Skateboard Deck Template: Sizes, Truck Holes and File Specs

A skateboard deck template is the outline of a deck, drawn to scale, for laying out artwork before it's printed. Skateboard Personalizado's is a free SVG file for 8.0", 8.25" and 8.5" decks, with the edge of the print in magenta and the safe zone dashed. Design over it in any program, export a PNG or JPG, and upload that to the editor to order the printed deck.

Download the template, an SVG in millimetres: 8.0" · 8.25" · 8.5" — or see all three with their measurements on the print template page.

Where can I download a skateboard deck template?

Here, free and with no account: one SVG file per deck width, from the links above. Each file is generated on request from the outline the editor draws on screen and the print file is clipped to. There is one file per width because the three sizes differ in millimetres, not in shape.

Each template contains four things:

• A page sized to the deck outline, set in millimetres, so any program opens it at the right scale without guessing.
• A magenta line: the outline of the deck, which is also the edge of the print.
• A dashed blue line: the safe zone, the area for anything that has to be seen.
• Small labels with the width, the size in millimetres, the site address and the words zona segura, Spanish for safe zone. They are guides, not part of your design.

The truck holes are not marked in the file. The editor draws them instead, and their positions for each width are in the table below.

A deck template is only useful if it matches the outline the printer works from. Deck shapes and lengths vary from one maker to another, so artwork laid out on a generic template can land a centimetre off at the ends. Skateboard Personalizado's template, its editor and the file that goes to print are all built from the same outline in the site's code.

Use it to design in your own software and upload the result, or send it to an illustrator you are commissioning, for the width you will order. It is not a mockup for presenting a finished design, and not a stencil for painting one; the difference is explained further down.

What are the dimensions of a skateboard deck template?

The template's width is the deck size, and its length follows from the width in a fixed proportion of 1 : 3.73. The 8.25" template file measures 209.55 × 782.5 mm (8.25 × 30.81 in); the 8.0" and 8.5" template files are the same drawing, 3% smaller or larger.

Widths are measured at the widest point of the outline, where the nose curve meets the sides, and lengths run from tip to tip. These are the dimensions of the template and of the print file our workshop receives, drawn to the proportions of the editor's canvas.

Because the three templates share one proportion, a design made on any of them fits the other two exactly, and only its size in millimetres changes. The print file uses the same outline scaled to the width you order, which is also why the deck in the editor does not change shape when you switch sizes. If you have not chosen a width yet, design on the 8.25" template and decide later; which width suits a rider is in the size guide.

Where are the truck holes on a skateboard deck?

Near each end, in two groups of four. Each truck bolts on through four holes, drilled at the factory in the standard four-bolt pattern: a small rectangle centred on the deck's middle line. On the template, the nose truck's holes sit between 22% and 29% of the length from the nose tip, and the tail truck's between 21% and 27% from the tail tip.

The nose is the longer end: its truck sits a little further from its tip than the tail truck does from the tail's. On a bare deck, that difference is how to tell the two ends apart, which matters for any design that only reads one way up.

The downloadable template does not mark the holes, but the editor does: it draws all eight on the deck, both in the flat view and on the 3D deck, in those positions. Every deck arrives with the holes already drilled, so they show in the print even on a deck that only ever hangs on a wall. A hole through an eye, or through the middle of a small word, is the kind of detail people notice.

What the trucks cover

On a deck that is ridden, each truck's baseplate sits flat against the graphic over its four holes and covers them plus a margin all round; a riser pad, if you fit one, covers a similar patch. The hanger and the wheels stand clear of the print, but they hide part of it from view. The quickest way to see the result is the editor's 3D view, where the Show the trucks button puts them on the deck.

The practical rule: on a deck for riding, keep faces, text and logos a couple of centimetres clear of each group of holes. On a deck for the wall, only the holes themselves matter.

Why shouldn't important details go near the nose, tail or edges?

Because a deck is not flat. The nose and tail kick up from just outside the truck holes to the tips, and the deck is concave across its width, so the printed underside curves away towards the edges. Artwork that was flat on screen bends with the wood: on the kicks it is seen at an angle and looks shorter, and at the sides it runs into the rounded rails, which on a deck that is ridden is also where a print wears first.

The safe zone on the template accounts for those curves. The dashed line runs from 18% to 82% of the length and sits 6% of the full width in from each side, which makes it 184.4 mm wide on the 8.25" template file. Faces, text and logos belong inside it, while backgrounds, textures and the rest of a photo can run all the way out.

The safe zone deals with the curves, not the trucks: both groups of holes fall inside it, which is why the truck holes need a rule of their own.

Do I need to add bleed?

No, not as a separate margin. Skateboard Personalizado's print file is clipped exactly at the deck outline, the magenta line, so the only rule is to carry backgrounds and full-bleed images a little past it. Anything outside the outline is cut off in the file, and a gap inside it would show the deck colour. There are no crop marks to add either.

