A0 paper measures 841 by 1189 millimetres and has an area of almost exactly one square metre, making it the anchor of the international ISO 216 system and the starting point for every size below it in the A series. "Large paper sizes" typically refers to anything from A0 down to A2 in the international system, B0 through B2 in the B series, and formats such as US Tabloid (also called Ledger) used in North America. Designers, print shops, architects, and event marketers reach for these sheets when a poster, blueprint, banner, fold-out map, or trade-show backdrop needs to make a statement that a standard A4 page simply cannot. The challenge is that paper is physical, software is digital, and the two only meet when you fix a resolution in DPI. That is exactly what the Paper Sizes Chart handles: a complete reference table of large format dimensions in millimetres, centimetres, and inches, paired with a live converter that turns any of those sizes into exact pixel widths and heights at the DPI you type, all in your browser with no uploads.
What Counts as a Large Paper Size
In the international ISO 216 system, "large" generally means A0, A1, and A2. Anything smaller slides into everyday document territory: A3 is a common spread or sketchpad size, A4 is the office default, and A5 and below are pocket or business-card territory. In the B series, the equivalent large range is B0, B1, and B2, which slot between the A sizes and are the format of choice for posters, passports, and certain envelopes. In North America, large format prints move past US Letter (8.5 by 11 inches) and US Legal (8.5 by 14 inches) into Tabloid or Ledger (11 by 17 inches), and beyond that into the architectural Arch sizes used for blueprints and construction drawings. The common thread is that these sheets exceed the dimensions of a standard desktop printer's feed tray, which is why the workflow usually involves a wide-format plotter, a commercial print shop, or a tiled poster export.
The A Series at Scale: From A0 Down to A2
The A series has a quietly elegant property: every sheet has a height-to-width ratio of the square root of two, roughly 1.414. Because of that ratio, folding a sheet in half across its longer side produces two sheets of the next size down, each keeping the same proportions. The series is anchored by A0, the largest sheet, which has an area of almost exactly one square metre. Halving A0 along its long edge gives A1, then A2, and so on down to A10. For large format work the three sizes that matter most are A0, A1, and A2.
| Size | Millimetres | Centimetres | Inches | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A0 | 841 x 1189 mm | 84.1 x 118.9 cm | 33.11 x 46.81 in | Posters, technical drawings, window displays |
| A1 | 594 x 841 mm | 59.4 x 84.1 cm | 23.39 x 33.11 in | Architectural plans, event signage, flip-chart pads |
| A2 | 420 x 594 mm | 42.0 x 59.4 cm | 16.54 x 23.39 in | Mid-size posters, calendars, diagrams |
All three rows are official ISO 216 values, so the millimetre and inch figures are exact rather than rounded. Notice that the inch column shows two decimal places because the international standard is defined in millimetres, and converting to inches introduces a long decimal (1 inch equals exactly 25.4 mm). If you need pixel dimensions at a specific DPI, the same table expanded with a pixel column is what the converter produces once you type in your target resolution.
The B Series for Posters, Books, and In-Between Sizes
The B series sits geometrically between the A sizes and exists for the situations where the A sheet is too small and the next A sheet up is too large. B0 measures 1000 by 1414 millimetres, which makes it noticeably wider and taller than A0 (841 by 1189 mm). Halving B0 gives B1 at 707 by 1000 mm, then B2 at 500 by 707 mm, and the series continues down to B10. In practice the B series shows up most often in three places: posters, where the extra few centimetres of margin around an A-size layout look better on a wall; book covers and dust jackets, which are trimmed from B-size parent sheets; and envelopes, where C-series sizes (derived from the geometric mean of A and B) match A-size paper without the flap overlap you would get from a larger envelope. For poster printing specifically, B1 and B2 are workhorse sizes, and the Paper Sizes Chart handles them alongside the A sizes in the same dropdown.
