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What are the standard paper sheet sizes? 70×100, 64×90 and half and quarter sheets

Printing paper arrives in a handful of standard sheet sizes. Which size you choose for a job decides how many pieces fit on the sheet, how much paper is wasted and what the job costs. The same A4 leaflet can come out nine up on one size and eight up on another; on a thousand-sheet run, that difference is hundreds of sheets.

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The most common sheet sizes

These are the full sheet sizes you meet most often; other sizes exist depending on the stock and the supplier:

  • 70 × 100 cm (B1): the most common full sheet, widely used for coated, uncoated and board.
  • 64 × 90 cm (SRA1): sized for A-series work, leaving less trim waste.
  • 61 × 86 cm (RA1): preferred for A4 book signatures; the sheet holds eight A4 pages.
  • Board and speciality papers also come in slightly larger sizes such as 72 × 102 cm.

Half and quarter sheets

Full sheets are often cut down before they go on the press. A 70 × 100 sheet halved becomes 50 × 70 (half sheet) and quartered becomes 35 × 50 (quarter sheet). A 64 × 90 sheet divides into 45 × 64 (SRA2) and 32 × 45 (SRA3).

The largest and smallest sheet the press can take decides which size you can use. A half-size press cannot run 70 × 100, so the job has to be planned on the halved sheet.

How many pieces does each size give?

When you count how many pieces fit, start from the usable area, not the full size: subtract the gripper and tail margins and add the bleed around each piece. A rough example for an A4 with 3 mm bleed (216 × 303 mm):

  • 70 × 100 sheet: 3 × 3 = 9 up.
  • 64 × 90 sheet: 4 × 2 = 8 up.
  • The same job on a 50 × 70 half sheet: 4 up; twice as many sheets, but it runs on a smaller press.
  • When a job is borderline, rotating the piece or trying another size can win a whole row.

Is the size with the most pieces the cheapest?

Not always. A bigger sheet gives more pieces, but it also costs more; what really matters is the paper spent per piece. If one size gives nine pieces and wastes a quarter of the sheet, a size that gives eight with almost no offcut can be the cheaper choice.

Grain direction counts too. Books and folded work want the grain parallel to the spine, so the layout with the most pieces may be unusable because the grain falls the wrong way.

Choosing the size faster

Trying several sizes by hand for every job, recalculating gripper and bleed each time, is slow and invites mistakes. Defining the sizes your press can take once and comparing all of them for every job saves time and makes sure the least wasteful option is not missed.

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