Flyer size guide: standard dimensions and when to use each

The standard flyer sizes

Most printers, including the flyer product page, offer a short list of sizes because they cut cleanly from standard press sheets. Sticking to one of them keeps cost down and keeps your options open, since templates, frames, racks, holders and envelopes are all built around the same numbers.

If you are unsure, start with half letter. It is large enough to hold a headline, three benefits, an offer and a way to respond, and small enough that people fold it into a pocket instead of dropping it in the nearest bin. Letter size is the safe second choice when the flyer has to carry a schedule, a map or a price list.

Custom sizes are possible, but they usually waste paper on the press sheet and cost more per piece. Unless an odd shape is the whole point of the campaign, a standard size with a strong design will outperform an unusual size with a weak one.

Choose by how the flyer travels

Size is really a question about distance and handling. A flyer read at arm's length can be small and dense. A flyer read from across a room needs fewer words and bigger type, which means more paper.

• Handed out on the street or at an event: 5.5 × 8.5 in or 4 × 6 in. People accept small pieces more readily and keep them longer.
• Pinned to a community board: 8.5 × 11 in. Anything smaller gets covered by the next flyer, and anything larger may be taken down for hogging space.
• Taped in a window or on a door: 11 × 17 in, so the headline reads from the sidewalk.
• Stacked by a register: 4 × 6 in or 5 × 7 in, which fit common countertop holders and stay upright.
• Slipped into shipping boxes or bags: 4 × 6 in, the same footprint as most packaging insert cards.
• Mailed: follow postal limits, covered in the mailing section below.

If a flyer will be used in two places, size it for the harder one. A letter size flyer can still be handed out, but a 4 × 6 in card will vanish on a crowded bulletin board. When the two placements are truly different, print two sizes from one design rather than forcing a compromise.

Bleed, trim and safe area by size

Whatever size you pick, your file should be slightly larger than the finished piece. The common standard is 0.125 in of bleed on every side, so the file is 0.25 in wider and taller than the trim size. Keep text and logos at least 0.125 in inside the trim line, and allow 0.25 in if the design has a thin border. The bleed explainer covers why the cutting blade can drift slightly from sheet to sheet.

Set images to 300 PPI at the final printed size. A photo that looks sharp on a half letter flyer may need four times the pixels to fill a tabloid sheet at the same quality, because doubling both dimensions quadruples the area. Check resolution again every time you scale a design up.

How many words each size can hold

Flyers fail most often because they try to say too much for their size. Use these working budgets for body copy, not counting the headline and contact details.

• 4 × 6 in: 25 to 40 words. One offer, one action, one QR code.
• 5.5 × 8.5 in: 60 to 120 words. A headline, three short benefits and a deadline.
• 8.5 × 11 in: 150 to 250 words. Room for a short schedule, a price list or a small map.
• 11 × 17 in: 40 to 100 words. It is read from farther away, so it holds fewer words than letter size, not more.

For type that must read from a distance, a common sign rule of thumb is about 1 in of letter height for every 10 ft of viewing distance. A window flyer meant to be read from 15 ft away needs headline letters about 1.5 in tall, which only a tabloid sheet can carry alongside anything else. If your headline will not fit at that height, shorten the headline instead of shrinking the type.

Sizes for mailing

Flyers that go through the mail are governed by postal dimensions rather than taste. USPS treats a piece up to 11.5 × 6.125 in and 0.25 in thick as a letter, and a flexible piece up to 15 × 12 in and 0.75 in thick as a flat. An unfolded 8.5 × 11 in flyer therefore mails as a flat, which usually costs more than a letter.

There are two easy fixes. Fold the letter sheet down to 8.5 × 5.5 in and seal it as a self mailer, or switch to a card format that qualifies as a postcard or letter. If mail is the main channel, compare this with direct mail postcards and read the postcard size guide before committing to a size.

Thickness counts as well as size. Most text weight flyers fall well under the quarter inch letter limit, but a folded, taped self mailer on heavy cover stock can drift toward it. If you plan to mail several thousand pieces, ask your printer or the post office to check a finished sample before the full run, because a size that misses the rules by a fraction of an inch can move the whole mailing into a more expensive category.

International sizes

If you share files with printers or partners outside North America, expect ISO sizes. A4 is 210 × 297 mm, A5 is 148 × 210 mm and A6 is 105 × 148 mm. They are close to letter, half letter and 4 × 6 in, but not identical, so a US design dropped onto A4 gains height and loses width.

The safest approach is to build a separate file for each market rather than scaling one. Rewrap the text to the new proportions, check that nothing now sits outside the safe area, and confirm the bleed, which is usually specified as 3 mm on ISO jobs.

Worked example: one event, three sizes

A yoga studio is launching a Saturday outdoor class. It needs a poster for the front window, handouts for a farmers market booth, and cards to slip into retail bags. Here is how the sizing breaks down.

• Window: one 11 × 17 in flyer with the class name, day and time in letters over 1 in tall, plus a QR code placed at eye level.
• Market booth: 250 half letter flyers with the schedule, price and a free first class offer.
• Retail bags: 500 cards at 4 × 6 in with the offer and the QR code only.

All three share the same photo, colors and headline, so the campaign looks unified. Only the amount of text changes, which is exactly what the size decision should control.

Notice what the studio did not do. It did not print 1,000 letter size flyers and try to use them everywhere. Letter size would have been too big for the bags, too wordy to read from the sidewalk, and more expensive than half letter at the booth. Three right sized runs cost about the same as one wrong sized run and work far harder. When you plan your own campaign, list every placement first, then assign each one the smallest size that still reads well there.

Get the free print size cheat sheets

The free print size cheat sheets list trim, bleed and safe area for every common flyer size, plus postcards, posters and banners. Print one and keep it next to your screen while you set up files.

Flyer size checklist

• Decide where the flyer will be read and from how far away.
• Pick a standard size that fits that placement.
• Set the document to trim size plus 0.125 in bleed on every side.
• Keep text and logos at least 0.125 in inside the trim.
• Match the word count to the budget for that size.
• Confirm images are 300 PPI at the final size.
• If mailing, check the piece against USPS letter and flat limits.