From an idea to your classroom wall

How to make and print bulletin board letters

A short heading, a font you like, and a few sheets of paper are enough to get started. Here is how to make one letter per page, choose a useful size and prepare your display.

By FontStyleLab · Examples made with our printable-letter generator

Step 1

Choose a design for the job

For letters students can decorate, start with Outline. Classic bold suits general classroom titles, and Rounded chunky works well for a short welcome. Use a simpler typeface when the heading needs to be read from across the room.

The bulletin board letter collection has six designs. Each offers ready-made uppercase, lowercase and number packs. Choose Customize these letters if you only need the characters in your heading.

LEARN TOGETHER in the Classic bold design — Classic bold uses Lato Bold. The ready-made pack prints black letters on white pages.

Step 2

Write the heading you want to display

In the editor, replace the example under Your letters. “READ” creates four pages. “OUR WORK” creates seven: the space does not add a sheet. Repeated letters are included, so a phrase such as “WELCOME” contains both E pages.

Keep Letter case set to As typed to preserve your capitalization. Choose UPPERCASE or lowercase when you want the tool to convert it. For more than 60 characters, split the phrase into smaller batches.

R, E, A and D shown on four separate A4 pages — One visible character gets one page. These examples use the same outlines as the PDF export.

Step 3

Match the paper and choose a letter size

On a phone, tap Customize to open the settings. Select A4 (210 × 297 mm) or US Letter (8.5 × 11 inches), matching the paper in your printer. Start with portrait orientation and 15 mm margins.

Fit to page

Makes your selected letters as large as the printable area allows, using one common font scale. A lowercase x stays shorter than a capital H. The editor calculates the scale from the characters in your heading.

Exact height

Sets the visible height of each character, including its outline. Enter 100 for 100 mm letters (about 3.94 inches). Lowercase and uppercase letters are scaled individually in this mode.

When a wide letter does not fit, reduce its requested height or margins, or try landscape. The editor shows an explanation instead of silently shrinking an exact-size letter. Keep enough margin for your printer.

An A4 page containing a capital A, with its visible letter height marked as 100 mm — An illustration of the actual 100 mm A outline on an A4 page. The measurement arrow is a guide illustration and is not included in downloads.

The ready-made packs use a shared scale across all 62 uppercase, lowercase and number characters for each design and paper size. This lets you combine the three packs with matching proportions. The download list shows the capital H height in millimeters and inches; other characters keep their natural relative heights. A4 and US Letter packs can differ in size.

Custom headings in Fit to page use the characters you enter, so their scale can differ from the ready-made packs or from another heading. Generate your whole heading in one batch when possible. Choose Exact height when matching visible heights matters more than preserving the natural height differences between characters.

Step 4

Download the PDF and print one test page

Choose Download all pages as PDF in the editor, or download a ready-made pack from the collection.
Open the PDF and select the matching paper size in your print dialog.
Choose Actual size or 100%. Turn off Fit, Shrink or Scale to fit when physical size matters.
Print just one page. Check for clipped edges and measure the visible letter with a ruler if you chose Exact height.
Once the test looks right, print the remaining pages you need.

Print-dialog wording and printable margins vary by printer and PDF viewer. If the printout is too small, check scaling first. If an edge is missing, increase the margins in the editor and generate the PDF again.

The PDFs contain vector letter outlines, so their edges can remain sharp when scaled. The final physical result still depends on your printer, paper and settings.

Step 5

Cut out and arrange the whole phrase

Cut around the letters and remove enclosed spaces where needed. Lay out the entire heading before attaching anything. Use the visual gaps between letters as your guide; equal distances between the paper edges can look uneven once the paper is removed.

For an outline activity, let students decorate the letters before cutting. For younger students, have an adult handle scissors and small enclosed cutouts.

Check the finished heading from the distance where people will read it. Adjust spacing or simplify nearby decorations if the words are hard to make out.