A flyer is 8.5 x 11 inches in the US, one sheet of letter paper, or 2550 x 3300 pixels when you build it at 300 pixels per inch. So the usual answer to what size is a flyer is letter size. Handouts often run smaller, small posters run to 11 x 17, and most countries outside North America print on A4 or A5. Below are the sizes in inches, centimeters and pixels, where each one gets used, the shapes Instagram and Facebook accept, and how to set up a file that prints at its size without cropping.
Flyer sizes at a glance
Each size below appears on at least one print shop's order page as of September 2026 (FedEx Office, 4OVER4, Vistaprint and Vistaprint UK). The pixel column assumes 300 pixels per inch (PPI), the resolution printers ask for on anything held in the hand. The formula is inches x 300 = pixels. For metric sizes, divide millimeters by 25.4 to get inches first.
| Size | Inches | Centimeters | Pixels at 300 PPI | Where it's used |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Letter | 8.5 x 11 | 21.6 x 27.9 | 2550 x 3300 | Bulletin boards, doors, shop windows |
| Half letter | 5.5 x 8.5 | 14.0 x 21.6 | 1650 x 2550 | Handouts and take-home flyers |
| Quarter letter | 4.25 x 5.5 | 10.8 x 14.0 | 1275 x 1650 | Counter stacks and table drops |
| 4 x 6 | 4 x 6 | 10.2 x 15.2 | 1200 x 1800 | Postcard-style flyers |
| 5 x 7 | 5 x 7 | 12.7 x 17.8 | 1500 x 2100 | Invitation-style flyers |
| Legal | 8.5 x 14 | 21.6 x 35.6 | 2550 x 4200 | Long lists, such as a menu or a schedule |
| Tabloid | 11 x 17 | 27.9 x 43.2 | 3300 x 5100 | Small posters and windows |
| A4 | 8.27 x 11.69 | 21.0 x 29.7 | 2480 x 3508 | The standard flyer outside North America |
| A5 | 5.83 x 8.27 | 14.8 x 21.0 | 1748 x 2480 | Handouts outside North America |
| A6 | 4.13 x 5.83 | 10.5 x 14.8 | 1240 x 1748 | Pocket flyers |
| DL | 3.9 x 8.27 | 9.9 x 21.0 | 1169 x 2480 | Slim leaflets for racks and envelopes |
What size is a flyer normally
Letter, 8.5 x 11 inches, is the normal flyer size in the US. FedEx Office names it the standard flyer size, and a file you upload there prints only at letter size. Its 5.5 x 8.5 and 11 x 17 sizes are offered through its Canva design templates. 4OVER4 lists 4.25 x 5.5, 5.5 x 8.5 and 8.5 x 11 as its popular flyer sizes.
The menu of sizes grows fast beyond those three. Vistaprint's flyer order page lists 11 sizes, from 2.5 x 4 inches up to 11 x 17, including legal (8.5 x 14) and two squares (6 x 6 and 8 x 8), and it doesn't take custom sizes. Because each shop draws its own list, match your file to the inches on the order page before you design anything.
A flyer is usually letter size when it goes on a wall and half letter or smaller when it goes into someone's hand. The smaller size fits in a school folder, a shopping bag or a coat pocket. It also costs less per copy when you print it yourself, because two or four come out of one sheet.
A4, A5 and other flyer sizes in cm
Outside the US and Canada, flyers follow the A series. Vistaprint UK's flyers and leaflets come in A7 (74 x 105 mm), A6 (105 x 148 mm), A5 (148 x 210 mm), A4 (210 x 297 mm) and A3 (297 x 420 mm), plus DL (99 x 210 mm) and two squares. Each A size is the one above it cut in half, so two A5 flyers come out of one A4 sheet. A DL leaflet is the size of an A4 sheet folded into three panels.
A4 and letter look alike but don't swap cleanly. A4 is about 0.23 inches narrower and 0.69 inches taller than letter. A file built for one and printed on the other gets shrunk, leaving white bands, or cropped, losing text near the edge. If you're printing in Europe from a US template, change the paper size first, then check that nothing sits close to the bottom.
