Words to pages calculator

It starts from three figures for 12 pt Times New Roman on US Letter with 1-inch margins: about 500 words a page single-spaced, 330 at 1.5 spacing and 250 double-spaced, the same figures as our guide to how many pages 2,000 words is. A4 with 2.5 cm margins has about 5% more text area, so it holds slightly more. Other font sizes scale by the square of the size: an 11 pt page holds about 19% more than a 12 pt page, because the letters and the lines both shrink.

That makes it a rule of thumb, not a layout engine. It doesn't know your font, your paragraph breaks or your headings.

Font: Arial is wider than Times New Roman and fits about 10% fewer words a page; Courier New fits far fewer. Paragraphs: each one ends on a partly empty line, so short paragraphs and dialogue add up. Headings, block quotes, a title page and a reference list on its own page add lines and pages a word count doesn't show.

Language matters too. Turkish words are longer than English ones; in our own measurement Turkish text took about 27% more pages than English text in the same layout, so the Turkish version of this calculator uses measured Turkish figures.

To turn a page requirement into a word target, multiply: about 250 words per double-spaced page or 500 per single-spaced page. Ten double-spaced pages is roughly 2,500 words. If the brief gives a word count, hit the words and format the document as asked; the pages follow. Either way, check the real page count in your own document, set in the font the brief asks for.