Large US Paper Sizes: Tabloid, Ledger, and Beyond
North America does not use ISO 216 for everyday paper. Instead the ANSI and US conventions define a separate ladder where US Letter (8.5 by 11 inches, or 215.9 by 279.4 mm) is the everyday default, US Legal (8.5 by 14 inches) is the legal-pad size, and Tabloid, also called Ledger, steps up to 11 by 17 inches (279.4 by 431.8 mm). Tabloid is the smallest paper size that most people in the US would call "large." It is the standard sheet for engineering schematics, oversized spreadsheets printed across two pages, restaurant menus, and small classroom posters. Above Tabloid sit the architectural Arch sizes, which extend the inch-based ladder out to 36 by 48 inches and beyond for blueprints, construction drawings, and building plans. Because every US size is defined in inches, its millimetre value is an exact conversion rather than a round number, which is one of the small reasons that A4 (210 by 297 mm) and US Letter (215.9 by 279.4 mm) are close in size but never identical: A4 is slightly narrower and slightly taller, so documents formatted for one can shift margins or clip content when printed on the other.
How to Look Up and Convert a Large Paper Size with the Chart
The fastest way to nail down a large paper size and turn it into a usable canvas size is to use the chart's reference table together with its converter. The whole process takes about a minute and works for A0, A1, A2, B0, B1, B2, Tabloid, and any other standard sheet in the dropdown.
- Scan the reference table to find your paper size in the A series, B series, or US group, with dimensions shown in millimetres, centimetres, and inches.
- In the converter, choose a paper size from the dropdown to load its exact dimensions.
- Type the resolution you need in the DPI field (300 is standard for print, 72 for screen) to see the pixel width and height instantly.
- Read off the pixel result alongside the millimetre, centimetre, and inch values to set up your canvas or export.
Everything runs locally in your browser, with no uploads and no sign-in required. That keeps file handling private in a print shop or a classroom where uploading to a third-party service is not appropriate.
Pixel Dimensions for Large Format Printing
Paper is physical, but Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Procreate, and every other design tool ask you to set a canvas size in pixels. The bridge between the two is DPI, dots per inch: pixel width equals the width in inches multiplied by the DPI, rounded to a whole pixel. At 300 DPI, the standard for high-quality print, an A1 sheet (594 by 841 mm) is 7016 by 9933 pixels, because 594 divided by 25.4 equals 23.3858 inches, multiplied by 300 equals 7015.75, and rounded up to 7016; the same calculation on the long edge of 841 mm gives 33.1102 inches, which becomes 9933 pixels. At 72 DPI, a classic screen value, the same A1 sheet is only about 1684 by 2384 pixels, which is fine for a quick on-screen proof but far too small to send to a plotter. When a print shop asks for 300 DPI artwork, this is the conversion they are referring to, and the chart's DPI field is exactly what produces the number to drop into your New Document dialog. If you are starting from a raster image that is already the right pixel size, you can place it onto an A1 or A2 page using a tool like PNG to PDF and pick the matching paper size during export.
Practical Uses for Large Paper Sizes
Large formats show up in more places than most people expect, and the right sheet size depends on the use case rather than a single rule of thumb.
- Posters and event signage: A2 is a comfortable indoor poster size, A1 reads clearly from a few metres away, and A0 fills a wall or tradeshow booth.
- Architectural and engineering drawings: A1 and A2 are the everyday international drafts, while Tabloid (11 by 17 inches) covers the same role in US offices.
- Fold-out maps, brochures, and menus: A3 is the typical spread; A2 is the common parent sheet before folding.
- Banners and point-of-sale displays: B1 and B2 are popular because the extra margin around an A-size design looks intentional rather than cropped.
- Large file print prep: When a print-ready file is unusually large, the first sanity check is to confirm the canvas size matches a real paper size at the resolution the printer expects, which the chart makes a single-step check.
The practical takeaway is simple: pick the paper size first, then set your canvas to the pixel dimensions that size produces at your target DPI. That sequence avoids the common mistake of designing at 72 DPI and trying to upscale for a 300 DPI print, and it keeps your file exactly as large as it needs to be, no bigger.
For a deeper look, see N-Up a Large PDF: How the 25 MiB Cap Shapes Output.
For a deeper look, see Blank PDF Generator Large File Setup Guide.