A4 vs US Letter

Use A4 for international documents, European and many global office workflows, ISO paper-size systems, and documents that need to match A-series paper sizes.

Use US Letter for North American office documents, U.S. forms, letterhead, school handouts, and print workflows that specifically request 8.5 × 11 in.

If you are sending a file to someone else, match their printer paper size. A document made for the wrong paper size can scale, crop or add unexpected margins.

A4 metric workflows often use 3 mm bleed. US commercial print workflows often use 0.125 in bleed. Always follow the printer’s template if it differs.

For a text document:

1. Change the page size to US Letter. 2. Check margins. 3. Review page breaks. 4. Export a new PDF. 5. Print a proof before sending final files.

For a designed print file:

1. Create a new US Letter canvas. 2. Reposition content manually instead of relying only on automatic scaling. 3. Check safe margins and bleed. 4. Re-export using the correct bleed settings. 5. Review the PDF at 100% scale.

For a text document, switch the page size to A4 and review margins and page breaks. For a design file, rebuild or adjust the layout on an A4 canvas because A4 is taller and narrower.

A4 is narrower and taller. US Letter is wider and shorter. When a document is moved from one size to the other, the software or printer must decide whether to:

• scale the document down;
• crop the edges;
• center it with margins;
• reflow text and layout;
• print on the wrong paper tray.

For simple text documents, scaling may be acceptable. For designed layouts, forms, menus, flyers and PDFs, use the correct paper size from the start.