Paper size guide — every standard size in mm, inches and pixels
Filter by category, switch between units, and compare sizes visually. From ISO A0 down to business cards, US Letter to a novel trim, and every envelope in between — with print settings and use-case recommendations attached.
| Common uses | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B0 | ISO B | 1000 | 1414 | Large posters, Advertising displays | |
| C0 | ISO C | 917 | 1297 | Large document envelopes | |
| ANSI E | US | 863.6 | 1117.6 | Very large engineering drawings, Site plans | |
| A0 | ISO A | 841 | 1189 | Large posters, Architectural drawings, Trade-show backdrops | |
| B1 | ISO B | 707 | 1000 | Posters, Store displays | |
| C1 | ISO C | 648 | 917 | Poster envelopes | |
| A1 | ISO A | 594 | 841 | Posters, Flip charts, Technical drawings | |
| ANSI D | US | 558.8 | 863.6 | Large engineering drawings | |
| B2 | ISO B | 500 | 707 | Posters, Bus-shelter ads | |
| C2 | ISO C | 458 | 648 | Portfolio envelopes | |
| Ledger | US | 431.8 | 279.4 | Landscape spreadsheets, Two-up Letter, Ledgers | |
| ANSI C | US | 431.8 | 558.8 | Engineering drawings, Architectural plans | |
| A2 | ISO A | 420 | 594 | Medium posters, Calendars, Diagrams | |
| B3 | ISO B | 353 | 500 | Small posters, Wall calendars | |
| C3 | ISO C | 324 | 458 | Envelopes that hold A3 sheets unfolded | |
| A3 | ISO A | 297 | 420 | Small posters, Spreadsheets, Menus… | |
| Tabloid | US | 279.4 | 431.8 | Newspapers, Broadsheets, Portrait ledger | |
| ANSI B | US | 279.4 | 431.8 | Engineering drawings (same size as Tabloid) | |
| B4 | ISO B | 250 | 353 | Newspapers (tabloid), Books, Sheet music | |
| C4 | ISO C | 229 | 324 | Envelopes that hold A4 sheets unfolded | |
| C4 | Envelope | 229 | 324 | A4 sheets unfolded, Legal documents | |
| Letter | US | 215.9 | 279.4 | US business letters, Resumes, Reports… | |
| Legal | US | 215.9 | 355.6 | US legal documents, Contracts, Long forms | |
| ANSI A | US | 215.9 | 279.4 | Engineering drawings (same size as Letter) | |
| A4 | ISO A | 210 | 297 | Letters, Documents, Reports… | |
| 8x10 Photo | Photo | 203.2 | 254 | Portrait enlargements, Framed prints, Headshots | |
| Executive | US | 184.1 | 266.7 | Executive letterhead, Personal correspondence | |
| Hardcover (7x10) | Book | 177.8 | 254 | Textbooks, Illustrated non-fiction | |
| B5 | ISO B | 176 | 250 | Books, Novels, Academic papers | |
| C5 | ISO C | 162 | 229 | Envelopes that hold A5 or A4 folded in half | |
| C5 | Envelope | 162 | 229 | A4 folded once, A5 unfolded, Greeting cards | |
| Trade Paperback | Book | 152.4 | 228.6 | Trade paperbacks, Non-fiction, Business books… | |
| Hardcover (6x9) | Book | 152.4 | 228.6 | Standard hardcovers, Non-fiction | |
| A5 | ISO A | 148 | 210 | Notebooks, Flyers, Booklets… | |
| Half-Letter | US | 139.7 | 215.9 | Small notebooks, Chapbooks, Zines… | |
| Hardcover (5.5x8.5) | Book | 139.7 | 215.9 | Fiction hardcovers, Memoirs | |
| Digest | Book | 139.7 | 215.9 | Digest magazines, Small journals | |
| Junior Legal | US | 127 | 203.2 | Legal pads, Notepads | |
| 5x7 Photo | Photo | 127 | 177.8 | Portrait prints, Framed photos, Greeting cards | |
| B6 | ISO B | 125 | 176 | Paperback books, Small booklets | |
| C6 | ISO C | 114 | 162 | Envelopes that hold A6 or A4 folded twice | |
| C6 | Envelope | 114 | 162 | A4 folded twice, A6 unfolded, Invitations | |
| DL | Envelope | 110 | 220 | Business letters folded in thirds, Standard European business envelope | |
| Mass-Market Paperback | Book | 108 | 174.5 | Mass-market fiction, Airport paperbacks | |
| A6 | ISO A | 105 | 148 | Postcards, Pocket notebooks, Index cards | |
| #10 | Envelope | 104.8 | 241.3 | US business letters folded in thirds, Invoices, Standard US commercial envelope | |
