Planner paper sizes
Exact dimensions, ring spacing and hole patterns for every size we make, plus the two that halve perfectly and the several that do not.
| Size | Millimetres | Inches | PDF points | Commonly fits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Letter | 215.9 x 279.4 | 8.5 x 11 | 612 x 792 | Three-ring US binders, letter trays |
| A4 | 210 x 297 | 8.268 x 11.7 | 595.3 x 841.9 | Two- and four-ring binders, ISO 838 punch at 80 mm |
| A5 | 148 x 210 | 5.827 x 8.268 | 419.5 x 595.3 | A5 six-ring organisers such as Filofax and kikki.K |
| Half Letter | 139.7 x 215.9 | 5.5 x 8.5 | 396 x 612 | Disc-bound systems such as Circa, ARC, TUL and Happy Planner |
| Classic disc-bound | 177.8 x 234.9 | 7 x 9.25 | 504 x 666 | Classic disc-bound covers |
| Personal size | 95 x 171 | 3.74 x 6.73 | 269.3 x 484.7 | Personal-size six-ring organisers |
| Pocket size | 81 x 120 | 3.189 x 4.724 | 229.6 x 340.2 | Pocket six-ring organisers |
| A6 | 105 x 148 | 4.134 x 5.827 | 297.6 x 419.5 | A6 notebooks and pocket organisers |
weeklyplannerpdf.com is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any of the brands named. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners; they are named here only to describe which paper size a file fits.
A5 or Half Letter
This is the question most people arrive with, and the two sizes are close enough to look interchangeable and different enough that they are not. A5 is 148 x 210 mm. Half Letter is 139.7 x 215.9 mm. Half Letter is 8.3 mm narrower and 5.9 mm taller, and the hole patterns are completely different, so inserts will not swap between binders.
If you are printing at home the deciding factor is usually which one halves your paper cleanly. Half Letter is a mathematically exact half of US Letter: 396 points plus 396 points is 792 points, with nothing left over. A5 on A4 leaves exactly 1.00 mm, because ISO rounds A5 to 148 mm rather than the 148.5 mm that halving A4 would give. Both are fine; only one is perfect.
If you already own a binder, the binder decides. A5 six-ring and Half Letter disc-bound are different ecosystems and neither is going to accommodate the other.
Why we do not scale between sizes
Because scaling breaks the part that matters. Going from Letter to A5 is roughly a 0.65 linear reduction, which takes a 7.5 mm writing line down to 4.9 mm. The narrow-ruled minimum for legible adult handwriting is 6.35 mm, so a scaled A5 planner is below the floor before you have written anything. Margins shrink with it, so a file designed with 12.7 mm of clearance ends up with about 8 mm, and anything punched or trimmed loses more.
Every size here is laid out from scratch for its own page box. Some combinations genuinely do not fit as a result, and we say so rather than shipping them cramped: a seven-day hourly grid on A5 portrait works out at 16 mm per day, so it is not offered. On A5 the hourly grid works in landscape, and the vertical weekly works as a two-page spread, which is what ring-binder planners have always done.
Ring spacing
Six-ring is brand-fragmented and the patterns are not interchangeable. Measure yours before punching a stack.
| Pattern | Within group | Between groups | Total span | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A5, six ring | 19.05 mm | 69.85 mm | 146.05 mm | Two groups of three |
| Personal, six ring | 19.05 mm | 50.80 mm | 127.00 mm | Two groups of three |
| Pocket, six ring | 19.05 mm | evenly spaced | 95.25 mm | Six evenly spaced |
| Half Letter, seven ring | 25.40 mm | 38.10 mm | - | Not compatible with A5 six-ring |
Disc-bound hole patterns
Disc-bound is unusually well standardised. The pitch is 25.40 mm, exactly one inch, across every major brand, so a page punched for one fits all of them. The end gaps below all land on exact fractions of an inch, which is a good sign the pattern is genuinely regular rather than approximated.
| Page size | Holes | Hole span | Gap at each end |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mini, 117 x 178 mm | 7 | 152.40 mm | 12.80 mm |
| Half Letter, 139.7 x 215.9 mm | 8 | 177.80 mm | 19.05 mm |
| Classic, 177.8 x 234.95 mm | 9 | 203.20 mm | 15.88 mm |
| Letter, 215.9 x 279.4 mm | 11 | 254.00 mm | 12.70 mm |
Printer margins
Every file here uses 12.7 mm, half an inch, on all four sides. That is not an aesthetic decision. The published unprintable margins vary more than most people expect: Brother mono lasers reserve 4.23 mm all round, HP Officejets report 3.3 mm on Windows but 12 mm at the bottom on macOS and Linux, several Epson models reserve 15 mm at the bottom on cut-sheet media, and Canon auto-duplex takes another 2 mm off the top. 12.7 mm is the smallest single value that clears all of them.
Print at 100% or Actual size, never Fit to page. The files already request it.