Flyer size in pixels for print and screens
The right pixel count depends on where the flyer will be seen. For paper, aim for 300 pixels for every inch of the printed flyer. 4OVER4's resolution guide sets 300 for flyers, brochures and postcards and allows 100 to 150 for banners read from a distance. The same guide warns that many programs open new files at 72 or 96, which looks sharp on a monitor and prints soft.
For screens, the platform sets the numbers. As of September 2026:
| Where it's posted | Shape | Size |
|---|---|---|
| Instagram post | Any shape from 1.91:1 wide to 3:4 tall | Kept at up to 1080 px wide: 1080 x 1350 at 4:5, 1080 x 1440 at 3:4 |
| Facebook and Instagram feed ads | 4:5 portrait | 1440 x 1800 px recommended by Meta |
| Facebook and Instagram Stories | 9:16 vertical | 1440 x 2560 px recommended by Meta |
A US letter flyer (8.5:11) falls inside Instagram's range, so the print file posts whole, sized down to 1080 x 1398 pixels. A4 (about 1:1.41), legal and 11 x 17 are taller than 3:4, and Instagram crops shapes outside its range, so those lose part of the top or bottom. For feed ads, Meta recommends 4:5, and its Instagram feed ad specs allow nothing taller, so make a 4:5 version before you boost a flyer. The post, event and ad steps are in making a flyer for Facebook, and every Instagram shape is in the Instagram post dimensions guide.
Bleed, margins and the trim line
Bleed is extra background that runs past the edge of the page so color reaches the edge after the stack is cut. 4OVER4 asks for 0.125 inch of bleed on every side, so a letter flyer with bleed is built at 8.75 x 11.25 inches, or 2625 x 3375 pixels. Keep the date, the address and any small print well inside the trim line so the cut never touches them.
Not every printer prints to the edge. At FedEx Office, a design you upload gets a small margin, and only designs started from its Canva templates print full bleed. Word's default margin is one inch on all four sides, which suits a text flyer but wastes room on a picture flyer. If your flyer will print with a margin anyway, give the design a plain white or light border so the margin looks planned. The shops that trim, and their prices, are compared in where to print flyers cheap.
Half-page, quarter-page and postcard flyers
Smaller flyers stretch a print budget because more of them fit on one sheet. Two half-letter flyers (5.5 x 8.5) fit on a letter sheet and four quarter-letter flyers (4.25 x 5.5) fit on one, so 100 quarter-page handouts take 25 sheets and a paper cutter.
- Half letter suits anything people carry home: a class schedule, a fundraiser sign-up sheet, a menu insert.
- Quarter letter suits a stack by a register, where people grab one on the way out.
- 4 x 6 and 5 x 7 are postcard and invitation shapes, for mailers and party invites.
- Double-sided printing doubles the space without a bigger sheet. For a two-sided FedEx Office order, upload a 2-page PDF or two separate image files, front first.
Small sizes need fewer words. A quarter-page flyer has room for a headline, the date and time, the address and one line of detail, and not much else.
Poster-size flyers: 11 x 17 and up
A flyer printed at 11 x 17 inches (tabloid) is really a small poster, and bigger sizes like 18 x 24 are posters outright. 4OVER4's guide sets posters up to 24 x 36 at 200 to 300 DPI, with 200 enough when people read them from a few feet away, so an 18 x 24 poster needs at least 3600 x 4800 pixels. How a flyer differs from a poster or a folded brochure, in size, cost and wording, is covered in flyer vs brochure. For designs generated at poster size, which poster sizes a 4K image covers does the math per size.
Gig flyers bring their own size habits, and the concert flyer page covers dimensions for shows.
How to set up a flyer file at the right size
Set the page size before you type a word, because shrinking or stretching a finished layout moves everything on it.
- Google Docs. Click File, then Page setup, select Pages at the top, and change Paper size, Orientation and Margins. These settings aren't available in pageless format, so switch the document to pages first.
- PowerPoint. Open the Design tab, pick Slide Size, choose Custom Slide Size, and type 8.5 in by 11 in with portrait orientation. PowerPoint also takes centimeters and pixels.
