How To Print Out Bullet Journal Pages To Fit The Size Of Your Journal (for PDF printables)

If you’re using printable bujo pages for the first time, you might wonder how to print out bullet journal printables correctly, so they match the size of your journal.

Once you overcome this hurdle and see how easy it is to use bullet journal printables, they might very well become your favorite way of setting up your bullet journal.

There are several options to print out your bullet journal pages depending on the file type and its size, the format of printing paper, and of course, the size that you need (which is the size of your bullet journal).

The file type is usually the one that dictates the way of printing and the majority of bullet journal printables come as a PDF file type, but you can also find printables made as a PNG/JPG/JPEG file type. 

In this post, I’ll explain the printing process for PDF files, and leave the PNG/JPG/JPEG story for some other time.

(update – read this post if your printable is a JPG/JPEG/PNG file)

Here’s a step-by-step guide to printing out PDF versions of your bullet journal printables.

Before you begin printing out your bullet journal pages

After you downloaded your printable bullet journal page, you need to have software that can open and read this type of file.

Adobe Reader is the one used by many, and you can download it for free if you still don’t have it on your computer.

Next, before you start setting up your printing instructions, check the size of the file and consider how large your printable needs to be – it’s usually the size of your bullet journal or notebook.

Most bullet journals come in A5 size (148 x 210 mm, or approx. 5.83 x 8.27 in), and therefore I will focus on describing this way of printing.

However, if you need a different printing size, no worries – I’ll give you a short description of how to accomplish it, too.

Printing bullet journal pages from A5 PDF files to fit A5 paper size

If the size of the PDF file is the same size as your A5 bullet journal, then printing out these pages is quite simple.

Here are the instructions:

1. Open the document in Adobe Reader.
2. Click on the printer icon, or go to File – Print, and a pop-up window appears where you’re configuring your printing options.
3. I like to click on the printer “properties” button, and check if the right printing paper size is selected (the size of the paper you’re placing in your printer, not the size of a printable you want to get – in case you’re curious about my settings, I use an A4 paper, but you might use a different paper size). 

This step is not a necessity, but I like to set everything up as it is so that the printing preview shows what the page I’m printing on will actually look like.

4. Check the number of copies you wish to print out.

Most of the time you need only one, but there are situations when it’s useful to make numerous copies of the same page at once. 

(my bullet journal layout templates pages are the perfect example for this case)

Next, I go over other settings in this pop-up window.

5. In this example, the PDF file is a single-page document, hence in the “Pages To Print” box there is only one option available – “All”.

However, if your file is a multi-page document, you also get an option to print out just the current page you’re viewing in this program by choosing “Current” or select specific pages you want to print by choosing “Pages”. (as above, there’s also an option to choose “All” and it’s probably the option you actually want, but I wanted to point out that other options are available to you, especially if you don’t want to print out all the pages of a single multi-page document)

6. Next, you come to the “Page Sizing & Handling” section, where in the “Size” option you’ll select “Actual size” or “Custom Scale:” set to 100%. Choosing either one of these two options will give you the same result.

7. For single-page documents, keep the paper orientation to “portrait”. 

In case you use an A4 paper size to print out your bullet journal pages, you can switch to the “landscape” orientation, but more on that later on (see Printing bullet journal pages in A5 size from A4 size PDF file on A4 piece of paper)

8. Lastly, click the “Print” button at the bottom right and you’re done.

Printing bullet journal pages in A5 size from A4 or letter PDF file sizes

Not all printables are designed in the same size you actually need.

For example, all bullet journal printables in my shop are designed in both A4 and letter size, while only some also have an A5 version.

So what will you do when the size of a file doesn’t fit the printing size you need?

Don’t sweat – even if the size of a file is not the same as your bullet journal, you can still print the pages in an according size, and now I’ll show you how to easily do it.

