A good coloring page is easy to understand, fun to color and prints cleanly on ordinary paper. Every Kidsome coloring page goes through the same eight steps to get there.
1. Choosing the subject
We start with what families and classrooms are looking for: animals, nature, seasons, vehicles, foods and the other subjects children love, along with the topics teachers cover through the school year. Each collection has one clear subject, such as dogs or winter, so its pages work well together.
2. Planning the set
Before any artwork is made, we plan the whole collection: usually 12 to 20 pages, each with its own scene, all made for one age group.
- Ages 3 to 5: one big subject, bold simple shapes and large areas to color.
- Ages 4 to 8: a main subject with a simple scene around it.
- Ages 8 to 12: more detail and fuller scenes for longer coloring sessions.
A mix of close-ups, scenes and poses keeps a set from feeling repetitive.
3. Creating the artwork
Each page is created digitally from its plan, as black outlines on a white background. We aim for:
- closed outlines, so every area can be colored without guessing where it ends;
- open shapes instead of solid black areas, so there is something to color everywhere;
- no gray shading or texture, which prints muddy and leaves nothing to color;
- a subject that fills the page, with white space around it so nothing is cut off at the edges.
4. Automatic checks
Every page then goes through automatic checks. They reject pages with gray shading or stray color, pages with too few or too many lines, drawings that fill too little of the page, and artwork that runs into the edges. A page that fails is made again.
5. Checked by eye
Pages that pass are reviewed one by one, the way a child and a parent would see them. Does the subject read as itself at a glance? Does any clutter hide it? Is anything doubled, cut off or filled in black? A page that falls short is made again until the set is complete.
6. Preparing the PDF
Accepted pages are converted to crisp, pure black and white artwork, so lines stay sharp and your printer uses as little ink as possible. Each page is placed on US Letter paper with 0.6 inch margins, which also fits A4, and has a line for a name and date at the top, handy in classrooms. Every page gets its own PDF.
7. Writing the page
We look at every finished page before writing about it. Each one gets a title, a short description and alt text that describes what it shows, and the collection page explains who the set suits and how to use it.
8. Final review
Before anything is published, a person reviews the finished collection the way visitors will see it: the images, the PDFs and the text together. Only then does it go live.
After publishing
If you spot a problem with a page, such as a line that does not close or a file that prints badly, tell us through our contact page and we will fix it. Our Editorial Guidelines set out the standards every Kidsome printable meets, and our guide to printing our printables helps you get the best result on paper.