Designing a seamless wallpaper repeat for a 70cm roll

A wallpaper repeat is the one file in this business where a single pixel out of place becomes a visible line across an entire room. Surface pattern designers know the feeling: the tile looks perfect, the mock-up looks perfect, and the first printed drop shows a seam every 70 centimetres. This guide takes the mystery out of it. It explains what Print Punch's wallpaper roll is, exactly what the file must be, how to build and check a seamless repeat, how to use the free template, what to export, and why one paid test roll belongs between you and your first collector order.

The product, stated exactly

Print Punch prints one custom repeat wallpaper roll per unit: 70 cm wide × 10 m long, on smooth paste-the-wall wallpaper, for $299.95 AUD including GST. Delivery is calculated separately. You supply one high-resolution seamless repeat prepared at 70 cm wide at final scale. We print it as the roll, repeating down the length. There's no peel and stick option on this service, and no other widths; the offer is deliberately simple so designers can sell it under their own brand with confidence. The wallpaper dropshipping page describes the service, and its preflight section has the checklist and the template download.

What "70 cm wide at final scale" means

Your file must be exactly 70 cm wide at the scale you want printed. If your motif is a 35 cm wide bloom, then two blooms fit across the roll, and your file is 70 cm wide with the design at that size. Don't build a 20 cm tile and expect it to be scaled up; don't build a 100 cm tile and expect it to be scaled down. Whatever is in the 70 cm wide file is what prints at 70 cm. The height of the tile is up to you, as long as it repeats cleanly top to bottom; common heights are 35, 50, 70 or 100 cm.

At 300 ppi, a 70 cm wide file is about 8270 pixels wide. A 70 × 70 cm tile is roughly 8270 × 8270 pixels. Vector designers should rasterise at that size; raster designers should build at that size from the start, because upscaling a small tile softens edges and shows in print.

Building a seamless repeat

The principle is simple: anything that leaves the left edge must re-enter at the same height on the right, and anything that leaves the top must re-enter at the same horizontal position on the bottom. In practice:

1. Set the canvas to the final tile size (70 cm wide × your chosen height) at 300 ppi, sRGB.
2. Place motifs that cross an edge as pairs. Duplicate the motif and offset it by exactly the canvas width (or height) so the part that leaves one side appears on the other. Most tools have an offset filter or a symmetry/pattern mode that does this for you.
3. Fill the middle last. Edge elements first, then the interior, so the edges are never an afterthought.
4. Check in a 2 × 2 or 3 × 3 tiling. Place four copies of the tile together and look for visible joins, awkward gaps or motifs that cluster into stripes. Our eyes find rows and diagonals quickly; break them up.
5. Check at room scale. Zoom out until the tiling fills your screen the way a wall would. Patterns that look lively as a tile can read as busy or as unintended stripes across three metres of wall.

Half-drop and brick repeats are built the same way, with the offset applied to the vertical or horizontal edges respectively; just make sure your exported tile still describes a full repeat the roll can reproduce by stacking straight down.

The free 70 cm template

Download the original 700 × 700 mm SVG guide from the wallpaper page. It has edge-match markers, centre lines and a safe-area guide at final scale. Use it as a top layer while you design, then remove it before export. It's a guide for your eyes, not a printable asset; if it ends up in the production file, it will print.

Resolution, colour and file

Aim for 300 ppi at final scale, use sRGB with the profile embedded, and export a clean production file: remove the guide layer, crop to the repeat tile exactly, and exclude printer marks, crop marks and any bleed. Save as TIFF or maximum quality JPG (or PNG for flat colour), under 200 MB. The browser preview on the product page tiles your repeat so you can check the match, but it checks the repeat, not printed colour. The file preparation guide covers resolution and colour space, and the colour management guide explains why a screen and a printed roll will never agree exactly.

Pass and fail, visually

A passing tile: opposite edges continue, so the motif leaves one side and re-enters the other at the same position and size, and the tiled result has no visible edge break.

A failing tile: the right edge sits a few millimetres lower than the left, so the pattern jumps at every repeat. Another failing tile: the motif on one edge is slightly larger than its counterpart, because it was scaled after the repeat was built. Both show as a line down the wall. The wallpaper page shows worked examples of each, and the fix is always in the file, never in production.

Upload, preview and confirm

On the product page you upload the repeat file, see it tiled in the preview, and confirm that the file is prepared at 70 cm wide at final scale before Add to cart is available. Both the file and the confirmation are required, because a wrong-scale file is the single most common wallpaper problem and no printer can guess the intended scale from pixels alone. Print Punch reviews the uploaded artwork before production and contacts you if it isn't print-ready.

Order one paid test roll first

Before a collector launch, send one roll to your own address. Check the scale against your intention, the repeat across two drops laid side by side, the colour in daylight, the material and the packing. One roll is $299.95 plus delivery, and it is the difference between confidence and hope when a collector orders six rolls for a nursery. The test order checklist covers inspection, and the refund policy explains how made-to-order products are handled, which is another reason to test before you sell.

