8.5 x 11 Paper Size (Letter)
The 8.5 x 11 paper size, commonly known as US Letter, is the default paper format for home and office printing in the United States and Canada. At 8.5 × 11 inches (215.9 × 279.4 mm), it is the most widely used paper size in North America — standard for documents, reports, letterheads, resumes, and flyers.
What Paper Size is 8.5 x 11?
8.5 x 11 inches is US Letter size (215.9 × 279.4 mm), the standard paper format for documents, printing, and stationery in the United States and Canada.
| Unit | Width | Height |
|---|---|---|
| Inches | 8.5 | 11 |
| Millimeters | 215.9 | 279.4 |
| Centimeters | 21.59 | 27.94 |
8.5 x 11 in Pixels
Pixel dimensions depend on DPI (dots per inch). 300 DPI is the standard for commercial printing.
| DPI | Width (px) | Height (px) | Use |
|---|---|---|---|
| 72 | 612 | 792 | Screen display, digital proofs |
| 150 | 1275 | 1650 | Draft printing |
| 300 | 2550 | 3300 | Standard commercial print |
| 600 | 5100 | 6600 | High-quality or fine art print |
Use our free Inches to Pixels converter or Pixels to Inches converter to calculate pixel dimensions at any DPI.
8.5 x 11 with Bleed
Standard bleed in the US is 0.125 inches (approximately 3.2 mm) per side.
| Measurement | Width | Height |
|---|---|---|
| With bleed (inches) | 8.75 | 11.25 |
| With bleed (mm) | 222.25 | 285.75 |
| Pixels at 300 DPI (with bleed) | 2625 | 3375 |
Size Comparison
Letter is slightly wider and shorter than A4 (210 × 297 mm). Letter is 5.9 mm wider but 18 mm shorter, which means documents designed for one size may clip or leave extra whitespace on the other. Two Letter sheets side by side equal one Tabloid sheet (11 × 17 in).
Common Uses
- Business documents, reports, and memos
- Letterheads and corporate stationery
- Resumes and cover letters
- Flyers and handouts
- Forms and worksheets
Design Tips
- When designing documents for both US and international audiences, use margins that work on both Letter and A4 — a safe printable area of 190 × 270 mm accommodates both.
- Include a 0.125-inch bleed for any printed piece with edge-to-edge color or imagery.
- Most home printers cannot print to the edge of Letter paper. Use at least 6 mm (0.25 in) margins for borderless-safe designs.
- Set your document to 300 DPI for professional print output. At 2550 × 3300 pixels, Letter files are lightweight for any modern design application.
Setting Up 8.5 x 11 Files
The 8.5 x 11 inch format is the default document size in every US design and office application — Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, and Canva all default to Letter. For print work, add 0.125-inch bleed on all sides and set images to 300 DPI. In Figma, the Print for Figma plugin includes a built-in Letter preset with bleed, crop marks, DPI checking, and CMYK export — making it easy to produce print-ready documents in a collaborative design tool.
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