Door Hanger Sizes: 3.5x8.5 and 4.25x11 in, Die Cut Rules

How Big Is the Hole in a Door Hanger?

The hole in a door hanger is a circle between 1.25 and 1.75 inches across, set roughly half an inch down from the top edge, with a narrow slot running up from it to that edge. The hole clears the knob and the slot lets the piece slide on.

Three rules follow from that, and all three are size rules in disguise.

Nothing important goes in the top two inches. Not the logo, not the headline, not a phone number. Background color and pattern belong there and are usually better than white, because that band is what a homeowner sees first while the piece is still hanging on the knob.

Keep art a quarter inch clear of the cut edge. A die has the same tolerance a trim blade does. Text ringing the hole looks centered on some pieces in the run and crooked on others.

Get the die line before you design. Every printer's die is slightly different in diameter and placement. Ask for the template as a layer in your working file, design to it, then remove or hide that layer before you export. Designing to a generic template you found online and hoping it matches is the most expensive shortcut in this product.

If the hangers are going on lever handles rather than round knobs, which is common on apartment doors and newer construction, a taller slot matters more than a wider hole. Say so when you order.

Which Door Hanger Size Fits Which Job?

3.5 x 8.5 is the route size. Cheapest per piece, lightest to carry in volume, and it fits in one hand while the other hand works the door. Lawn care, pest control, plumbing, roofing, window cleaning and restaurant delivery menus all live here. The panel is small, so the message has to be one offer and one number.

4.25 x 11 is the offer size. Half again as wide and a third taller, which is enough room for a headline, a photo, a service list and a coupon without crowding. It is also noticeably harder to ignore on a door, which is the whole point. Real estate farming, campaign drops, home services with a seasonal promotion and church invitations all do better at this size.

4.25 x 14 is the tear-off format. It exists so you can put a perforated coupon along the bottom. The homeowner keeps a magnet-sized offer and the rest goes in the recycling. Worth the custom quote only if you are actually going to add the perforation.

The honest way to choose: if you are dropping a whole neighborhood and the message is one line, use the small size and put the savings into more doors. If you are trying to win a specific street with a real offer, use the large one.

Should Door Hangers Print on Both Sides?

Yes. Door hangers print double sided on our stock at no extra charge, and a one-sided hanger throws away half the impressions you paid for. The homeowner sees one face on the knob and the other face as they pull it off.

The split that works: the front carries the offer and the deadline, the back carries the detail, the service list, the license or insurance line, a map and a QR code. If you are running a route across several weeks, keep the back constant and change only the front. The design cost stays down and the reprint is faster.

Door Hanger Sizes Shown to Scale

Three sizes, the same four guides on each, with every number in millimeters, inches and pixels at 300 dpi. Swipe through them and build to the one you need.

Mistakes We Catch on Door Hanger Proofs

Four things account for nearly every door hanger file we hold, and all four come back to the die.

A logo centered in the top third. The designer builds on a plain rectangle, centers the brand block, and the die cuts a hole straight through it. This is the single most common reason we send a door hanger proof back, and it is always the same fix: everything moves down below the two inch line.

A slit that runs through a word. The slot is only about a quarter inch wide, so it looks harmless until it lands in the middle of a headline. Treat the slit as a vertical exclusion running the full height of the keep-out band, not just as a thin line.

A white background with no bleed. On a white piece the missing bleed is invisible on screen and obvious in a stack, because the shear leaves a hairline of raw stock along one edge that does not match the coated face. Build at 3.75 x 8.75 and it never comes up.

A 150 dpi file at hand-held size. A yard sign can live at 150 dpi because nobody reads it from two feet away. A door hanger is read at arm's length, so small type at 150 dpi goes soft. Build at 300 dpi, or send vector.

What It Costs and What to Send Us

At 3.5 x 8.5, packs run $246.09 for 250, $267.49 for 500, $331.69 for 1,000, $513.59 for 2,500, $973.69 for 5,000 and $1,658.49 for 10,000. At 4.25 x 11, they run $385.19 for 250, $406.59 for 500, $438.69 for 1,000, $652.69 for 2,500, $1,080.69 for 5,000 and $2,043.69 for 10,000.

Look at the shape of those ladders before you order. Going from 250 to 1,000 small hangers costs $85.60 more and gets you 750 more doors, because the setup is the same work whether we print 250 or 10,000. Ordering twice is the expensive way to run a route.

Send a print ready PDF at the bleed size, CMYK, 300 dpi, fonts outlined, both sides as separate pages, and every word inside the safe area. There is no setup fee. Upload any image or file and we make it print ready: size, bleed, resolution and color. If you have no design at all, Design it for me is +$32.10 on an item under $499 and free at $499 or more, which includes 2,500 of the 3.5 x 8.5 at $513.59 and every larger pack, with two revisions included. You approve a free digital proof before anything prints, and every order is printed in the USA and shipped anywhere in the country for a flat $10.

The rest of the range, including the flyers that ride in the same route bag, sits on the marketing prints hub. For the sign that holds the corner while the route runs, see yard sign sizes; for the wall version of the same offer, see poster sizes; for the card you leave behind after the estimate, see standard business card size; and for what to print alongside a route drop, see how to choose marketing materials for any event.