What resolution, colour mode and file format does deck artwork need?

Enough pixels for the size it is printed at, RGB colour, and a JPG or PNG under 15 MB.

Resolution

At 150 ppi, the minimum before a print starts to look soft, artwork that fills the whole template file needs 1200 × 4481 px for 8.0", 1238 × 4621 px for 8.25" and 1275 × 4761 px for 8.5"; the 300 ppi canvases in the table above are the comfortable target. The editor shows the resolution an image will print at whenever you select or resize it, and warns “below 150 it will print blurry” when it falls short; more on resolution, including what a phone photo gives, is in what a deck-sized print actually needs.

File format

• JPG for photographs. A photo filling the 8.25" template file at 300 ppi is around 23 megapixels: saved as PNG it typically comes out well over the 15 MB upload limit, while a high-quality JPG (quality around 90) usually stays under it.
• PNG for graphics, lettering and cut-outs. Flat colour compresses well as PNG, and PNG keeps transparency, which JPG cannot: a logo or an illustration without a background should be a PNG.
• Transparent areas are not bare wood. They show whatever is beneath them in the editor: another layer, or the deck colour, which starts as a light wood-coloured beige and changes with Deck colour. The whole underside is printed, and the maple is never left showing.

Colour: RGB, not CMYK

Work and export in RGB, with sRGB as the safe profile. The editor and the print file both work in RGB, and the conversion to ink happens at print time; a CMYK file would have to be converted by your browser just to be displayed, with no control over how. The design is printed with UV inks onto a transfer film that is then applied to the underside of the deck (how a custom deck is made), and as with any print, the most saturated screen colours, such as neon greens, electric blues and hot pinks, tend to come out a little calmer in ink than on a backlit screen. The 3D view is for placement and proportion, not for judging exact colour.

Fonts and lettering

Lettering inside an image is only as sharp as the image's pixels, so small type needs the full 300 ppi. Text typed in the editor behaves differently: it goes to print as real text with its font embedded in the print file, and stays sharp at any size. For a name, a date or a slogan, leaving it out of the artwork and adding it in the editor usually gives the cleaner result.

How do I prepare artwork with the template, step by step?

Seven steps take you from the empty template to an order. The three sections after this one show steps 2 and 4 in specific programs.

1. Download the template for your width. Pick 8.0", 8.25" or 8.5". If you have not decided, take 8.25": the three share one proportion, so the artwork will fit whichever width you order.
2. Open it to scale and turn it into guides. Delete the white background and set the deck shape to no fill, so only the lines remain (in a pixel-based app, set the template layer to Multiply instead). Move it to the top layer and lock it.
3. Design underneath the guides. Run backgrounds past the magenta line, keep faces, text and logos inside the dashed safe zone and, if the deck will be ridden, keep them clear of the two groups of truck holes.
4. Export without the guides. Hide the template layer and export the whole page in RGB, as a JPG for photographic work or a PNG for graphics and transparency, at 300 ppi (150 at the very least) and under 15 MB. The pixel count is what matters, not the ppi number stored in the file.
5. Upload it to the editor. Use the upload button (Upload image, or Photo on a phone). A new image comes in at roughly 160 ppi, so a 300 ppi file first looks bigger than the deck: drag a corner handle until its edges meet the deck outline. Overshoot is fine, because it is cut off at the edge.
6. Check it on the deck. Watch the dpi figure the editor shows while you resize. Open the 3D view, turn the deck and press Show the trucks to see what they cover. Add any lettering now, as editor text.
7. Choose the width and order. Pick 8.0", 8.25" or 8.5" in the size selector over the deck (none is preselected) and press Order to add extras, enter the shipping address and pay. One order is one design in one size, from 1 to 19 copies.

How do I use the template in Illustrator, Affinity Designer or Inkscape?

Open the SVG directly: vector programs read it to scale, with every line editable. Prepare the guides as in step 2 and export as in step 4; what changes from one program to the next is where those commands live.

• Adobe Illustrator. File › Open the SVG, and the artboard comes in at the template's size. Prepare the guides, lock their layer in the Layers panel and create a new layer beneath it for the artwork. To export, hide the template layer and use File › Export › Export As, PNG or JPEG, with Use Artboards ticked and the resolution set to 300 ppi.
• Affinity Designer. Open the SVG the same way, prepare the guides and lock them in the Layers panel. Export with File › Export as PNG or JPEG, entering the pixel size from the table.
• Inkscape. SVG is Inkscape's own format, so the file opens exactly as it is. Put the template in its own layer, lock it with the padlock in the Layers panel and draw on a layer beneath. Export with File › Export (Shift+Ctrl+E): choose the page as the area, set 300 dpi and export a PNG; the Inkscape manual walks through the dialog.

