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| Standard Sizes for Flyer, Business Card, Brochure Print Bleed and Safe Zone |
Whether you're looking for designing templates Standard Sizes for Flyer, Business Card, Brochure Bleed and Safe Zone looking for quality marketing materials, you'll want to know the standard sizes used for business cards, brochures and flyers. On this page, you will find details that will answer the most common questions about the size and specs of these types of printed materials.
Bleed and Safe Zone
When you are working on a design that will be printed, two important ideas must be kept in mind: bleeding and safe areas. The design for the print requires that you leave some room for error. If you design a small item like a business card, the design will be printed on paper and then cut out. If the cut is not 100% precise, a thin white line may appear on the edge of the paper where the design ends. That’s why you’ll always want to make sure you include any bleeding in your artwork file.
The “bloody” area basically extends the color of the design or background so that the card is printed slightly larger than it was cut. Since the design and print extend beyond the cut, there will be no edges without the print. This prevents those thin white lines along the edges.
Another thing to consider is the proximity of other important elements to the edges of the text or design. You don’t want any of these important elements to be so close to the edges of the design that they run the risk of being cut. Imagine Printing 1000 business cards to partially cut your website address or phone number!
You can do this by placing a "safe zone" around the edges of the design where no important details will be included. That way if the trim is slightly off, it won’t cause any problems.
When you look at a print template you will see a visual guide to bleeding and safe areas. Bleeding will be directly outside the bloodstream and in a safe area as shown in the figure above. When you’re creating a design, you’ll want to include color and background through safe zones and bleed all over the edges of the canvas, but keep all text and important detail away from those areas.
If you're using a commercial printer, be sure to check out their instructions for designing and submitting your files. Each printer will have its own method and their guidelines have been established to help customers get the best results. Throughout this article, we will cover the standard sizes for bleeding as well as a few different items. However, be sure to follow the printer's instructions if your printer's instructions are to use a different size for bleeding or if it contradicts our advice in any other way. They know the specific process they will use to print your design, so they can offer specific advice.
You may also want to check with your printer for details like the desired file type. In general, PDF is a good choice because it is very versatile. You may want to save a working copy of your design in AI (Illustrator) or EPS format, but the printer may prefer to accept PDF or any other file type.
Business Card
Finished on a business card, the standard size is 3.5 inches by 2 inches (8.9 cm by 5.1 centimeters). With Bleeding, most business card design files or templates will measure from 3.75 inches to 2.25 inches. This leaves 1/8 inch around each edge for blood. You can also use a safe zone of 1/8 inch (0.125 inches).
When you are designing a business card, you may want to avoid using borders or thin lines around the edges of the design. If the trim is slightly closed, the borders or thin lines do not look as you wish.
Of course, not all business cards are standard sizes. You can go with larger or smaller sizes to keep your card separate but it also has some significant downsides. If your card is not a standard size, it does not fit perfectly with other standard size card stacks and it does not fit properly in any wallet. For these reasons, the safest method is to simply go with the standard size.
Brochure
There are different types and different brochures as well as the option to fold the paper in different ways. We’ll cover the most popular options here, but there are many more possibilities if you want to take something worthwhile.
You should design with a safe zone of at least 1/8 inch or 0.125 inches. Just like designing a business card it is advised that you should avoid using thin borders or lines around the edges of the design.
8.5 x 11 inches
One of the most popular types of brochures is tri-fold. The most common size of a finished tri-fold brochure is 8.5 by 11 inches (21.6 cm by 27.9 cm). This means that a brochure can be printed on standard letter-size paper (brochures are usually printed on heavy, thick paper) and then folded in thirds. The same size can be used for half-sized brochures.
With 1/8 inch bleeding, the dimensions of the design file will be 8.25 inches by 11.25 inches.
8.5 x 5.5 inches
It is the smallest of the common brochure sizes (21.6 cm by 14 cm). It is exactly half the size of standard letter paper but may be suitable for brochures that do not require a lot of information. The most common folds for this size are half-fold and tri-fold.
With a 1/8 bleeding, the dimensions of the design file will be 8.75 inches by 5.75 inches.
11 x 17 inches
A booklet with 11 by 1 17 inches (227.9 cm by 43.2 cm) can be folded in half to get two letter size pages (8.5 x 11). As a result, half-fold is the most common option for brochures of this size. It can be an ideal choice for menus or small product catalogs that require more space than the usual 8.5 x 11 brochures.
With 1/8 inch bleeding, the dimensions of the design file will be 11.25 by 17.25 inches.
11 x 25.5 inches
The largest of the common finished brochure sizes is 11 by 25.5 inches (27.9 cm by 64.8 cm). Size 11 by 17 is an ideal choice for brochures that require lots of images or text. There are several ways that these brochures can be folded.
With 1/8 inch bleeding, the dimensions of the design file will be 11.25 by 25.75 inches.
Flyers
There are several individual sizes that are common to flyers, and the right choice will depend on a variety of factors, such as the amount of space required and the budget for printing. The design should include a safe zone of at least 1/8 of an inch.
8.5 x 5.5 inches
The lowest of the common finished flyer sizes, 8.5 by 5.5 inches (14 cm by 21 cm) is also referred to as a half sheet because it is half the size of 8.5 by 11 paper. These smaller flyers are cheaper to print (compared to larger ones) and may be suitable for promoting events and other topics that do not require too much space for images and text.
With 1/8 inch bleeding, the dimensions of the design file will be 8.75 by 5.75 inches.
8.5 x 11 inches
The most common finishing size for flyers is regular letter paper size, 8.5 by 11 inches (21..6 cm by 2.9.9 cm). With double the space of a half sheet flyer, you can fit a lot more into your design.
With 1/6 inch bleeding, the dimensions of the design file will be 11.25 inches to 8.75.
11 x 17 inches
The largest of the common finished flyer sizes, 11 x 17 inches (2.9.9 cm by 43.2 cm) is best suited for flyers that will be hung on a wall or displayed somewhere where it should be seen by people a few feet away. If you want to be readable in a larger size than the length of the hand, the text size needs to be larger.
With 1/8 inch bleeding, the dimensions of the design file will be 11.25 by 17.25 inches.
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