| 4x6 Photo | Photo | 101.6 | 152.4 | Snapshot prints, Postcards, Photo album standard | |
| JP Business Card (meishi) | Business Card | 91 | 55 | Japanese meishi, East-Asian business cards | |
| US Business Card | Business Card | 88.9 | 50.8 | North-American business cards, Loyalty cards | |
| B7 | ISO B | 88 | 125 | Passports, Pocket books | |
| EU Business Card | Business Card | 85 | 55 | European business cards, Membership cards | |
| C7 | ISO C | 81 | 114 | Small greeting-card envelopes | |
| A7 | ISO A | 74 | 105 | Sticky notes, Small flashcards, Tickets | |
| B8 | ISO B | 62 | 88 | Playing cards, Small notes | |
| C8 | ISO C | 57 | 81 | Miniature envelopes | |
| A8 | ISO A | 52 | 74 | Playing cards, Small labels | |
| B9 | ISO B | 44 | 62 | Labels, Business tags | |
| C9 | ISO C | 40 | 57 | Very small envelopes, Seed packets | |
| A9 | ISO A | 37 | 52 | Very small labels, Stamps | |
| B10 | ISO B | 31 | 44 | Tiny labels | |
| C10 | ISO C | 28 | 40 | Tiny envelopes, Sample packets | |
| A10 | ISO A | 26 | 37 | Tiny labels, Miniature print samples |
Compare visually
3 sizes selected. Click a row above to add or remove one. Drawn at true relative proportions.
The ISO A series explained
ISO 216, ratified in 1975, defines the A series so that each size is exactly half the previous one when cut along its long edge. A0 (841 × 1189 mm) has an area of one square metre — a deliberate choice so paper weight in grams per square metre (GSM) maps directly to sheet weight. Fold A0 in half and you have two A1 sheets. Halve again for A2. Continue down to A10. The 1:√2 aspect ratio is what makes this scaling possible without distortion; every A size has the exact same shape.
The practical consequence: an A4 page reduced to fit two-up on A5 has no wasted margin. A book printed at A5 that scans back to A4 has no cropping. This is impossible in the US Letter world, where Half-Letter is a different shape than Letter.
The ISO B series and when to use it
The B series is the geometric mean between successive A sizes — B4 sits between A3 and A4 in area, B5 between A4 and A5. Its practical niche is books and passports (B6, B5), envelopes designed to hold A-series sheets with room for padding (see the C series below), and posters that need to be bigger than the corresponding A but smaller than the next A up.
US paper standards
US Letter (8.5 × 11 in), Legal (8.5 × 14 in), Tabloid (11 × 17 in), and Ledger (17 × 11 in, which is Tabloid rotated) are the dominant US office sizes. Legal is Letter stretched vertically by 3 inches — used for contracts, legal filings and some invoices. Tabloid is Letter doubled, used for newspapers and large-format spreadsheets. ANSI later formalised A through E (Letter equivalent, Ledger, ANSI C at 17 × 22 in, D at 22 × 34 in, E at 34 × 44 in) for engineering drawings.
Envelope sizes for business mail
DL (110 × 220 mm) fits an A4 folded in thirds — the standard European business envelope. C5 (162 × 229 mm) holds A4 folded once. C6 (114 × 162 mm) holds A6 flat or A4 folded twice. The US equivalent is the #10 envelope (4.125 × 9.5 in) which fits US Letter folded in thirds. For anything bigger, use the C-series envelope one step larger than the sheet size (C4 for flat A4, C3 for flat A3).
Photo, business card and book trim sizes
Photo prints follow their own conventions: 4×6 in (10.2 × 15.2 cm) is the global standard for consumer prints, 5×7 in for frames, 8×10 in for portraits. Business cards vary regionally — US at 3.5 × 2 in, EU/ISO at 85 × 55 mm, Japanese at 91 × 55 mm. Trade paperbacks in the US are commonly 5 × 8 in or 6 × 9 in; mass-market paperbacks are 4.25 × 6.87 in. If you're designing a book cover, check the printer's spec sheet first — trim can vary by publisher.
