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How to Print A5 Planner Inserts at Home

A simple guide to printing, cutting and punching A5 pages for a 6-ring binder, using a regular home printer and US Letter paper.

Updated November 6, 2026 · 7 min read

A5 ring binders are popular planners, but A5 paper is hard to find in US stores. The good news is that you don’t need it. You can print A5 pages on regular US Letter paper, trim them, and punch the holes yourself. This guide shows you how, step by step.

What size is A5?

An A5 page is a little smaller than half a Letter sheet, so it fits easily on Letter paper with room to trim around it.

What you need

• A home inkjet or laser printer
• US Letter paper (see paper tips below)
• A paper trimmer, or a ruler and a craft knife (scissors work too)
• An A5 6-hole punch, or a regular single-hole punch
• An A5 6-ring binder

Step 1: Make your A5 PDF

Open the free calendar maker and choose A5 binder as the paper size. Pick a design and a week start, then download the PDF.

• No A5 paper? Keep Print on US Letter paper on (it is on by default). Each A5 page prints in the middle of a Letter sheet, with marks at the four corners showing where to cut.
• Have A5 paper? Turn Print on US Letter paper off. The PDF pages are then exactly A5, and you can skip the cutting step.
• Turn on Hole-punch guide if you will punch the holes by hand.

Step 2: Print at actual size

This is the most important step. In your print window:

• Choose Actual size or 100% scale.
• Paper size: US Letter, or A5 if you turned “Print on US Letter paper” off and loaded A5 paper.
• Turn off “Fit to page” or “Shrink oversized pages.”
• Print one-sided. Each calendar page has a wider margin on the left for the rings, so printing on the back would put the margin on the wrong side.

If “Fit to page” is on, your printer shrinks the page a little. The page will still look fine, but it will be smaller than A5 and the holes won’t line up with your binder.

Tip: print one page first and hold it against your binder before printing the whole set.

Step 3: Choose the right paper

Most home printers handle paper up to about 32 lb without problems. Check your printer’s manual before using cardstock.

Step 4: Cut along the corner marks

Line up your ruler or trimmer with the small marks at the corners and cut all four sides. Each finished page should measure 148 × 210 mm (5.83 × 8.27 in). A paper trimmer gives the straightest edges and is the fastest choice if you print many pages. With a ruler and craft knife, place a cutting mat underneath and make two light cuts instead of one hard one. Stack no more than 3–4 sheets when cutting with a knife.

Step 5: Punch the holes

With an A5 6-hole punch

Slide the trimmed page into the punch, push the left edge all the way in, and line up the top or center guide. Punch 2–3 sheets at a time for clean holes.

With a single-hole punch

Turn on the hole-punch guide when you make your PDF. Small dashed circles show where each hole goes. Punch through the center of each circle. Then use your first punched page as a template: lay it on top of the next pages and mark the holes with a pencil.

Standard A5 6-ring hole spacing

Most A5 6-ring binders use the same layout. The six holes are 5 mm wide and spaced 19 mm, 19 mm, 70 mm, 19 mm and 19 mm apart, center to center. The centers sit about 7 mm in from the left edge of the page, and the whole group is centered from top to bottom.

Common problems and fixes

Need an A5 binder?

If you don’t have a binder yet, we carry A5 6-ring binders in many styles at ZoocomingTree, our stationery shop.