Funeral Program Format

Bi-fold format: the four panels

A bi-fold program is one letter sheet turned sideways, 11 inches wide and 8.5 tall, folded once down the middle. That gives four panels, each 5.5 by 8.5 inches. Two panels are on the outside of the sheet and two are on the inside.

The order the panels are read in

Someone hands you a program in a church doorway. You look at the cover. You open it during the prelude and read the order of service on the left so you know what is coming. You read the obituary on the right while you wait. At the end you turn it over to find out where the reception is. Lay the panels out in that order and the format has done its job.

The two swaps families make

Some programs put the obituary on the back cover and use inside right for a poem, a psalm or a photograph. That is a normal, correct variant, and it works well when the obituary is short. The other common swap is moving pallbearers and interment onto the bottom of the inside left panel to free the whole back for a poem. Both are fine. What should not move is the order of service: it belongs on a panel that is visible while the program is open.

If you want the wording for each of these panels rather than the layout, it is collected on funeral program wording, and the fill-in-the-blank versions are on funeral program templates.

Tri-fold format: the six panels

A tri-fold uses the same letter sheet folded twice, giving six panels of about 3.67 by 8.5 inches. The panels are narrow, so a long obituary will not fit and a photograph has to be either small or full-bleed.

Number the panels in the order a reader meets them, not by where they sit on the sheet:

Which physical position each numbered panel occupies depends on the fold your template uses, and letter folds and accordion folds put them in different places. Do not work it out on paper. Print one sheet with the numbers 1 to 6 typed on the panels, fold it the way you intend to fold the real thing, and read the numbers off. It takes two minutes and removes the entire problem.

Booklet format: eight pages

A booklet is two letter sheets nested inside one another and stapled at the fold, giving eight pages of 5.5 by 8.5 inches. Twelve pages means three sheets. Use it when there is a long life to tell, a full poem to print, or more photographs than one panel can hold.

A booklet is more work than most families need in the week after a death. If you are wavering, make the bi-fold. Nobody has ever left a funeral disappointed by the page count of the program.

Single sheet, printed both sides

A flat card, usually 5.5 by 8.5 inches, printed on both sides and not folded at all. This is the right format for a graveside committal, a short memorial, a second service held later in another state, or any service where the order is five lines long.

Front: the name, the two dates, one photograph, and the service line giving date, time and place. Back: the order of service, the pallbearers if there are any, and one sentence of thanks. That is the whole format. It prints two to a letter sheet, cuts down the middle, and needs no folding, which matters more than it sounds like on a Friday night.

How the panels map onto the printed sheet

This is where home printing usually goes wrong. The panels are not printed in reading order. On a bi-fold, the back cover prints to the left of the front cover on the same side of the sheet. On a booklet, the last page prints beside the first.

1. 1

   Bi-fold: two sides, four panels

   Side one carries the back cover on the left and the front cover on the right. Side two carries inside left on the left and inside right on the right. If your program is coming out of the printer with the cover on the wrong half, the two panels on side one are swapped.

2. 2

   Booklet: let the software do it

   For an eight-page booklet the sheets carry pages 8 and 1, then 2 and 7, then 6 and 3, then 4 and 5. Word, Pages and Acrobat all have a booklet or two-up saddle-stitch setting that does this arrangement for you. Use it. Working it out by hand is a reliable way to reprint everything.

3. 3

   Get the duplex flip right

   If side two comes out upside down, the double-sided setting is wrong. A landscape sheet folded down the middle normally wants short-edge binding; a portrait document normally wants long-edge. Rather than trusting the label, print one sheet, look at it, and switch if it is wrong.

4. 4

   Fold a proof before you print the run

   Print one complete copy on the real paper, fold it, and read it from cover to back. Check the name, the dates, the start time and every pallbearer’s surname, in that order. More programs are reprinted for a misspelled surname than for anything to do with layout.

Paper weight, folding by hand, and what a print shop needs from you are covered on funeral program printing.

Type sizes, margins and how much really fits

The single most common formatting decision families get wrong is shrinking the type to make the obituary fit. It does fit, and then nobody can read it.

Two typefaces is the limit, one for headings and one for body text. Most programs use a serif throughout, which reads better at small sizes on uncoated paper. Avoid script faces for anything longer than the cover line; they are hard to read in a dim church.

If your obituary runs past about 350 words, do not reduce the type. Either move to a booklet, run the obituary across the inside right and the back, or shorten it. Shortening is usually the right answer, and the obituary format guide shows which sections can be cut without losing anything.

Where the photographs go

One photograph on the cover is the standard. A second, smaller one at the top of the obituary panel is common. Anything beyond that belongs in a booklet or in the slideshow, not squeezed into a bi-fold.

A clear photograph from fifteen years ago beats a soft one from last Christmas. Families often feel they should use the most recent picture. Use the one that looks most like the person everyone in the room is thinking of.

Format mistakes that show up in print

If you would rather not manage margins, folds and duplex settings at all, Reposa lays the panels out from your answers and gives you a print-ready PDF with the bleed and fold already correct. Either way, the format above is the one to aim for. It is what people expect in their hands, and there is comfort in that. To see it done, look at funeral program examples, and for the sequence of the service itself, see funeral order of service.