features, and layout options.
If you’ve been looking for a way to combine your artwork with practical, income-generating products, this is a great place to start.
Watch the Tutorial
If you’re a see it on “paper” person, keep reading below. This post is part of my iPad Art Breaks series, where we dive into creative tools and techniques to help you build a portfolio and a product line that stands out.
Follow along as I create a printable calendar template from scratch and explore how to turn templates into sellable digital products.
WHAT YOU CAN MAKE WITH TEMPLATES IN AFFINITY DESIGNER
Here are just a few ideas for products you can create:
- Calendars (monthly layouts with custom grids and fonts)
- Planners & Trackers
- KDP Low-Content Books (like life story journals, quote books, or memory books)
- Digital Stickers (organized PSDs or PNGs for digital planners)
Affinity gives you full creative control so you can tailor every detail to your own unique style.
Affinity Designer is my go-to for making reusable templates because of features like:
- Precise move tools for aligning elements down to the pixel
- Vector shapes that scale cleanly at any size
- Snapping & alignment tools for perfect spacing and layout
- Font control using open-source fonts for commercial use
- Layer & asset organization so you can reuse and customize templates easily
Whether you’re designing for yourself or selling to others, these features save time and make your products professional and scalable.
FOLLOW ALONG: BUILD A CALENDAR TEMPLATE TOGETHER
In the tutorial, we go step-by-step through building a printable calendar page:
Step 1: Set Up the Canvas
Open a new document in Affinity Designer (either v1 or v2) with dimensions like 8.5×11″, 300 DPI—perfect for printable PDFs or freebies. I show you how to adjust your grid, margins, and snapping preferences for precision layout.
Step 2: Add and Arrange Your Artwork
Place your artwork at the top of the page and scale it just how you want. We go over how to create space for your calendar elements and set a visual hierarchy that draws attention to your art while keeping the template functional.
Use boxes or lines to build your layout. I show both methods, with tips for customizing the stroke, adding optional outer boxes, and choosing a clean, editable approach that suits your style.
A time-saving method to duplicate and align your calendar numbers using Affinity’s transform tools and snapping features. You’ll also learn how to create a reusable number template for quick adjustments.
Step 5: Customize, Save & Reuse
Once your layout is built, we go over how to duplicate it, save different versions, and adjust fonts, colors, and details for future use—so you can create an entire year of templates in just a few sessions.
BONUS: WHAT TO AVOID WHEN SELLING TEMPLATES
In the Q&A section of this video tutorial, I share tips on choosing the right print-on-demand suppliers and why I always test platforms before committing. Not all companies print well on every product (e.g. one may have great calendars, but poor stickers), so product testing is key! Check my reviews in The Studio Dropshipping series.
TAKE THE NEXT STEP
Templates are one of the easiest and most versatile ways to monetize your artwork. Join the FREE Calendar Bootcamp and grab the FREE Affinity 101 course or use your free trial to explore the full Studio library:
FREE Affinity Designer Foundations
- Learn how to vectorize your patterns so you can scale them to any size
- Create professional patterns that licensors ask for in any file format that you need
