What is A5 flyer size? A5 in mm, cm, inches and pixels

Where the 148 by 210 comes from

ISO 216 starts from A0, a sheet of one square metre with sides in the ratio of one to the square root of two. Every smaller size is the one above cut in half across its long side, and the ratio survives every cut. A5 is four cuts down from A0, so two A5 sheets side by side make one A4 and four make an A3. That is why a printer can run A5 flyers two up on an A4 press sheet or four up on A3 with very little waste, and why A5 artwork scales to A4 or A6 without stretching. The figures in millimetres are rounded by the standard itself, so 148 by 210 is exact for ordering, while the inch figures are conversions.

Pixels, bleed and the safe margin

A print shop asks for a file at 300 dots per inch for anything held close to the eye, and an A5 flyer is read at arm's length. At that density the trimmed page is 1748 by 2480 pixels. Most shops also want 3 millimetres of bleed, artwork that runs past the cut so a slight misalignment never leaves a white sliver, which grows the canvas to 154 by 216 millimetres or 1819 by 2551 pixels. Text and logos then belong at least 5 millimetres inside the trim line. A canvas made at 150 DPI, 874 by 1240 pixels, prints soft; use it only for a digital copy you plan to email or post.

A5 against A4 and DL for the same job

A5 holds about half the words of A4, which suits an offer, three facts and one call to action. A4 suits a menu, a timetable or a notice that has to carry detail. DL, 99 by 210 millimetres, is a third of A4 and slides into a standard envelope or a rack card holder. When a flyer will be posted, A5 folded once fits a C6 envelope and flat it fits C5, according to the C series envelope table. Both DL and A5 go through most letterbox slots without folding, which A4 often does not.

Common mistakes with A5 artwork

The first is building at A4 and asking the printer to shrink it, which drops every text size to about 71 percent and turns 10 point body copy into 7 point. The second is a canvas of 595 by 842 pixels, which is A4 at 72 DPI and looks fine on screen but prints at roughly a quarter of the resolution an A5 needs. The third is putting a phone number or a QR code within 3 millimetres of the edge, where the guillotine can clip it. The fourth is forgetting that a home printer cannot print to the edge at all, so a borderless design needs a print shop.

Making an A5 flyer when the editor has no A5 canvas

The flyer editor has eight canvas sizes and A5 is not one of them; the print sizes are A4 portrait and A4 landscape. Because A4 and A5 share the same proportions, a design built on A4 portrait can be scaled to A5 with nothing cropped, provided the type is large enough to survive the reduction. A4 exports as an RGB PNG of 2480 by 3508 pixels, which at A5 works out to about 425 DPI. The flyer size resizer converts the export to the exact A5 pixel size, and the bleed and trim calculator adds the margin a print shop asks for, since the export carries no bleed. The blank PNG linked above is 1748 by 2480, A5 at 300 DPI, if you would rather start at the final size in another tool.

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