One of the most common questions for a printing company is about paper sizes. Today we’re going to go into a bit of detail about the most common paper sizes we use when printing flyers, posters, booklets, loyalty cards, and menus.
We understand that for those not ordering print everyday, the difference between an A0 and and A6 seems like just a few numbers away, but at 8x the height and 8 x the width, you could fit 64 A6’s inside the space of an A0. Vicki our production controller demonstrates the proportions of each of our most common print sizes: A7 to A0 in a nice easy to understand video. It does a great job of visually comparing all the common sizes we print at.
As always if you have any questions about the video or about the right paper size for your project, please do not hesitate to contact our customer service team or or artwork seem to be only too happy to assist in any way they can.
A-Size papers
In the UK and across Europe paper is sized using ISO 206 standard and this is commonly known under the A size paper series. In fact, almost everywhere bar the US, Canada & Mexico has adopted A-size papers.
A-size Paper Chart
| A0 | 841 x 1189 mm |
| A1 | 594 x 841 mm |
| A2 | 420 x 594 mm |
| A3 | 297 x 420 mm |
| A4 | 210 x 297 mm |
| A5 | 148 x 210 mm |
| A6 | 105 x 148 mm |
| A7 | 74 x 105 mm |
In addition to A sizes, B-size papers are also, but less commonly used in the print industry. This B-size is “oversized paper and afford printers the ability to print with added margins and bleed, which when printed and in post production finishing, allows the paper to be trimmed to suit the needs of the project. This would be common in projects like presentation folder printing where an oversize file is required to hold A4 sheets.
A-size paper chart
In the UK, paper is sized primarily in millimetres, certainly this would be the industry standard for designers also. In the image above you will see a nice easy reference paper size guide showing in image format, the visual representation of how each size common A-size relates to each other. If that doesn’t explain it, then below will definitely help somewhat.
Adding bleed to your designs
In addition to paper sizes, one of the most common and usually next up questions is about adding bleed to your artwork. Bleed is added to designs, ensuring that when we print and trim the artwork down to the finished A-size above that edge-edge printing remains. It also ensures that we do not have to cut into the artwork, possibly removing critical information.
How much bleed to I need?
As standard 3mm on each side of your artwork. Top, bottom, left & right. This adds 6mm to the A-size on both horizontal and vertical axis. We have a handy guide and video on bleed also on this site also. You can find it by clicking here.
If you need a hand, we’re here to help and if the video/guide was of some benefit, please leave us a little thumbs up on the youtube video.
