The Designer’s Letterhead Handoff Checklist
By the WordLetterhead Team · Last updated:
A letterhead delivery isn’t finished when the design is approved — it’s finished when the client can type a letter on it without breaking it. Here’s the complete handoff, including the file most packages are missing.
What does a complete letterhead handoff include?
Four files, each with one job: a print-ready PDF for professional printing, a screen PDF for reference and email, the source file for future designers — and the working Word file, which is the only one the client will touch every week.
| File | Who it’s for | How often it’s used |
|---|---|---|
| Print-ready PDF | The commercial printer | Once per print run |
| Screen PDF | Reference, email attachments | Occasionally |
| Source file (AI/INDD) | The next designer | Rarely |
| Working Word letterhead | The client, daily | Every letter they write |
Most handoffs stop after the first three — and that gap is where the “it broke” emails are born: the client pastes the screen PDF into Word themselves, and the design starts sliding.
What makes the Word file client-proof?
The artwork locked in the header layer — where it repeats on every page, prints at full strength by default, and can’t be selected while the client types — with margins matched to the typing area the design left open. That combination is what separates the working method from the three failing ones in every method compared.
- Upload your print PDF to WordLetterhead.
- Drag the typing area where the client’s letters belong.
- Download the .docx and drop it in the handoff folder.
Two minutes per client, $9 inside a billed deliverable. Whether to hand over a .docx or a .dotx template is its own small question — answered here. Delivering a rebrand rather than a first identity? The surfaces that get missed are in the rebrand checklist.
What should the handoff note tell the client?
Three sentences: type your letters in this file and save copies under new names; the design is locked while you type and prints at full strength even though it looks dimmed on screen; if the brand ever changes, the Word file gets rebuilt from the new design. That’s the entire user manual — which is the point.
Common questions
- Does the client need the brand fonts installed?
- Not for the letterhead — it ships as rendered artwork, so it looks identical on every machine. Only the letter text itself uses the client’s installed fonts, and you can set the .docx body font to the closest system-safe match before handoff.
- Should the Word file be part of the quoted package or an add-on?
- Designers do both. Folding it into the identity package is the smoothest — “working Word letterhead” is a line clients immediately value, and the $9 cost disappears inside the deliverable. As an add-on it becomes an easy upsell at handoff time.
- What happens when the brand gets refreshed?
- The Word file is rebuilt from the new artwork — upload, drag, download, $9. Because it’s two minutes, it’s easy to include a fresh Word letterhead with every revision instead of leaving clients typing on the old design.
- Can I check the file before it goes in the package?
- Yes — the watermarked sample is free and it’s a working .docx. Open it, type on it, print it, and only buy the clean file once it passes your own inspection.