How paper size interacts with DPI and image resolution
Print quality is a function of DPI (dots per inch) × physical size. An image that looks sharp on A5 at 300 DPI will look pixelated blown up to A2 — because you're spreading the same number of dots over a larger area. For print jobs, the rule is: source images must be at 300 DPI at final print size. A 2000 × 3000 pixel image is 300 DPI at 6.67 × 10 in, or 150 DPI at 13.3 × 20 in. On-screen documents typically ship at 72 DPI (the traditional Mac convention) or 96 DPI (Windows), which is why a PDF that looks tiny on-screen prints correctly at physical size — the DPI metadata handles the conversion.
Changing paper size when saving a webpage as PDF
Chrome's built-in Print dialog will let you change paper size but reflows the webpage as if it were printing to that physical sheet — usually breaking column layouts or clipping content that doesn't respect print CSS. A dedicated conversion tool preserves layout at the intended width. Convert: Web to PDF supports A3, A4, A5, US Letter, US Legal, Tabloid and Ledger with orientation, margins and scale controls, and it previews the output before you download so you can catch layout issues before saving.
Common paper size questions
What is the most common paper size worldwide?
ISO A4 (210 × 297 mm / 8.27 × 11.69 in) is the international standard used across virtually every country that follows ISO 216 — Europe, most of Asia, Australasia, South America and Africa. US Letter (216 × 279 mm) is dominant only in the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Philippines.
What is the difference between US Letter and A4?
US Letter is slightly wider (216 mm vs 210 mm) and slightly shorter (279 mm vs 297 mm) than A4. A page laid out for one usually needs its margins adjusted to print cleanly on the other — text set to A4 margins can be clipped on US Letter, and Letter documents print with extra whitespace on A4.
What is the biggest ISO A paper size?
A0 at 841 × 1189 mm (33.11 × 46.81 in). Its area is one square metre, which is the basis of the entire A series — every subsequent size is A0 folded in half.
How many pixels wide is A4 at 300 DPI?
2480 × 3508 pixels. That is the pixel canvas print shops expect for a full-bleed A4 print. At 72 DPI (on-screen sizing) A4 is 595 × 842 pixels, which is the value the PDF specification uses internally.
Why does Europe use A4 but the US uses Letter?
A4 is derived from ISO 216 (1975), itself descended from the 1922 German DIN 476 standard which chose a 1:√2 aspect ratio so a sheet halved always produces the next size in the same series. US Letter predates ISO 216 and was standardised administratively by the Reagan administration in 1980 based on existing pre-ISO practice. Once each region had entrenched printers, envelopes and filing cabinets sized to its standard, switching became prohibitively expensive.
What paper size should I use for a resume?
US Letter if you're applying in the United States, Canada or Mexico; A4 everywhere else. If you're sending internationally and don't know the recipient's region, A4 is safer because most of the world's printers accept it and A4-sized PDFs print acceptably on US Letter with automatic scaling.
What paper size should I use for a poster?
A2 (420 × 594 mm) is the typical academic and gallery poster size. A1 (594 × 841 mm) is used for conference posters and large-format signage. For US markets ANSI D (610 × 914 mm) or ANSI E (864 × 1118 mm) are the direct equivalents.
How do I change the paper size when converting a webpage to PDF?
In Chrome's built-in Print dialog you can change paper size but it will re-flow the webpage awkwardly. A dedicated tool gives you cleaner results. Convert: Web to PDF exposes A3, A4, A5, US Letter, US Legal, Tabloid and Ledger, along with orientation, margins and scale — pick paper first, preview, then export.
What is the ISO 216 standard?
The ISO standard that defines the A, B and C paper series. It fixes the aspect ratio at 1:√2 (≈1:1.414) so each size, halved along its long edge, produces the next size in the series without distortion. A0 is defined so its area equals exactly one square metre; every other A-size follows from that.
Are US paper sizes based on a mathematical ratio like the A series?
No. US paper sizes are ad-hoc historical dimensions that don't scale into each other. Letter (8.5 × 11 in) halved gives Half-Letter (5.5 × 8.5 in), which has a different aspect ratio than Letter. This is why scaling US-sized documents to different sizes usually distorts them — unlike A4 → A5 → A6, where each step preserves shape.
Change paper size at conversion time, not after
Reprinting a PDF at a different paper size never looks as clean as generating it correctly the first time. If you're saving webpages as PDFs and want control over paper size, use Convert: Web to PDF — pick size, orientation, margins and scale before you export.
Install Convert: Web to PDF →