Got a JPG or PNG Letterhead? How to Use It in Word
By the WordLetterhead Team · Last updated:
The letterhead arrived as a JPG or PNG instead of a PDF. Good news: an image works just as well — as long as it ends up locked in the header, not pasted into the page.
Can you use a JPG or PNG letterhead in Word?
Yes. A JPG or PNG is a finished picture of your design, and that’s exactly what letterhead needs to stay — a picture. What decides success is where the picture lives: pasted into the document body it slides with every keystroke, but anchored in the header layer it repeats on every page and can’t be selected while anyone types.
That header-versus-body difference is the whole game — it’s what separates the one working method from the three failing ones in every method compared. (Got a PDF instead? Same idea, slightly different story: your designer sent a PDF letterhead.)
Will a JPG letterhead print sharp?
At the right resolution, yes — the target is about 300 DPI at your page size. Below that, edges soften on paper long before they look bad on screen.
| Page size | Crisp print (300 DPI) | Bare minimum (150 DPI) |
|---|---|---|
| US Letter | 2550 × 3300 px | 1275 × 1650 px |
| A4 | 2480 × 3508 px | 1240 × 1754 px |
| Legal | 2550 × 4200 px | 1275 × 2100 px |
You don’t have to check the math yourself — WordLetterhead warns you automatically if the image you upload lands below 150 DPI, before you pay anything. (Exact dimensions for every page size are in letterhead sizes and specs.)
How do I turn the image into a real Word letterhead?
Upload it exactly as it came — no conversion, no design software. WordLetterhead embeds the image as a locked, full-page header image and sets the Word margins to the space your design left open:
- Upload the JPG or PNG (PDF works too).
- Drag the typing area over the space the design left for text.
- Download the .docx and start typing — the design stays put.
About two minutes. Letter, A4, Legal, or a custom size — no account, and the watermarked sample is free.
Common questions
- Which is better for letterhead, JPG or PNG?
- PNG, slightly — it’s lossless, so logo edges and thin rules stay perfectly sharp. A JPG is fine too as long as it was exported at high quality and full resolution; heavy JPG compression is what makes fine lines look fuzzy on paper.
- My image is smaller than the numbers in the table. What now?
- Ask whoever made the design for a print-resolution export — or the original PDF, which carries the artwork at full quality. If neither exists, upload what you have: the preview shows a warning below 150 DPI so you can judge before paying.
- My PNG has a transparent background. Is that a problem?
- No — transparent areas simply show the page behind the artwork, which prints as plain paper. The design still sits in the header layer behind your text, locked while anyone types.
- Does the image repeat on every page?
- Yes. The artwork is anchored in the document header, so page 50 looks exactly like page 1 — and it prints at full strength by default, unlike watermarks or page backgrounds.