Today’s post is a quick planner printing tip! A reader recently emailed me this question: Can I print A4 pages on US 8.5 x 11″ paper without anything getting cut off the page?

My answer: yes – here’s how:

How to print an A4 printable onto US letter size paper (and vise versa)

You can check how a printable is going to show when printed by opening the file and going to file > print and then checking the print preview.

By print preview I mean the mini size image of the printable that you’re printing that will show somewhere in your printer’s menu before you hit the print button. For my printer it’s in the first menu that appears (refer to the image below on the right), for your printer you may need to click a button along the lines of ‘details’ or ‘more’ or ‘properties’.

Most printers seem to default to ‘no scaling’ i.e. true to size printing which is normally what you want… but not in this instance. ‘Fit’ or ‘fit to page’ is the button you’ll want to select in your printer menu. If you don’t select the fit button then you might accidentally cut off part of the design and it won’t print correctly.

When printing a letter size design onto A4 you also need to choose the fit button in your printer menu. A4 paper is not as wide as US letter but it’s longer so a bit of extra white space is added to the top and bottom (refer to the preview in the image below).

If you want to experiment there’s a few different types of printables (in A4 and US letter size) in the free printables library that you can find here.

Depending on which page size you’re printing onto, there may be extra white space.

Printing US letter size 8.5 x 11″ onto A4 = wider margin / white space at the top and bottom of the page
Printing A4 size onto letter size 8.5 x 11″ = wider margin / white space on the left and right sides of the page

This is because US size paper is shorter and wider than A4 page size.

Or thinking in reverse, A4 paper is skinnier but longer than US size paper.

So what to do with the extra space? Cover with washi, enjoy the wider margin to give a bit more room to write (especially if you’re hole punching printables), or just leave as is. It might bother some but I don’t find it that noticeable.

Here’s an example of US page size printed onto A4. See how there’s a bit of extra white space at the top? It also appears at the bottom of the page (this printable is from the checklists kit in my shop)