Keep vector artwork vector right up to the export: flat shapes and lettering exported at 300 ppi stay clean at any of the three widths.

How do I use it in Photoshop, GIMP or Procreate?

Start from a canvas of the right pixel size and keep the template on top as a locked guide layer set to Multiply, a blend mode that makes its white disappear so only the lines show over the artwork.

• Adobe Photoshop. File › Open the SVG and Photoshop rasterises it, asking first for a size and resolution: enter the pixel size from the table (2475 × 9242 px for 8.25") at 300 pixels/inch. Set the layer to Multiply, lock it, and build the artwork on layers below. File › Place Embedded into a new document of that pixel size also works, and keeps the template as a vector Smart Object. Export with the template hidden, from File › Export › Export As.
• GIMP. File › Open the SVG and GIMP asks at what size to render it: type the width and height in pixels from the table. Set the layer mode to Multiply, lock the layer in the Layers dialog, and export with File › Export As.
• Procreate. Procreate does not import SVG (its list of file types), so convert the template to PNG first; Inkscape's export does it. Create a custom canvas in pixels with the size from the table at 300 DPI. Procreate caps the canvas size and the number of layers according to the iPad (its handbook): if the 300 ppi size is refused or leaves too few layers, use the 150 ppi size. Insert the PNG with Actions › Add › Insert a File, scale it to fill the canvas, set it to Multiply and lock it (swipe left on the layer). Share the artwork as PNG or JPEG with the template hidden.

Can I design a skateboard deck in Canva?

Yes, at the 150 ppi size. Canva's custom designs stop at 8,000 px on a side (Canva's custom size rules), so the 300 ppi canvases, which are longer than that, will not fit, but the 150 ppi sizes do.

1. Create a design with a custom size in pixels: 1238 × 4621 for 8.25", 1200 × 4481 for 8.0" or 1275 × 4761 for 8.5".
2. Upload the SVG template (Canva accepts SVG uploads; if it refuses this one, upload a PNG export of the template instead), stretch it to fill the page exactly and lock it.
3. Lay out the design, bringing the template to the front at low transparency whenever you need to check the lines: backgrounds past the outline, anything important inside the safe zone and clear of the truck holes.
4. Delete the template and download the design as a PNG, or as a JPG if it is photographic.

Lettering set in Canva is baked into the download at 150 ppi. For sharper names and slogans, leave them out and add them in the editor, where they stay as real text.

Can I design a deck online without a template?

Yes: the template is only for people who want to work in their own software. Designing a deck online follows the same four moves as the template (pick the deck, create or upload the artwork, position it on the outline, preview it), and the editor does all four in the browser. The outline and the eight truck holes are already on the deck, the dpi figure appears as you resize a photo, and the 3D view shows the design on the deck before you order. Designing is free and needs no account.

Two shortcuts past the blank deck: the design templates, ready-made layouts that open in the editor so you only swap the words and the photo, and the public gallery of designs other people have published. The whole process is in how to design your own skateboard deck, and where to find images you are allowed to print is in where to get artwork for a custom deck.

The template and the editor are free for anyone, wherever they are. The printed deck ships to Spain and most of the EU only; where we ship has the map.

What's the difference between a print template, a mockup and a stencil?

A print template is for making the file that gets printed, a mockup is for showing a finished design on a picture of a deck, and a stencil is for painting a design by hand. They answer different questions, and only the print template produces a print file.

How to customise a deck mockup in Photoshop

Mockup files keep the design in a Smart Object layer. Double-click that layer's thumbnail and Photoshop opens its contents as a separate document (Adobe's guide); place your artwork there, scaled to fill its canvas, then save and close it, and the mockup updates with its perspective and lighting applied. Start from the artwork you would upload for printing, never the other way round: a mockup render has its angle, shadows and crop baked in. For designs made or uploaded here, the editor's 3D view does the mockup's job.

Where stencils fit

Stencils are for painting a deck you already own, one cut sheet per colour, sprayed or dabbed through, and they come as reusable plastic sheets or as vector files to cut yourself on a vinyl cutter. How to do it, stencils included, is in how to paint a skateboard deck. A printed deck needs no stencil: the template does that job.

Can I customise my 8.5" deck with different graphics or materials?

Graphics, yes; materials, no. Skateboard Personalizado prints the design you make, in full colour, on the underside of a new 7-ply Canadian maple deck in 8.0", 8.25" or 8.5", all in the classic popsicle shape. The graphic is entirely yours; the wood, the shape and the printing method are fixed.

What is not available: other woods or composites, other shapes, holographic foil, glow-in-the-dark ink, engraving, or bare maple showing through (a wood look has to be printed as a picture of wood). Griptape is a paid extra, fitted to the top and never printed. The printing is done onto new decks only, so there is no option to send in one you already own; for a deck you already have, printed, hand-painted or vinyl compares the options.

Frequently asked questions