1. Open the document in Adobe Reader.
2. Click on the printer icon, or go to File – Print, and a pop-up window appears where you’re configuring your printing options.
3. Go to your printer “Properties” and select an A5 paper size.

Note that you don’t have to put an actual A5 paper into your printer, you can use any other paper size to print out this page. (of course, the paper needs to be larger than A5!)

4. Check the number of copies you wish to print (see step 4 in Printing bullet journal pages from A5 PDF files to fit A5 paper size)
5. Check what pages you want to print (available for multi-page documents, otherwise it’s set to “All”)
6. From the “Page Sizing & Handling” section, go to the “Size” option (it’s usually opened by default), and select “Fit”.

This makes the printable become resized so that it fits the page – in this case, an A5 page size since it’s the one that’s set in step number 3.

7. Keep the “portrait” orientation
8. Click the “Print” button

Printing bullet journal pages in A5 size from A4 size PDF file using A4 piece of paper

Ok, this subtitle sounds kind of confusing, so allow me to explain.

This means that you have a printable bullet journal page designed in A4 size, but you want to make it smaller so that it fits the A5 size of your journal, and you’ve placed a paper in an A4 size into your printer for printing out this page.

(hope this makes more sense now! 🙂 )

Although this way of printing is absolutely not a necessity, I decided to mention it since it can be useful.

Because an A5 page is actually an A4 page split in half (along its longer dimension), this way of printing lets you use your paper in a better way – say, to print out two pages on one piece of paper at once (for multi-page documents), or to cut the page more easily at the end.

Here’s the process for multi-page PDF documents designed in A4 size:

1. Open the document in Adobe Reader.
2. Click on the printer icon, or go to File – Print, and a pop-up window appears.
3. From there, go to your printer “Properties” and select an A4 paper size.

You also need to insert the A4-size paper into your printer.

4. Choose the number of copies you wish to print (see step 4 in Printing bullet journal pages from A5 PDF files to fit A5 paper size)
5. Select “All” pages to print, or specify the one you want

6. Choose the landscape orientation of the paper.
7. From the “Page Sizing & Handling” section, go to the “Multiple” option. For “Pages per sheet:” select “Custom” and set 2 by 1.

This sets the pages in A5 size while printing two pages on the same piece of paper.

You can additionally choose to check the “Print page border” option so you can cut the page more easily later on. (check the image below to see how the border appeared in the preview!)

8. Click “Print” and you’re done.

For single-page PDF documents designed in A4 size:

1. Follow steps 1-6 from the above
2. From the “Page Sizing & Handling” section, go to the “Size” option, and select “Fit”.

This makes the bullet journal page to be printed in A5 size.

3. Click “Print”

Printing bullet journal pages in the same paper size as the size of the PDF file

If you wish to print out your bullet journal pages on a paper size that matches the size of the PDF file (A4 PFD file on A4 paper, A5 PDF on A5 paper, or letter-size PDF file on a letter-size paper), then follow these steps.

1. Open the document in Adobe Reader.
2. Click on the printer icon, or go to File – Print, and a pop-up window appears where you’re configuring your printing options.
3. Go to your printer “Properties” and select a paper size that’s the same as the size of a PDF file (usually A4 or letter).

You also need to insert the same paper size into your printer so that it matches the one you selected.

4. Choose the number of copies you wish to print (see step 4 in Printing bullet journal pages from A5 PDF files to fit A5 paper size)
5. Check what pages you want to print (available for multi-page documents, otherwise it’s set to “All”)
6. From the “Page Sizing & Handling” section, go to the “Size” option (it’s usually opened by default), and select “Fit”.

7. Keep the “portrait” orientation
8. Click the “Print” button

Printing bullet journal pages in different paper size compared to the size of the PDF file

Although in this post I focused the most on printing bullet journal printables in A5 size, you may want to print out these pages so that they fit some other paper format of your journal.

Here’s a quick guide for this case, too.

