You might wonder how to create a realistic-looking digital planner or journal without graphic design experience. I will talk about creating a realistic digital planner with Procreate and Keynote.
There are many apps for creating Stationery Design and publishing programs. I mostly use Photoshop and Procreate for design and Keynote for publishing to PDF or GoodNote.
From my experience, any publishing program for Digital planners or journals is fine. You can use Keynote, PowerPoint, Google Slides, Canva, Indesign, or affinity publisher. The most important part is to create your unique design.
This post will help digital planner creators to create realistic-looking planner elements with Procreate and Photoshop. And add them to the Keynote planner template. This post will briefly explain how Design elements in Procreate and Photoshop along with Keynote(publishing app) work together to make realistic-looking elements for digital planners and journals.
Ok! Let’s dive in
First, if you are new to digital planning, check out the blog post “How to create a digital planner” and get familiar with the term. You can also download a free sample to import them on your note-taking app to see how the hyperlinks work.
What you need to create a planner
You can take a photo of the element materials or find free stock photos.
Programs or apps you need to design: Photoshop, Affinity Designer, Procreate
App for adding hyperlinks and gathering your planner pages in pdf: Keynote, PowerPoint, InDesign
Photo Resource Editing in Procreate
Let’s start with the design part and photo resources. You need photos for the paper spreads, covers, and decorative elements.
Find free stock photos of what exactly you want on your planner dashboard. However, it can be time-consuming, and hardly find a good one as you want. If you are good at drawing, you can draw directly on your Procreate app.
Other ways to create realistic-looking, photo-like elements with little tweaks are here.
There are a couple of options available:
Purchase a commercial license for photos or elements as objects—there is a cost involved, but you can use designer art directly as a commercial.
Customize pre-made ones to tweak using the mask function and cut images yourself in Procreate or Photoshop. – I have premade elements you can tweak or change colors to use for your planner dashboard.
The quickest way is to purchase pre-made elements and just add your layouts, tabs, and hyperlinks.
At our shop, I have 11 different paper spreads you can choose from there. Also, an Editable DIY digital planner Base kit with covers, paper spreads, and decorative elements. You can even find pre-made editable planner dashboards and pre-made digital planners. This is a separate category for commercial-use products.
For a while, I have created digital planners and journals. I understand what the hardest part is when creating digital products. Therefore, I have created pre-made design elements and am aiming to help digital planner creators create their digital products smoothly without wasting time. The Creator Club has been established for digital planner creators with The Arisu Digital Creator Monthly Subscription Box and a course of design tips and tutorials to help them.
For more about The Creator Club,
Please visit and join our creator club on the Patreon page and get connected.
Create decorative elements with Procreate.
As digital planner creators, you already know the basic functions of Procreate. I also love Photoshop, but Procreate is easier to use and you can add drawing experience. If you like doodling, you defiantly fall in love with Procreate. For this post, I’ll show how you can do it in Procreate app
Also, you can read this blog post to know about making digital stickers using Procreate.
For more details about how to make elements with Procreate step-by-step tutorial, find out the Arisu Creator Club digital planner course.
Once you decide what elements are needed on your dashboard, find the photo of elements you can use as a reference.
Here is an example of a dashboard. This dashboard needs a planner cover, business plan folder, file folders, and envelopes.
example of a realistic-looking dashboard design
Using Keynote with design elements
How you can use pre-made paper spreads to create your planner in Keynote
I have a lot more resources like these, plus covers and stationery elements. It’s all customizable and ready to use. Just drag and drop.
adding a pre-made paper spread and planner elements to the keynote template
How to add the planner tap in Keynote
Once you choose the paper texture spread you want, you need to add taps matching paper texture or color on the Keynote planner template. Also, these taps will get hyperlinks later.
How to add page layouts
You can directly draw on Keynote with chart and shape functions, or you can add a pre-made page layout by just copying and pasting.
At our site shop, there are various page layout widgets (PNG files) to use. What is more, our monthly subscription members get page layouts every month
How to add a cover or main dashboard, hyperlink, and export
You have designed all page layouts, you will need a cover or main dashboard(an all-in-one dashboard-style planner). At the beginning of this post, I have explained the photo resource editing, now you are going to use them.
You are going to add links to the connect designation page. I recommend the hyperlink guide and worksheet to write down the page numbers for each tap. So you don’t need to back and forth between the master slice and each page slice.
After completing adding hyperlinks, get out from the master slice, and Export it as a PDF.
You can import the PDF file to check and test that all links work. It is an important step, especially if you are going to sell your products.
I have been developing all my products for digital planner creators. This Editable Content Creator planner template is perfect for Planner business owners. these template kits consist of a Keynote master template with pre-hyperlinked, Photoshop templates to customize the planner cover and base design, customizable elements Photoshop file, and individual PNG files. You can find out more about these template kits, click here to see full details.
For more about how to start a digital planner business, I have a free 5-days email course newsletter. you can join and learn about the digital planner business basic and start creating your own digital products to sell.
DO YOU WANT TO START A DIGITAL STATIONERY BUSINESS?
We are offering a free email course. “How to start a digital planner business”
This course will be delivered 5 days of content to your inbox.
The course covers the guide from creating to selling your own products.
Comments