Attractive and well-designed letterhead is an important part of your law firm appearing professional.
Making your own high-quality letterhead is easy to do. There are plenty of tools and templates out there for lawyers to use. We've also created a few modifiable templates of our own if you need custom letterhead to use right away.
8 Free Law Firm Letterhead Templates
We created these downloadable templates for readers looking for a quick way to add their law firm logos and details. If you just want to change a template, you can be ready to print in a few minutes.
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You can download any of these 8 templates and easily update them with your own brand styling. Four of these templates are in Microsoft Word, and four are Canva templates. While Word is ubiquitous, Canva offers far more features for an appealing design.
We wanted to give lawyers the option to take advantage of this modern templating option.
We've also provided the templates in PDF format as well if you prefer to work with them in Acrobat.
If you're looking for something more custom, there are a few options to choose from. You can create your own letterhead using the tools and steps listed below.
What to Include on Your Law Firm Letterheads
There are three key parts of good law firm letterhead: your font, logo, and firm information.
The key is to ensure that each of these components is clear and easy to read. This ensures that your mail leaves a professional impression on anyone you send it to.
Font Choice
Ideally, your law firm font is consistent with the one you already use in your law firm marketing material. This ensures that all your digital and printed marketing materials look the same.
Your font should convey a professional image, too. Fonts that deviate from traditional options don't work well here.
A good font choice is easily read. Avoid fonts that look childish or whimsical, use a script style, or push the characters so closely together that it's hard to distinguish each one.
Many law firms choose a bolder font for their logo. The key for logo fonts is making sure it looks good alongside the main font for things on your letterhead, like contact information or taglines.
Logo Design
The best law firm logos:
- Use the law firm's chosen colors
- Mix imagery with text
- Are clean and professional-looking
Before uploading your logo to a letterhead logo design tool, make sure that the image quality is right for the job. Don't use an image that's too small. Check out previews to verify that nothing is too blurry.
Most logo designers will provide you with finished images in different formats like .PNG, .EPS, or .PDF.
Make sure all these are high resolution so they look great no matter where you put them. A reputable graphic designer can ensure that your logo looks professional regardless of its format.
Firm Information
Most law firm letterhead uses the same general information, including:
- The firm's address
- The firm's phone number
- The firm's website or other contact details
Even if this information is also readily available online, include it on your letterhead, too. If you make any changes to your logo or address, order new letterhead to avoid mistakes such as undelivered mail.
If you use consistent letterhead across the entire firm, that's all the info you need. If letterhead differs across departments or lawyers, you'll need a few letterhead variants.
Tools for Making Your Own Letterhead
There are plenty of tools that lawyers can use to create their own law firm letterhead with a little bit of work. You can use template libraries to upload your own materials. Then you can change details like fonts or colors so it's a perfect match for your law firm's brand identity.
Template libraries in online resources can save time because someone has already made all the design choices for you. But these design choices may not match your desired aesthetic.
Fortunately, templates are almost always easy to change. And it's definitely easier than starting from scratch. Tools like Canva, Microsoft Word, and Adobe Express all provide templates for business use.
Canva
Although a premium version is available, the free option in Canva still provides you with plenty of templates and a user-friendly interface. These templates are a great starting point for designing a letterhead for your law firm.
Start by visiting Canva's collection of letterhead templates. You can narrow it down by adding "law firm” or related terms to the filter bar.
Start with a blank version if you want to add all the design elements yourself. Or you can choose a template you can alter with your firm's logo, images, and colors.
The biggest benefits of Canva are that it's easy to use and mostly free unless you need premium elements like icons. The downside is that it's not entirely unique to your law firm since other attorneys might use that same template.
Find your font in the list to the left and you can then change colors or sizes as needed. You can also upload your own images for your logo by dragging and dropping.
You can change the colors to match your law firm's brand. You can also upload your own brand kit for the future.
Once you're finished with your design, you can download a print-ready version and a digital file. You can also return at any point to make changes to your letterhead.
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word is accessible for most legal professionals since they already use it on a daily basis for most tasks. Word is not as flexible as Canva or other modern design tools, but it can get the job done.
You can use templates inside Word or download some from the Internet for further customization.
Start by searching for "letterhead" in your list of templates and see what jumps out at you. If you don't find something you like, look online for law firm letterhead examples in Word.
Adobe Express
One other tool for quickly creating law firm letterhead is Adobe Express.
To get started, click on "create your letterhead now" to start adding relevant details.
Much like Canva, you can change colors, fonts, or placement on your letterhead with the toolbar on the left.
Once you make all the changes you'd like, download from the upper right corner.
While it's mostly free and easy to use Adobe Express, there are some downsides. Adobe Express doesn't have as many attorney templates to choose from as Canva does. It also offers far fewer free templates.
Printing or Uploading your Law Firm Letterhead
Now that you have your file together, it's time to print it or save it for repeatable use. Follow these steps to make sure anyone who needs to use it can do so easily.
Double Checking Your Letterhead for Printer-Friendliness
You might want to download a PDF and a Word version of your letterhead to use repeatedly. Using templates online is a great starting point. You can always return to make tweaks to the design if it doesn't look how you want it when you download it.
To get the best results, upload logos with 300 dpi or higher for law firm letterhead. Always save the final version in PDF form to make printing simple.
Choosing the Right Printer
The right printer can also influence the final product. If you need to print a lot of documents, laser printers work best, and their toner goes a long way. If you pick a black and white laser printer, you'll get great printed letterhead at high volume. This works best for law firms with black-and-white logos or letterhead.
If your letterhead uses other colors, you might need a laser color printer. Note that printing here is more expensive.
Inkjet printers are not recommended as they don't tend to produce high-quality documents.
You might also upload your design and ask for a test version at a local print shop or office supply store. Once you're happy with the original, you can order in bulk.
Uploading to Your Practice Management Software or Cloud Storage
Download any and all file formats you need for your practice management software. The most important format is typically PDF.
You might also save your download as a personal template in Microsoft Office or Word. That way, anyone in your firm who needs to can use it, change it, or print finished versions.
Design Perfect Letterhead Now
Letterhead makes a solid first impression and should showcase consistent branding that matches things like your law firm's website design.
Running a law firm is a lot of work, but it's made much easier using tools, templates, and systems. Creating your own letterhead allows you to choose something perfect for your firm that you can reuse repeatedly.
