Best Practices for Designing Your Tap Handle

Tap handles are here! Our customized tap handles are a great way to personalize any home bar. Looking to upload your own art? Here is a quick guide to help make sure your new tap handle looks as awesome as your homebrew tastes!

File Size

The upload size for tap handles is 2.5” x 3.5” inches. You will want to make sure you set your artboard up to these dimensions before you start designing! Don’t forget to use our template to make sure you aren’t getting too close to the edge - stay out of that danger zone area!

No bleeds

Unlike our other products, these tap handles do not require a bleed (or extra background) on the file. When we say the image size is 2.5” x 3.5”, we mean it! The artwork does not get trimmed down to a smaller size.

Things to keep in mind when designing

Colors

Because of the color of the wood, there are some colors you may want to refrain from using if you are wanting a transparent background (meaning the wood becomes the background). Take a look at the image below. The orange does not pop as well as one would think. The CMYK value of this particular orange is 5/65/100/0. Another color to be weary of is yellow. Darker colors will look best!

Font size

As a general rule of thumb, we do not recommend using any font smaller than 8pt, especially if you are using both upper and lower case characters.

Print at home

We always recommend printing your artwork out at home before submitting. Colors do not always look the same on the screen as they do printed, and certain elements can appear bigger/smaller on paper as well. You might even consider adding a wood textured background behind your image (if you are uploading an eps) to view the artwork against the color of the wood. 

Output

File Types accepted

Acceptable files for tap handles are jpeg, eps*, png, pdf, gif, tiff.

Image Resolution

Please export images at 300dpi to ensure the best quality possible, however the minimum image resolution is 150dpi.