The Paper Size Problem Almost Nobody Checks
Here’s a failure that happens constantly and is invisible until the moment it matters. You build a CV in a tool that defaults to US Letter. You send the PDF to an employer in Berlin, Sydney or Singapore. Someone prints it on A4 — because A4 is what they have — and the document that comes out is not the document you made.
The two sizes are close enough to look interchangeable and different enough to break a layout:
| A4 | US Letter | |
|---|---|---|
| Width | 210 mm (8.27 in) | 216 mm (8.5 in) |
| Height | 297 mm (11.69 in) | 279 mm (11 in) |
| Shape | Narrower and taller | Wider and shorter |
| Used in | Virtually everywhere — UK, EU, Australia, New Zealand, most of Asia, Africa and the Middle East | US, Canada, Mexico and parts of Latin America and the Philippines |
Print a Letter-sized PDF on A4 and the printer either scales it down about 3% — shrinking your type and shifting every margin — or centres it, leaving uneven white space at the top and bottom. Print an A4 PDF on Letter and the page is 18mm too tall, so the bottom of the document is either cut off or scaled away. Either way, the careful spacing you set is gone, and in the worst case a line at the foot of page one reflows onto page two.
Export to the Right Size Before You Send
The fix is a single setting, applied before export rather than after.
- Set the page size to match the destination, not your location. Applying to a UK, EU, Australian or Asian employer, export at A4 even if you’re sitting in Chicago. Applying to a US or Canadian employer from Europe, export at Letter.
- Check the exported file, don’t trust the editor. Open the PDF and look at the document properties — most readers show the page dimensions directly. 210 × 297 mm is A4; 8.5 × 11 in is Letter.
- Keep margins at 20 mm or more if the same file might be printed on either size. A generous margin absorbs a 3% scaling difference without anything landing in the unprintable border.
- Don’t design to the exact bottom of the page. A CV whose last line sits 5mm from the foot on Letter has nowhere to go when the same file meets a shorter page.
If you’re genuinely applying across both regions, keep two exports of the same CV. It costs one extra click and removes the whole category of problem.
How do I know which paper size they use?
A quick way to tell what a recruiter will print on without asking: look at the country, not the company. A London office of a US bank prints on A4. A Toronto office of a German manufacturer prints on Letter. The paper in the tray is local, regardless of whose logo is on the building.
Why Three Templates Aren’t on This Page
Wensa has sixteen CV templates and thirteen are listed here. Carbon, Denali and Kyoto are deliberately excluded.
Each is built around a full-height block of saturated colour, and each creates the same three problems the moment it becomes physical. The panel consumes a large amount of toner and prints unevenly from a cartridge that’s running low. The white contact details inside it can drop to near-unreadable once the panel darkens in greyscale — losing the most important line on the page. And no ordinary printer prints to the edge of the sheet, so a design intended to bleed stops a few millimetres short and ends in a white frame that reads as a mistake.
They remain three of our strongest designs on screen. For a CV that will be printed, handed over or photocopied, they’re the wrong tool.
In-Person Conventions Still Vary by Market
Printing is only half of it. How a physical CV is presented still carries meaning in several markets, and getting it visibly wrong is worse than not printing at all.
| Market | What’s conventional |
|---|---|
| Germany, Austria | The Bewerbungsmappe — a presentation folder holding the cover letter, CV and copies of certificates in a fixed order. Less common now that most applications are online, but still expected for in-person and some traditional employers |
| Japan | The rirekisho is handed over unfolded in a clear file inside a plain envelope. Folding it is a visible error. Certificates and qualifications are presented as a matching set |
| UK, Ireland, Australia | Plain and unfussy — loose sheets in a folder. A presentation binder reads as over-formal rather than thorough |
| Gulf states | Copies of qualifications and often attested documents expected alongside the CV, especially where visa sponsorship is involved |
| Nordics | Minimal: the CV, nothing around it. Supporting documents provided only if asked for |
The through-line: in markets that expect a physical set, the set is expected to be complete and in order. In markets that don’t, adding ceremony works against you.
A Two-Page CV Behaves Differently on Paper
Most CVs run to two pages, which is unremarkable on screen and introduces three specific risks in print.
