A4 vs Letter: Which Paper Size Should Your Calendar Use?

A4 and Letter look almost identical when they sit on a desk, but they are different shapes. If a calendar designed for one is printed on the other, the printer has to crop or shrink it. Knowing which size you have takes ten seconds and saves a lot of wasted paper.

The exact sizes

• A4: 210 × 297 mm (8.27 × 11.69 inches).
• Letter: 8.5 × 11 inches (215.9 × 279.4 mm).

Letter is about 6 mm wider than A4, and A4 is about 18 mm taller than Letter. In other words, A4 is a slightly narrower, longer sheet. The difference is small enough to miss by eye and large enough to cut off the bottom row of a calendar.

Which is bigger? By area, A4: 62,370 square millimeters against 60,322 for Letter, about 3% more paper. US Legal, the third size people often mix up, is 8.5 × 14 inches (215.9 × 355.6 mm): as wide as Letter and 3 inches longer. Our ready-made calendar PDFs come in A4 and Letter only.

Who uses which size

Letter is the standard size in the United States and Canada, and it is also common in Mexico, the Philippines, and parts of Central and South America. Almost everywhere else, including the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, India, and most of Asia and Africa, uses A4.

A4 is part of the international ISO 216 standard. Its proportions follow a neat rule: the ratio of the long side to the short side is the square root of two, so folding an A4 sheet in half gives an A5 sheet with the same shape. Letter sizes do not follow that rule, which is why the two families never line up perfectly.

How to check what is in your printer

Measure the short side of a sheet. If it is 21 cm (a little under 8.3 inches), it is A4. If it is 21.6 cm (8.5 inches), it is Letter. The packaging usually says it too, and so does the paper-size setting in your printer's preferences.

What happens when the sizes do not match

A4 file on Letter paper: the page is too tall. With "Actual size" selected, the bottom of the page is cut off. With "Fit to page", the whole calendar is shrunk to about 94% and ends up with wider white margins on the sides.

Letter file on A4 paper: the page is too wide. With "Actual size", the edges can be clipped; with "Fit to page", the calendar shrinks slightly and leaves extra space at the top and bottom.

Neither outcome ruins a calendar, but lines get thinner and the layout loses its balance. The simple fix is to download the file that matches your paper. Every calendar on Printemplates is offered in both sizes, each in portrait and landscape.

What about A3, A5, and larger prints?

A3 is exactly twice the area of A4 and A5 is exactly half, with the same proportions. That means an A4 calendar scales cleanly to A3 at a print shop for a bigger wall version, or down to A5 for a planner insert. In the US, Tabloid (11 × 17 inches) is the common larger size, and it is exactly twice the area of Letter.

If you need a size that is not in our ready-made downloads, the calendar maker includes A3, A5, square presets, and custom page dimensions.

Short answer

In the US or Canada, use Letter. Almost everywhere else, use A4. When in doubt, measure the short side of the paper, then read our printing guide for the settings that keep the grid sharp.