How to Design Letterhead on a Computer

Letterhead gives your letters a professional look. This is particularly important for a company. Letterhead introduces you to people and gives them an image of you. Computers make it easy to design letterhead with available design styles, elements and color options found on word processing or desktop publishing programs. Follow these steps to design letterhead on your computer.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. Design a logo. If your company already has an established logo, then you should use it on your letterhead. If you don't have a logo, consider creating one or having one designed for you. A logo can express your personality whether it's whimsical, creative or traditional. You may choose a graphic as your logo.

2. Decide what information belongs on your letterhead. You'll probably want to include a company or personal name, address and phone number. Make your name stand out in some way from the rest of the information. Other information might include a web address, slogan or mission statement. Don't make your letterhead too crowded or the reader won't look any further. If you are creating your letterhead in a word processing program, place the information in the header and footer areas under "Page Setup."

3. Try the letterhead information in different placements on the paper-centered or at the left or right corner. Keep in mind that the human eye starts in the upper right hand corner. Highlight text on your computer and then choose alignment. Change the look of how text and graphics appear together by selecting text wrapping on your picture tool bar. If you use a footer as well, make certain its alignment corresponds to the header.

4. Choose a style that further identifies the personality of your company. Word users can look at the "Theme" option under "Format" for different design styles like artsy, global marketing or poetic. Style further establishes your identity along with a logo. Limit yourself to one or two fonts in a letterhead. Make the font slightly different than the default font used in regular content. If you choose the same font, perhaps a different color or size can be used in the letterhead.

5. Pick a color scheme. If you used the Word theme function, default colors have already been determined. Think about what color will draw attention in an attractive way.

6. Select the paper you will use for your letterhead. A paper weight of at least 20 pounds is thick enough that people won't be able to see through the paper.

7. Consider saving your letterhead to a template on your computer. This makes it easily accessible and allows you to create a customized letter at any time. You may want to insert a date field as part of the letterhead if you choose this option. A date field will automatically change whenever you open the letterhead file. To save as a template, click "Save file as," and look in "Save as type" for a template choice. Another option is arranging for a printer to print letterhead paper for you.