Before printing a two-page CV
- Your name appears in the header or footer of page two — separated sheets are common and an anonymous page two is a lost page
- Print single-sided; a reader handed one sheet will usually assume that is the whole document
- No section heading is stranded as the last line of page one with its content on page two
- Page one works alone, because in a panel setting it is frequently the only page anyone reads closely
- Page numbers in “1 of 2” form rather than a bare “2”, so a missing sheet is noticeable
- The two sheets are stapled or clipped only if you are handing them over directly — never for something that will be scanned or copied
That last point catches people out. A stapled CV handed to an administrator who needs to scan it means someone has to remove the staple, and the holes end up in the scan. Loose sheets in a folder solve it.
If You’re Printing in an Unfamiliar Country
Printing a CV somewhere you’ve just arrived — for a visa appointment, a recruitment agency registration, or an interview booked at short notice — has a few reliable traps. Print shops and copy centres default to local paper, which is what you want, but they’ll also default to their own scaling settings: ask for 100%, no fit-to-page. Public library and hotel business-centre printers are frequently low on toner, which turns greyscale blocks muddy, so check the first sheet before paying for twenty.
Bring the file on something that isn’t only your phone. Many print shops accept a USB stick or an emailed PDF but can’t reliably connect to a handset, and the version of your CV sitting in a cloud app may not render identically on their machine. A PDF with embedded fonts, on a stick, is the version that prints the same everywhere.
The Thirteen Templates Here
All thirteen hold their layout at both A4 and Letter and print cleanly on a standard office laser without adjustment.
Black and white throughout — Atlas, Austin, Haven and Oslo. The safest choices for anything likely to be photocopied or scanned, and the closest match to conservative expectations in Germany, Japan and the public sector anywhere.
Colour in headings only — Canyon, Aurora, Osaka and Sapphire, with Harbor just alongside them. The accent sits in headings and your name, so greyscale turns it into a slightly darker tone rather than a block. These keep a contemporary feel without risking the print.
Photo layouts — Berlin, Lima, Sienna and Oxford. Worth considering in the many markets where a CV photo is conventional; our CV templates with photo map where that applies. Printed once they reproduce well; photocopied twice a photograph turns into a dark rectangle, so weigh that against how the document will travel.
Wensa’s templates are designed by our founder and product design team — Artur Lopato has 9+ years of experience designing digital products. Every Wensa template is shaped around what hiring managers and recruiters actually look for when scanning a CV in seconds — and the thirteen here are the ones that keep working once the document stops being a screen and becomes a sheet of paper on a table.
For the most reliably print-proof option, our classic CV templates are conventional and largely monochrome by definition. If you’re printing for a US or Canadian employer instead, our printable resume templates cover the Letter-sized side of the same problem.
FAQ — Printable CV Templates
Should I export my CV as A4 or US Letter?
Match the destination, not where you are. A4 for the UK, EU, Australia, New Zealand and most of Asia, Africa and the Middle East; US Letter for the US, Canada and parts of Latin America. Check the exported PDF’s document properties rather than trusting the editor’s default.
What happens if I print a Letter-sized CV on A4?
The printer either scales it down roughly 3%, shrinking your type and shifting every margin, or centres it and leaves uneven space at top and bottom. In the worst case a line at the foot of page one reflows onto page two. The reverse — A4 printed on Letter — risks the bottom of the page being cut off.
What makes a CV template printable?
Margins of 20 mm or more, no full-bleed colour panels, body text at full black rather than grey, and rules no finer than 0.5pt. All thirteen templates here meet those conditions at both common paper sizes.
Should a printed CV be in colour?
Greyscale is the safer assumption. It’s what most office printers produce by default and what a photocopier will do to it anyway. Templates that use colour only in headings degrade gracefully; ones built on a solid colour panel do not, which is why three of ours aren’t on this page.
Should I staple a two-page CV?
Only if you’re handing it over directly and it won’t be scanned or copied. Otherwise use loose sheets in a folder — someone removing a staple leaves holes in the scan. Either way, put your name on page two and number the pages “1 of 2.”
Do I still need a printed CV at all?
For most applications, no. It matters for interview panels, career fairs, walk-in applications, visa and agency registrations, and markets where an in-person application set is still conventional — Germany’s Bewerbungsmappe and Japan’s rirekisho being the clearest examples.
What paper should I use?
Plain white 90 gsm stock. Slightly heavier than ordinary copier paper so it doesn’t feel flimsy, light enough to feed through any printer or copier. Avoid tinted, textured or heavy card — all three reduce contrast or jam feeders.
Will my fonts print correctly on someone else’s printer?
Only if they’re embedded in the PDF. If they aren’t, the reader substitutes a font and your line breaks move — sometimes pushing content onto an extra page. Export with font embedding on, and check the file on a second device before printing a batch.
