Word Letterhead Margins: Fix Clipping and Misalignment for Good
Your logo looks perfect in the designer's PDF. Open the Word file and the top is gone, shoved behind the printable area, or floating lower than it should be. The letterhead is not broken. The word letterhead margins are wrong.
Why Word Clips Your Logo
Word stores letterhead artwork in the header region, which sits between the physical page edge and the top body margin. When those numbers do not match what the designer assumed, the artwork either gets clipped by the non-printable zone or pushed into the body text area.
Two boundaries are in play. The header distance from edge controls how far the header sits from the physical top of the paper. The top margin controls where body text begins. If the header distance is smaller than the logo height, the printer clips it. If the top margin is smaller than the logo height, the logo and the first line of body text collide.
Both are geometry problems with a specific numeric fix.
The Three Margin Numbers That Matter
Most people open Layout > Margins and change one number. Three values must work together:
- Header distance from edge (Layout > Page Setup > Layout tab). A typical professionally printed letterhead uses 0.5 in here.
- Top margin (Layout > Margins). If your logo is 1.25 in tall and the header distance from edge is 0.5 in, the top margin must be at least 1.75 in or the logo and body text will overlap.
- Header height. Word sizes this dynamically unless you control it by setting the top margin and header distance together. For a deeper look at that relationship, see Letterhead Header Height Word: A Geometry Fix.
Getting all three consistent is how word letterhead margins work correctly, landing the logo exactly where the designer placed it.
How to Find the Right Values
If you have the original design file or a spec sheet, look for the safe area or margin guides. Those numbers translate directly into Word's settings.
If you only have a PDF, measure it. Open the PDF at 100% zoom and record:
- Distance from the top edge of the paper to the bottom of the logo
- Distance from the left edge to where body text begins
- Distance from the right edge inward
Those measurements become your Word top, left, and right margins. The header distance from edge is the gap between the paper's top edge and the top of the logo, not the bottom.
If you are not sure what to do with a PDF letterhead, Designer Gave Me a PDF Letterhead, Now What? covers that workflow.
Step-by-Step: Setting Margins Correctly
- Go to Layout > Page Setup and open the full dialog.
- On the Margins tab, set Top, Bottom, Left, and Right to your measured values.
- Switch to the Layout tab. Under "Distance from edge," set Header to the measured gap between the paper edge and the top of your logo.
- Click OK.
- Double-click the header area. Confirm the logo sits inside the blue header boundary line, not below it. If it sits below, the top margin is still too small.
- Click into the body and confirm the first paragraph starts below the logo, not behind it.
For how these settings interact with printer output, see Word Page Margins for Letterhead: Stop Printer Clipping.
When the Margins Are Right but the Logo Still Shifts
Image anchor point. A logo inserted inline moves with text. It should be anchored to the header paragraph with text wrapping set to "In Front of Text" or "Behind Text."
Different first page is on without a first-page header image. If "Different First Page" is checked and the first-page header is empty, Word shows a blank header on page one. The Letterhead First Page Only Word article explains how that should be configured.
Section breaks resetting margins. A section break carries its own margin data and overrides document-level settings. Go to Layout > Breaks to check.
Multi-page files with a lighter second-page header. The top margin for those sections usually needs to be smaller. See Word Letterhead Second Page Different Header Setup.
Start With a Template That Has the Geometry Built In
Diagnosing margin math after the fact works. Starting from a file where the geometry is already correct is faster.
Letterhead Lab converts your existing designed or PDF letterhead into a properly built Word template. The artwork goes into the header at the right anchor point, the header distance from edge matches your design, and the top margin is set so body text starts below the logo without overlap. The conversion runs entirely in the browser and the file is never sent to a server.
A single-page conversion is $39. A multi-page bundle covering up to 10 pages is $79. The Studio plan is $99 per month and the Shop plan is $199 per month. See the full pricing breakdown before you start.