1. Set your printer’s paper size (it doesn’t have to be the same as the paper size of your journal, but it has to be at least equal to or larger than it), the number of copies, and pages to print.
2. Set your page orientation to “Portrait”
3. The only setting that differs for this case is the “Size” option in a “Page Sizing & Handling” segment.

Here you will choose a “Custom Scale:” option and select the percentage of the file (a number smaller than 100. If it’s not a whole number, you must use a comma “,” not a period “.” to write its decimals).

This will change the design’s printing size into a new, smaller one –  depending on how much you reduced the original file size. 

The proportions of the original size format remain the same.

(this image is an example for resizing from A4 PDF file size to B6 format)

4. Click “Print”

Although this seems pretty straightforward and easy, the trickiest part is choosing the right value for the “Custom Scale”.

I’ll do my best to explain how to discover that number.

Discovering the “Custom Scale:” percentage

Allow me to start with this.

I assume you’re aware that you get two A5 pages from one A4 page – if you divide it in half on its longer side.

If you think in this way, you might assume that setting the “Custom Scale:” value to 50% (because 2*A5=A4) will result in printing an A5 page from an A4. 

However, this is not the case.

The right value is 70,7%.

How?

You need to find the ratio of the same dimensions for each size, in the same orientation – A5 height to A4 height, or A5 width to A5 width (while they’re both in a portrait or in a landscape version).

Or differently – you compare the larger OR the smaller sides of each paper size.

In this A4/A5 example, for the larger sides the math goes like this:

210:297=0.707070

0.707070*100=70,7070%

or roughly 70.7%

(I believe these were the three most boring lines you’ve ever seen in a blog post! 😀 )

You get approximately the same number by dividing the values of the smaller sides.

In either case, when uncovering the ratio you need, you should always first place the smaller value, and then divide it by the larger value.

(so that the quotient is less than 1, or 100%)

Paper format matters, too

Another thing worth pointing out is that a paper format you choose for a starting point (the size of a PDF file) can also play a role in how well that design fits the final paper size you need.

This is not a make-or-break situation, although some paper size formats match better with some others, as opposed to some third ones.

For example, a letter-size format is more “chubbier” compared to the A4, and if your journal is in B6 size, a better option would be to resize the A4 file version, not the letter one.

This would make the page fit better to the paper size you need.

You can see how well the paper formats fit together by comparing the width to height ratios for two paper sizes: the one in beginning – which is the size of the PDF file, and in the end – which is the size of your journal’s page.

For this example, a 71.02% value of the C6 page fits better with 70.7% of the A4 page compared to 77.27% of a letter-size page format.

Finding the “Custom Scale:” summary

Here are the steps to calculate the “Custom Scale:” value so that your bullet journal printable prints out correctly and matches the size of your journal.

1. If the size of your journal is a standard one, see the image above for information. 

If not, note your journal size (its width and height).

2. Choose the size of the bullet journal printable so that it fits the best to the format of your journal page (if there are more options to choose from)

Pages’ width to height ratios should be as close as possible.

3. Calculate the “Custom Scale:” value.

Divide the height of your journal page by the height of the format the printable is designed in. (usually you’ll be scaling down printable pages to fit the size of your journal, so a smaller number needs to be placed first)

Multiply that number by 100 to get percentages.

4. You’re all done!

Sorry if this post has been too long of an explanation (it certainly isn’t a short one!), but I tried my best to explain the entire process, while also wanting to give you as many options available – so that at least some of them would hopefully meet your exact needs. 

I do hope you now have the right answer to the question “How to print out bullet journal pages from the PDF file to the right size of my journal?”

Now all that is left is to find some bullet journal printables to treat yourself and your bujo with. 😉

(the pages you’ve seen as examples in this post are just a fraction of the various templates I have in my shop)

Feel free to follow me on Pinterest for daily ideas and inspiration.

Have fun and enjoy your bullet journaling adventure!