Restaurant menu sizes, with dimensions and when to use each

Flat menu sizes

A flat menu is a single sheet, printed on one or both sides. In India, Europe and most of the world, the A sizes are standard and every print shop stocks them. In the US and Canada, Letter and Tabloid are the usual choices.

Folded menus: bi-fold and tri-fold

Folded menus give you a cover and several panels from a single sheet. Both are usually printed on A4 landscape (297 × 210 mm) in India and Europe, or on Letter in the US.

• Bi-fold: folded once into a cover, a back and an inside spread of two pages. Good for a full menu that needs a proper cover.
• Tri-fold: folded in three, giving six panels. The cover sits on the outside right panel, the inside holds three panels side by side, and the flap that folds in is often used for drinks or a story.

Cards, tents and screens

Bleed, trim and crop marks

Print shops print on a larger sheet and then cut it down to your menu size. That cut is never perfectly exact, so any colour or photo that should reach the edge has to extend past it. That extra strip is called bleed, and 3 mm on each side is the common standard. Crop marks are the small lines in the corners that show the shop where to cut.

Keep text and important details at least 5 mm inside the trim, which is the safe area. A dish name right at the edge can get shaved off or look cramped after cutting.

1. Design at the finished size, for example 210 × 297 mm for A4.
2. Extend backgrounds 3 mm past every edge.
3. Keep text at least 5 mm inside the edge.
4. Send a PDF with bleed and crop marks, and tell the shop the finished size.

How to pick the right size

Start from your dish count. If your full menu fits comfortably on one A4 page with readable type, that is the simplest, cheapest option. If it does not, try a two page A4, a bi-fold, or an A3 sheet before shrinking the text. Split drinks and desserts onto a slim card when the main menu gets crowded.

Think about the table too. A3 menus are impressive but awkward on a small cafe table, and tri-folds take a little more effort to read. For the best layout advice per size, see our guide to restaurant menu design.

All of these sizes in Platebill

Platebill has every size in the tables above built in, plus an A4 bi-fold and tri-fold, grouped as flat sheets, folded, cards, and screens and social. Your dishes stay the same when you switch size, and the layout reflows them into the new shape. Flat sheets add pages as your list grows. For fixed formats like a tri-fold or a table tent, the editor tells you if some dishes do not fit. Print PDFs come with 3 mm bleed and crop marks, and screen formats export as PNG images.