There are many possible folding formats, but the vast majority of printed pieces use one of the dozen most common folds.

It is important to know how much space you have to allow for panels that fold inside other panels. On every panel folded inside another panel, you’ll generally lose 1/16^th of an inch in order to allow for an easy fit. The more folds there are in a printed piece, the less space there will be available on each panel for your printing Remember that you generally want to leave 1/8^th of an inch gutter (or margin) from the edge of the panel/fold to your printing or artwork (unless the artwork bleeds).

Since designers layout their projects in the context of a flat page on the screen, it’s common to get overly-tight margins between the cut and graphic elements printed on the panel. It’s always a good idea to create a dummy from a printed laser while designing a project that has more than one fold. To help setup your margins, we’ve created a guide to the most common folds.

4-page parallel fold	8-page parallel fold	Standard-letter fold	Z-fold
8-page right angle	8-page accordian	Closed-gate fold	Open-gate fold