Free Campaign Button Template: Printable PDF, No Signup
A blank printable PDF with cut lines and the correct bleed already worked out. Download it, print it, hand it to a volunteer. No account and no email required.
Download the free printable campaign button template (PDF)
A blank letter-size sheet of 2.25" circles, the standard campaign button size. Every circle is drawn at the correct size with the full 0.1875" bleed already added, so what you cut out wraps the shell without exposing the metal rim.
Free to print and share. Prefer to add your artwork online? Design it in the browser instead.
Campaign Button Sizes and What Fits on a Sheet
The size you pick is mostly a decision about cost per button
The Standard
6 per letter sheet at the default margins. The default campaign button since the mid-twentieth century, and the size a voter expects. Holds a candidate name and an office on two readable lines. Cut size is 2.625" with the bleed.
Download the 2.25" blank PDFThe Volume Size
15 per letter sheet at the default margins, so the cost per button drops by roughly a third. Right for volunteer badges and anything you hand out by the hundred. Too small for a long surname plus an office.
Download the 1.5" blank PDFThe Rally Size
4 per letter sheet at the default margins, so roughly double the paper cost per button. Worth it for rallies, debates, and fundraisers, where the button is meant to be seen across a room and photographed.
Download the 3" blank PDFEvery sheet is letter size, 8.5 x 11 inches. Print at 100% scale, not "fit to page".
Bleed and the Safe Zone
This is the part that crops candidate names, so it is worth two minutes
A pin-back button is not flat. The printed circle is larger than the finished button because the outer ring folds around the curved edge of the shell and gets crimped underneath. That extra ring is the bleed, and it is invisible once the button is assembled.
Each circle on the template has two lines. The dashed outer line is the cut line: cut there and the paper wraps correctly. The inner line is the finished edge: everything inside it stays on the face of the button, and everything between the two lines disappears around the side.
Campaign buttons get bitten by this more than any other kind, because they are text-heavy and the text is a name that has to be read exactly. A design that looks balanced on screen can lose the last two letters of a surname once it wraps. The rule that avoids it: keep every letter at least an eighth of an inch inside the inner line, and never let type run to the edge as a design flourish.
On a 2.25" template the bleed is 0.1875" on each side, so the sheet draws circles at 2.625" and the visible face is 2.25". At 1.5" the bleed is 0.1685" and at 3" it is 0.2255". These are punch tooling sizes rather than a percentage, which is why they do not scale evenly: a 1.25" button actually takes more bleed than a 1.5". They match Tecre, American Button Machines, People Power Press, Neil and USA Buttons, and they are the same values the online editor uses, so a hand-drawn sheet and an exported sheet cut identically.
How to Use the Template
Print at 100% Scale
Turn off "fit to page" and "shrink oversized pages". Those resize the sheet by a few percent and the circles stop matching your press. Measure one finished-size guide with a ruler before you cut the whole sheet.
Add the Candidate Design
Draw, stamp, or paste inside each circle. Name largest, office underneath, and keep every letter well inside the inner guide line so nothing wraps around the shell edge.
Cut on the Outer Line
Cut along the dashed line, not the inner one. A circle cutter is faster and more accurate than scissors once you are past about twenty buttons. Then assemble with the press.
Upload a logo, add arc text, and export a full sheet already filled in. Free plan, no credit card.
Blank Template or Online Designer?
Both produce the same print-ready sheet. The difference is who does the layout.
Take the blank PDF when the design happens off-screen: a volunteer table where people draw their own, a classroom activity, a print shop that wants your cut lines, or a design you have already built in other software and just need to place.
Use the online designer when the button is text-heavy, which most campaign buttons are. It sets arc text along the curve, shows the safe zone live while you type so you can see a long surname before it crops, and fills the whole sheet automatically instead of you pasting the same design twelve times.
The one case where the online tool clearly wins is a slate. If you need a different name on each button, mail merge takes a spreadsheet of candidates or volunteers and generates every variation into one PDF, which is not something a blank sheet can do.
Mail merge available on the Producer plan ($19.99/mo)Campaign Button Template Questions
Yes. The PDF downloads directly with no account, no email address, and no payment. It is a static file. Print it, copy it, and hand it to a volunteer. We only ask that you leave the small buttonmaker.app credit line at the bottom of the sheet.
2.25 inches is the standard campaign button size and fits 6 to a letter sheet at the default margins. Use 1.5 inch when you need volume on a tight budget, since 15 fit per sheet, and 3 inch for rallies and events where visibility matters more than cost, at 4 per sheet.
Because the outer ring of the printed circle wraps around the edge of the shell and disappears from the face of the button. That wrap area is the bleed. Anything inside the outer dashed line prints, but only what is inside the inner guide line stays visible, so a long surname pushed toward the edge loses its last letters.
Print at 100 percent scale, also called actual size. Turn off fit to page, shrink to fit, and scale to fit, since all of them resize the sheet by a few percent and the circles will no longer match your press. Check the print by measuring one finished-size guide with a ruler before you cut the whole sheet.
Yes. The online editor gives you the same template with your artwork already placed, arc text for the candidate name, and a live safe-zone guide, then exports a filled sheet as a print-ready PDF. The free Tinker plan covers 5 designs per month with no watermark.
Get your campaign button template
Take the blank PDF and print it now, or fill it in online and export a whole sheet with your candidate name already set.
Design It Online Free