Flyer

8.5 x 11 in CMYK 1.29:1 portrait

An 8.5 by 11 in flyer at US Letter dimensions. The standard single-page promotional handout, designed to be read once and acted on or discarded.

about the size of a sheet of office paper

About this size

A flyer is a single chance to be read. The reader picks it up, scans for the headline, decides in under a second whether to keep reading or to drop it. Everything about the layout has to serve that scan: hero headline first, supporting copy second, a single call to action that is unambiguous about what to do next.

Flyers that try to communicate three things at once usually communicate none of them. The format rewards discipline.

Flyers
Posters
Announcements

Pro tips

1 Hierarchy matters. Hero headline first, supporting copy second, one clear CTA. Trying to communicate three things at once fragments the read.
2 For commercial print, add 0.125 in bleed. The trim variance on cheap stock can eat content placed right at the edge.
3 Two-sided flyers are common. Design the back as a destination, not a backup; readers do flip them.

Export notes

For commercial print, export CMYK PDF at 300 DPI with 0.125 in bleed and embedded or outlined fonts. For office printing, export sRGB PDF at 150 DPI without bleed (most office printers cannot reach the page edge anyway). Two-sided files should be a single two-page PDF, not two separate documents; the press almost always loses one of the pages otherwise.