- Word. The default margin is one inch. Change it under Layout, then Margins, or pick Custom Margins. The Word, Google Docs and PowerPoint flyer steps cover the layout from there, including a PowerPoint preset that looks right and isn't.
- Photoshop or any pixel editor. Type the pixel size from the table, such as 2550 x 3300 for letter, or 2625 x 3375 with bleed.
- A phone. Set the size inside whichever app you use. The app-by-app steps are in how to make a flyer on an iPhone.
Common flyer size mistakes
| Mistake | What happens | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Building the file at 72 or 96 pixels per inch | The print looks soft or blocky | Set 300 pixels per inch at the final size before you design |
| A US letter file printed on A4, or the reverse | White bands, or text cut at the edge | Set the paper size for the country you print in |
| Ordering by size name without reading the inches | A card arrives when you wanted a page | Match the inches on the order page to your file |
| Posting an A4 or 11 x 17 file to Instagram | The top or bottom gets cropped | Post a 4:5 or 3:4 version instead |
| Boosting the letter file as a feed ad | It's taller than the 4:5 shape Meta recommends for feed ads | Make a 4:5 version at 1440 x 1800 pixels |
| Color to the edge with no bleed | Thin white slivers after trimming | Add 0.125 inch of bleed on every side |
| Text right against the edge at a shop that adds a margin | The last letters print too close to the edge | Keep text at least a margin's width in from every side |
Match Flyer Maker's sizes to your paper
Toybox AI's Flyer Maker has three sizes, Portrait (4:5), Tall (3:4) and Wide (5:4), each at 1K, 2K or 4K, and it downloads a PNG. None of the three is exactly letter-shaped, so here is how each one maps to real paper at the quality worth using. For printing, choose 2K or 4K.
| Paper or screen | Flyer Maker setting | How it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Letter, 8.5 x 11 | Tall, 4K (2480 x 3312 px) | About 292 pixels per inch filling the width, with about 0.35 inch of height trimmed |
| 8 x 10 | Portrait, 4K (2560 x 3200 px) | Exactly 320 pixels per inch, no trim |
| A4 | Tall, 4K | 300 pixels per inch across the width, with about 0.65 inch of paper left at the bottom |
| 5 x 7 | Tall, 2K (1536 x 2048 px) | About 293 pixels per inch, with about 0.25 inch trimmed off the width |
| Half letter, 5.5 x 8.5 | Tall, 4K | Fits the width at about 450 pixels per inch and leaves about 1.2 inches free at the bottom |
| 18 x 24 poster | Tall, 4K | The same 3:4 shape, at about 138 pixels per inch, below the 200 that 4OVER4 suggests for posters |
| Instagram post | Tall or Portrait, 2K | Both shapes post whole, sized down to 1080 pixels wide |
| Facebook or Instagram feed ad | Portrait, 2K (1536 x 1920 px) | Larger than Meta's 1440 x 1800 recommendation |
- Open Flyer Maker and write the whole flyer in "Describe your flyer": what it is, the day and date, the hours, the street address, the price (or "Free") and what readers should do next. Skip one and the tool may invent text to fill the gap.
- Under "Size", pick Tall ("Printing") for letter, A4, 5 x 7 and posters, Portrait ("Instagram post") for 8 x 10 and feed ads, or Wide ("Screens and email") for landscape.
- In "More options", choose the "Quality": 4K for letter and larger, 2K for cards and social posts.
- Tap "Create flyer" and download the PNG.
- Check every date, time, address and price on the result. Type a fix into "Want to change something?" under the flyer (currently 60 credits, 70 for 2K, 90 for 4K).
- Print one test copy at the size you'll order before you print the stack.
Because Tall at 4K loses about 0.35 inch of height on letter paper, ask for room at the top and bottom edges. A description for a letter-size wall flyer:
Winter Coat Drive at the Harlow Street Rec Center, 118 Harlow Street. Drop off clean coats in any size, Monday to Friday, 3 PM to 8 PM, through Saturday, November 14. Kids' coats are needed most. Free for anyone who needs a coat. Questions? Call 555-0147. Bold headline, simple illustration of a coat rack, large readable dates, and no text close to the top or bottom edges.