Helping buyers order the right quantity

Each roll is 10 m long and 70 cm wide. A buyer cuts drops to the wall height, allowing extra at top and bottom for trimming and for matching the pattern across drops. For a 2.4 m wall, a 10 m roll gives three full drops with pattern-match allowance, covering about 2.1 m of wall width. Tell buyers to measure the wall width, divide by 0.7 to get the number of drops, divide drops by the drops-per-roll for their wall height, and round up, then add a roll for a larger repeat or complex room. Publishing that guidance on your own listing saves everyone a short-order headache.

Installation guidance to pass on

Print Punch's wallpaper is smooth paste-the-wall: paste goes on the prepared wall, not the paper. The wall must be clean, smooth, dry and sound. Buyers should mark a plumb line for the first drop, paste one drop width at a time with a quality non-woven paste, hang and butt the joins without stretching or overlapping, trim with a sharp blade and wipe fresh paste off immediately. An experienced installer is recommended for large repeats and feature walls. The full six-step guide is on the wallpaper page and in the artist FAQs; link your buyers to it or reproduce the steps in your own words.

Selling wallpaper under your brand

Designers sell the roll at their own price, and Print Punch prints and dispatches it. We can ship directly to your customer under your brand. Supply your sender details and packing preferences with your order. The white-label guide and the white-label page explain the setup, and the pricing guide applies to rolls as much as prints: your production charge is $299.95, delivery is calculated at checkout, and your retail price is your decision. Designers also commonly offer the same artwork as framed paper prints, which the illustrator's guide touches on.

Common mistakes

• Building the tile at the wrong width and expecting scaling.
• Scaling a motif after the repeat was built, so one edge no longer matches.
• Leaving the template layer in the export.
• Exporting with bleed or crop marks.
• Approving the tile without viewing a 3 × 3 tiling at room scale.
• Skipping the test roll and discovering a seam on a collector's wall.

Scale decisions, in practice

Scale is the design decision buyers notice first and designers test last. A motif that feels generous as a 35 cm bloom on a 70 cm roll can feel cramped as a 12 cm bloom repeated five times across the width, and the opposite is true for small geometric patterns that disappear into texture at large scale. Decide scale by room, not by screen: a nursery feature wall reads well at a medium scale with a clear motif; a large living room wall can carry a 70 cm single repeat; a powder room suits dense, small-scale pattern. Mock the tile at true size on your own wall with a printed A3 section before you commit, and remember that whatever width you build is the width that prints. The sizes and ratios guide is written for prints, but the habit of checking proportion before ordering is the same.

Colour on wallpaper

Smooth paste-the-wall wallpaper is a matte surface that absorbs ink much as fine art paper does, so colour behaves as it does on a matte print: faithful, a touch less bright than a screen, and dependent on room light. Large flat areas of colour will show any banding or compression in the file, so export at maximum quality and avoid heavily compressed JPGs for big flat fields. Very pale tints can read as off-white on a wall; very dark grounds show paste marks more readily during installation, which installers know how to manage. The colour management guide explains how to judge the test roll in daylight, and the fine art paper guide is a useful comparison if you also sell the same design as prints.

Building a wallpaper range

Most designers launch wallpaper as a small range: three to six designs, each in two or three colourways, each tested as a roll. Keep the repeat height consistent across a range where you can, because it simplifies the quantity guidance you give buyers. Offer the same designs as framed paper prints at A2 or 50 × 70 cm so a buyer can live with a design before committing to a wall, and photograph your test roll installed on a small section of wall for the listing. The pricing guide applies to rolls, and the guide to selling without stock covers running the range without holding a single roll.

Frequently asked questions

What size must my wallpaper file be?

Exactly 70 cm wide at final scale, seamless on every repeating edge, ideally 300 ppi (about 8270 pixels wide), sRGB with the profile embedded. Tile height is your choice as long as it repeats cleanly.

How much wallpaper is one roll?

One roll is 70 cm wide × 10 m long. Buyers cut it into drops for their wall height, allowing for trimming and pattern matching.

Is the wallpaper peel and stick?

No. It's smooth paste-the-wall wallpaper. Paste is applied to the prepared wall and the paper is hung onto it.

What does the roll cost?

$299.95 AUD including GST per 70cm × 10m roll. Delivery is calculated separately at checkout.

Does Print Punch check my repeat before printing?

Yes. The uploaded artwork is reviewed before production and we contact you if it isn't print-ready. The product page also requires you to confirm the file is at 70 cm final scale.

Should I order a test roll?

Yes. Send one roll to yourself before any collector launch to check scale, repeat, colour, material and packing.

Prepare the file and preview it

Download the template from the wallpaper page, build your repeat at 70 cm wide, and upload it on the wallpaper roll product page to see it tiled. If a repeat is giving you trouble, send it through the contact page with a note and we'll take a look.