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Letter or A4: which paper you have, and why it matters
There are two everyday paper sizes in the world, and they are close enough to confuse and different enough to ruin a print. Every template here comes in both. This page is about picking the right one.
The two sizes, side by side
| Size | Inches | Millimeters | Who uses it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Letter | 8.5 × 11 | 216 × 279 | The United States, Canada, Mexico, the Philippines and a few others. |
| A4 | 8.27 × 11.69 | 210 × 297 | Nearly everywhere else, including the UK, Europe, Australia, India and most of Asia and South America. |
A4 is about a quarter of an inch narrower than Letter and about three quarters of an inch taller. Put one on top of the other and Letter sticks out at the side while A4 sticks out at the bottom. That is the whole difference, and it is enough.
How to tell which one is in your tray
The wrapper the ream came in says. "Letter" or "8.5 x 11" is Letter. "A4" or "210 x 297" is A4. If the wrapper is long gone, measure the long edge. Eleven inches, or a hair under 28 centimeters, is Letter. Just under 30 centimeters, or eleven and two thirds inches, is A4.
A quicker tell, if you are in the US or Canada: it is almost certainly Letter. Office supply stores there barely stock A4. Outside those countries the odds flip. If you moved between the two, check, because a box of paper follows people across borders and stays in the cupboard for years.
What goes wrong when the file and the paper disagree
Print a Letter file on A4 paper at actual size and two things happen. The design is wider than the paper, so a sliver is lost off each side. And the paper is taller than the design, so a blank strip appears at the foot. On a planner the strip looks like a mistake. On a certificate the frame loses its edges.
Print an A4 file on Letter paper and the opposite happens. The paper is shorter, so the bottom of the design is clipped off. Whatever sat in the last three quarters of an inch is gone. That is usually a signature line or the last row of a calendar.
The tempting fix is "fit to page", which scales the file until it fits. It does fit, but now the margins are wrong and every line is a little smaller, and on a sheet with a frame the frame is closer to the edge on two sides than on the other two. It never looks quite right, and the reason is that the two sizes are not the same shape. Letter is squatter. You cannot scale one into the other without changing the margins.
Why we make both from one design
A template here is drawn once, then set for each paper size separately. The Letter version and the A4 version share the same type, the same colors and the same half-inch safe margin. What changes is the page itself, so the design is centered and the margins are even on whichever paper you have. The customizer has a Letter / A4 control. Set it to the paper in your tray and the download will match. A paid download includes both sizes, so if you are sending a file to someone in another country, send them the other one.
The free version of each template is Letter only. If you are on A4, it still prints; you will see the blank strip at the foot described above. That is fine for a look at the design on paper. For the real thing, use the A4 file.
One more thing: the printer has its own setting
The print dialog also has a paper size. It should say the same thing the tray holds. If the file is A4, the paper is A4 and the dialog still says Letter, the printer will do its best and the result will look scaled. Match all three, and set the scale to 100 percent. Printing at actual size explains that last part.