Folding turns a flat sheet into a sequence. The reader sees one panel, then another, in an order you control — which is a genuinely different design problem from a flat flyer where everything is visible at once.
The four common folds
Half fold
One fold down the middle. Four panels — front, two inside, back. The simplest option and the hardest to get wrong. An A4 half-folded gives you an A5 finished piece.
Roll fold (also called tri-fold)
Two folds, with each panel wrapping inside the last, like rolling the sheet up. Six panels. This is the standard brochure fold: an A4 roll-folded finishes at roughly DL size and fits a standard envelope.
Z fold (concertina)
Two folds in alternating directions, so the sheet zig-zags. Also six panels, also finishes at DL from an A4 — but unlike a roll fold, every panel opens out flat in one motion. Better when the inside is one continuous image or a timeline rather than three separate sections.
Gate fold
Both outer panels fold inward to meet in the middle, opening like a pair of gates. Dramatic reveal of the centre panel, which makes it popular for a hero image or a single headline offer.
The trap: panels are not all the same width
On a roll fold, the panel that tucks inside has to be slightly narrower than the others — usually 2–3mm — or it buckles against the fold instead of sitting flat. Gate folds have the same issue on both wings. If you set three equal panels on an A4 and send it to print, the finished piece will not close cleanly.
This is the single most common reason a folded job comes back looking wrong, and it is not something a file check can catch: the file is perfectly valid, it just does not account for the fold. Start from a template rather than dividing the page into equal thirds.
What we fold
Fold and score-and-fold finishing is available on A4 flyers. Scoring is a crease pressed into the sheet before folding — on heavier stocks it stops the coating cracking along the fold, which on a dark background is very visible.
Our other flyer sizes are supplied flat.