What happens, from the first question to the printed program.
You answer questions in plain language. Reposa does the layout, the folding math and the print setup. This page walks through exactly what you are asked, what comes back, and what happens if you have to stop halfway.
Free to build and preview. $39 one-time when you download.
Before you start
Will this actually work tonight?
Yes, and you do not need much to begin. Everything below can be filled in later without losing anything.
What helps to have nearby
- Their full name, and the dates of birth and death.
- One photograph you like. A phone photo is fine.
- Where the service is, and roughly when.
- The names you want listed: family, pallbearers, whoever is speaking.
- The obituary, if somebody has already written one.
None of it is required to begin. Start with the name, leave the rest blank, and come back to it when someone calls you back.
The questions, in order
A few short steps. No blank canvas anywhere.
Each section is a handful of plain questions with the preview beside them. You can skip forward, go back, and leave anything empty.
Step 1
Who they were
Their name as it should appear on the cover, including a maiden name or the name everyone actually used. The date of birth and the date of death. One photograph, where a phone picture is fine, and you can move it here so their face sits where you want it.
The preview appears as soon as you type the name, so you’re never working blind.
Step 2
The service
Where it is, what day, what time, and who is officiating. If there is a graveside service or a reception afterward, that goes in too. Dates are formatted for print for you, so March 14, 2026 always looks the same on every page.
Do not know the time yet? Leave it blank. You can add it tonight and download again.
Step 3
The order of service
You pick the kind of service, whether that is a Catholic funeral Mass, a Protestant service, a homegoing, a graveside, a memorial or a celebration of life, and the standard order is already filled in. You rename lines, reorder them, delete what does not apply and add the hymn numbers.
What happens, in what orderStep 4
The people
Survived by, preceded in death by, pallbearers and honorary pallbearers, the people speaking and reading, and the musicians. Type the names once and they appear on the right panels, correctly grouped.
What belongs in a programStep 5
The words
Paste an obituary you already have, write one in the box, or answer a few questions and let Reposa draft one you can rewrite, and the eulogy too if someone is speaking. Then choose the poem, scripture or acknowledgement for the back page from a library of public-domain readings.
Obituary examples to borrow fromStep 6
How it looks
Eight coordinated designs, each with its own typography and ornament. Choosing one changes the whole package at once, so the prayer cards and the bookmark always match the program. Switch as many times as you like.
Look at the designsStep 7
Review, then download
You see every panel at full size before you pay anything: the cover, the inside spread, the back, the cards. When it’s right, you pay once and the files download immediately.
Nothing is shipped and nothing is printed for you. What you get are files you can print anywhere.
What comes out
Four documents that match each other.
Everything is generated from the same answers, so a correction in one place is a correction everywhere.
The program
Bi-fold, tri-fold or booklet, as a print-ready PDF in two versions: one arranged for a home printer so the folds land in the right place, and one with bleed and crop marks for a print shop.
The obituary
Laid out inside the program, and again as plain text you can paste into the newspaper’s submission form or the funeral home’s website without the formatting breaking.
Prayer cards
The standard 2.5 by 4.25 inch keepsake card, six to a sheet, in the same design as the program, with the verse or prayer you chose on the back.
The slideshow
Your photographs as a gentle, timed slideshow that plays from a laptop at the service or the reception. Nothing to install and no account to sign into on the day.
Printing
However you are printing, the file is already set up for it.
The folding, the imposition and the bleed are handled before you download. You’re not asked to understand any of it.
At home tonight
Use the home-printer PDF. The pages are already arranged so that a double-sided print folds into the right order. Print one, fold it, check the name, then print the rest.
A slightly heavier paper than everyday copy paper holds a fold much better.
At a copy shop tomorrow
Take the print-shop folder on a phone or a flash drive, or email it to the counter. Ask for double-sided on a text-weight or light cover stock, trimmed and folded. Most shops can do this while you wait.
The file needs no explaining. It is a standard PDF at a standard size.
At a print shop
Use the print-shop PDF, which carries bleed and crop marks. That is what a commercial printer expects, and it means the color runs cleanly to the edge of the paper.
Order more copies than you expect to need. People take one home for someone who could not come.
How long it takes
There is no clock on it, and nothing in it is long: nine short steps, and only the name is required. If the obituary is already written and the photograph is on your phone, most of the work is copying in what you have.
The long part is never the software. It is deciding who reads the scripture and waiting for an aunt to text back the correct spelling of a middle name. You can do the rest of the program while you wait.
There is no queue and no processing time. The files are generated the moment you ask for them, so a service tomorrow morning is not a problem.
If you have to stop
Every answer is saved as you type it. Closing the laptop, losing the connection or handing the phone to someone else does not cost you anything.
There is no account and no password. Your browser remembers the project, so opening the site again brings you back to where you were. If you switch to a different device, or the browser forgets, enter the email address you used and we will send the link.
What it costs
You pay at the end, if you want the files.
Building the whole package, changing the design and looking at every page is free. Payment happens once, at download, and nothing renews.
After you pay, the project stays open for twelve months. Fix a spelling, add a pallbearer, move the service, and download it again at no extra cost.
What Reposa does not do
Being clear about this saves you a phone call.
We are not a funeral home.
We do not handle arrangements, transport, cremation or the death certificate.
We do not submit the obituary for you.
We give you the plain-text version to paste into a newspaper’s form.
How newspaper submission worksWe do not print or ship anything.
You get files. You print them at home, at a copy shop, or anywhere you like.
We do not give legal or funeral-directing advice.
The guides are general information, written to be useful, not to replace your funeral director.
Start with their name. The rest can wait.
You can be looking at a finished cover in five minutes, and nothing you enter is lost if you have to walk away from it.