Button Making Tutorials & Guides

How to make custom buttons: from design to print

Making professional custom buttons comes down to five steps, whether you are making ten buttons for a family reunion or five hundred for a convention booth. Here is the full workflow using button maker software and any button maker machine.

1. Choose your button size

Your button maker machine determines the size you can press, so start there. The most common machine sizes are 1", 1.25", 1.5", 2.25", and 3" round. ButtonMakerPro includes print layouts for every common format: round from 7/8" to 6", ovals, squares, rectangles, a rounded rectangle, and 2×2 or 3×3 photo magnet puzzle sets.

2. Design your artwork

Upload a photo or logo into the Web Studio, add and style text, or start from a template. Keep faces, names, and anything important inside the safe zone — the area of the design guaranteed to stay on the face of the button. Everything outside the cut line wraps around the button edge, so extend your background color or image all the way to the outer bleed line. The built-in AI background remover cleans up photos in one click.

3. Build a print sheet

Place your finished designs onto a full sheet. Good button layout software handles the circle spacing, cut lines, and bleed automatically — in ButtonMakerPro you can repeat one design across the sheet, mix several designs, and even combine different product sizes on the same sheet while each keeps its correct guides and scale.

4. Print at 100% scale

Print on standard paper with printer scaling turned off — no "fit to page" or "shrink to printable area." Scaling is the number one cause of buttons that will not crimp correctly, because even 3% shrink changes the cut circle size.

5. Cut and press

Cut each design on the outer cut line, stack it with your button shell and mylar in the machine, and press. If edges show white slivers, your background is not reaching the bleed line; if important content gets cut off, it is outside the safe zone — both are design fixes, not machine problems.

Design Your First Button Free

Button sizes guide: which size should you make?

Every size has a job. Here is the quick version vendors settle on after a few events:

• 1" round — flair packs, band merch, giveaways. Cheap to make in volume and people buy them in sets.
• 1.25"–1.5" round — a step up in readability while staying pocket-priced; popular for artist alley sets.
• 2.25" round — the most common standard button size in the US. Big enough for photos and detailed art; this is the default size most vendors sell first.
• 3"–3.5" round — statement and campaign buttons, photo buttons, memorial buttons. Higher price point per unit.
• 6" round — display pieces and novelty giants.
• Ovals, squares & rectangles — name badges, versed quotes, and designs that do not fit a circle. The 2.5" × 3.5" rectangle doubles as a trading-card format.
• Photo magnet puzzles (2×2 and 3×3) — one uploaded photo split into 4 or 9 square magnet pieces that assemble on a fridge. A strong upsell at family events.

How to take custom button orders at events

The hardest part of selling custom buttons at a fair, market, or convention is order-taking: customers want their own photo on a button, and writing orders on paper while a line forms does not scale. Here is the QR workflow ButtonMakerPro vendors use:

1. Create the event — set your dates, available sizes, and bundle pricing (for example 1 for $3, 2 for $5).
2. Print the QR code — every event gets its own order page and QR code. Put it on your table tent or banner.
3. Customers order from their phone — they scan, upload their photo, position it inside the live button preview, pick a size and quantity, and submit. You get the order with their exact crop, name, and phone number.
4. Take payment your way — collect at the booth in cash or card, or turn on online payment with Stripe so the order arrives already paid.
5. Print and press from the order queue — orders flow into your production queue where you print sheets, mark orders paid, printed, and completed, and text or call the customer when it is ready.

After the event, ending it exports a customer and order CSV automatically — useful for follow-up marketing and knowing which sizes actually sold.