North American Paper Sizes

North American paper sizes differ from ISO A-series formats and are primarily used in the United States and Canada. These sizes are based on traditional inch measurements rather than the ISO proportional system.
Letter and Legal are the most common formats for documents and contracts, while Tabloid and Ledger are used for large-format layouts and spreads.

Recommended vs supported sizes
Letter paper uses 2550 × 3300 pixels at print resolution and measures 8.5 × 11 inches. It is the standard document size across the United States and Canada.
Best practices for visibility
Letter is suitable for resumes, reports, and general office documents. Maintain clear margins to prevent trimming during printing.
Quality and export considerations
Design at the final Letter size and export at high resolution to avoid scaling issues.

Recommended vs supported sizes
Legal paper uses 2550 × 4200 pixels and measures 8.5 × 14 inches.
Best practices for visibility
Legal size is commonly used for contracts and formal documentation that require additional vertical space.
Quality and export considerations
Ensure layouts account for the extended height to avoid excessive white space or cramped formatting.

Recommended vs supported sizes
Tabloid size measures 3300 × 5100 pixels and corresponds to 11 × 17 inches.
Best practices for visibility
Tabloid is commonly used for newsletters, posters, and presentation materials. Structure layouts carefully for readability at larger scale.
Quality and export considerations
Export at full resolution to preserve sharp text and images.

Recommended vs supported sizes
Ledger uses 5100 × 3300 pixels and is essentially the landscape orientation of Tabloid.
Best practices for visibility
Ledger is used for spreadsheets, architectural drawings, and wide-format documents. Ensure content is balanced across horizontal space.
Quality and export considerations
Design in landscape orientation from the beginning to maintain layout integrity.

Recommended vs supported sizes
Junior Legal measures 2400 × 3600 pixels and corresponds to 5 × 8 inches.
Best practices for visibility
This smaller format is used for notepads and compact documents. Keep layouts simple and text legible.
Quality and export considerations
Avoid scaling down complex layouts, as smaller sizes can reduce readability.

North American paper sizes are not proportionally related like the ISO A-series system. In contrast, A-series sizes scale consistently while maintaining aspect ratio.
To understand ISO sizing, refer to the A series paper sizes guide. For a broader overview of standard paper dimensions, see the paper sizes reference.

• Use Letter for most US-based documents
• Use Legal for contracts and extended content
• Use Tabloid or Ledger for large layouts
• Maintain consistent margins to avoid trimming
• Export at 300 DPI for print clarity

Picsart helps you design and resize documents using exact North American paper dimensions.
Use the Photo Editor to set a custom canvas size that matches Letter, Legal, or Tabloid formats before designing.
If converting between formats, the Image Resizer allows you to adjust layouts proportionally without distortion.
Always export at the final pixel dimensions and highest quality to ensure clean printing.