Comparison
Is Tabloid the same as 11 × 17?
Yes. Tabloid, Ledger, ANSI B and 11 × 17 inches are four names for one sheet measuring 279.4 × 431.8 mm. What differs is orientation and which trade is speaking.
Four names, one sheet
11 × 17"
The dimensions themselves
Used by
Print shops, copier trays, paper suppliers
The unambiguous way to ask for it. Nobody can misread a measurement.
Tabloid
The sheet in portrait — 11 wide, 17 tall
Used by
Software page-size menus, newspapers
Named after the tabloid newspaper format, which is printed on this size folded.
Ledger
The same sheet in landscape — 17 wide, 11 tall
Used by
Accounting, spreadsheets, engineering drawings
Named after ledger books, which were bound on the long edge. Same paper, turned.
ANSI B
Its formal designation in the US standard
Used by
Technical drawings, CAD, ANSI/ASME Y14.1
The second size in the ANSI series, exactly two ANSI A (Letter) sheets.
Where the confusion is worth having
Tabloid against Ledger is a distinction without a difference — the same paper, described by which way up you are holding it. The comparison that genuinely matters is Tabloid against A3, because those are two different sheets that look interchangeable and are not.
| Tabloid / 11 × 17 | A3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Millimetres | 279.4 × 431.8 | 297 × 420 |
| Inches | 11 × 17 | 11.69 × 16.54 |
| Points | 792 × 1224 (exact) | 841.89 × 1190.55 |
| Pixels at 300 DPI | 3300 × 5100 (exact) | 3508 × 4961 |
| Aspect ratio | 1 : 1.545 | 1 : 1.414 |
| Used in | North America | Most of the world |
Tabloid is 18 mm narrower and 12 mm taller than A3, with 3.3% less area. Because the aspect ratios differ, no single percentage converts one to the other cleanly — a Tabloid layout reduced to fit A3 leaves an uneven margin, and enlarged the other way it loses the edges. When a document must work in both markets, design inside the area they share.
Frequently asked questions
Is Tabloid the same as 11 × 17?
Yes. Tabloid, Ledger, ANSI B and 11 × 17 inches all describe one sheet measuring 279.4 × 431.8 mm. The only difference between the names is orientation and professional context: Tabloid conventionally means the sheet standing tall, Ledger means it turned on its side, and ANSI B is the formal designation in the American standard. If a printer asks whether you want Tabloid or 11 × 17, the honest answer is that they are the same thing.
What is the difference between Tabloid and Ledger?
Orientation, and nothing else. Tabloid is the sheet portrait at 11 inches wide by 17 tall; Ledger is the same sheet landscape at 17 by 11. They come off the same ream. The distinction survives because the two names grew out of different trades — newspapers printed tall, accounting ledgers bound wide — and page-size menus in software kept both. Some applications list only one, which is why the same document can appear as Tabloid in one program and Ledger in another.
Is 11 × 17 the same as A3?
No, and they are close enough to cause real trouble. A3 is 297 × 420 mm; Tabloid is 279.4 × 431.8 mm — about 18 mm narrower and 12 mm taller, with 3.3% less area. A document laid out for one and printed on the other loses a strip along one edge or gains an uneven margin. There is no scaling percentage that fixes it cleanly either, because the two are not proportional: the aspect ratios are 1.414 for A3 and 1.545 for Tabloid.
Why is it exactly two Letter sheets?
Because the ANSI series is built that way. ANSI A is Letter at 8.5 × 11 inches; put two side by side and you get 17 × 11, which is ANSI B. The series doubles at each step just as the ISO A-series does — but unlike ISO, the aspect ratio alternates between 1.294 and 1.545 rather than staying constant, so a design does not scale between ANSI sizes without reflowing.
What is 11 × 17 in points and pixels?
Exactly 792 × 1224 points, because inch-defined sizes multiply cleanly by 72. At 300 DPI it is 3300 × 5100 pixels, again exact. This is one of the practical advantages of the US sizes over ISO ones, which land on fractions in both units — A3 is 841.89 × 1190.55 pt.
Can my home printer handle 11 × 17?
Most cannot. A4 and Letter machines top out at those sizes; printing Tabloid needs an A3-capable or 11 × 17-capable printer, which is a different and considerably larger class of machine. The practical alternative is tiling: print the design across several Letter or A4 sheets at true scale and join them, which our poster splitter does with overlap and alignment marks.
What are you trying to do?
Most people looking up Tabloid are partway through something else. These open with the size already set.
- Check a photo is sharp enough for TabloidDrop in the image and see its effective resolution at this size.
- Print it at exactly TabloidWhere the 100% setting hides, and why Fit to page shrinks it 3–6%.
- Convert to pixels, points or inchesEvery unit at any DPI, plus photocopier scaling percentages.
- Print Tabloid across ordinary sheetsTile it onto A4 or Letter with overlap and alignment marks.