On the plus side, you won’t need any tools for this method. Note that a standard 8 1/2 × 11 inch (27. 9 cm) sheet of paper doesn’t have to be folded perfectly into thirds to fit in an envelope, making this a good choice for correspondence.
On the plus side, you won’t need any tools for this method. Note that a standard 8 1/2 × 11 inch (27. 9 cm) sheet of paper doesn’t have to be folded perfectly into thirds to fit in an envelope, making this a good choice for correspondence.
You want the three layers of paper created this way to be approximately the same size. For this, you’ll want one edge of the paper snug against the inside of the fold of the cylinder and the other edge lying over the top, lined up with the other fold. This is more intuitive than it sounds.
At this point, you can make last-minute adjustments, but avoid making more than one crease unless your thirds are very uneven — this can look unprofessional.
Get your “scratch” paper into rough thirds any way you wish — you may want to use the “intuitive” method above or one of the others in this article. You can even use trial-and-error to get your folds right.
Do not worry about how many times this takes or how many unsightly creases you make — this paper doesn’t “count. "
You can do this by marking the positions of the folds on the “good” paper or using your eyes to visually compare the two sheets.
When you’re done, save your “scratch” paper for note-taking or recycle it. Don’t send perfectly good paper to a landfill.
To begin, you want to take one edge of the paper and double it up, bringing it across the top of the rest of the page. Don’t make any creases yet — the edge you are about to fold should be gently rounded.
When you have the edge of the page lined up just right, crease the paper, making sure not to let the free edge move as you’re making your crease.
If you’ve made accurate folds, all of the edges of your paper should line up at this point. If they don’t, feel free to make minor adjustments as needed.
Note: If you don’t want to make extra folds in your paper, you can find the midpoint of the paper and carefully mark a line across to divide the paper in half. If you do this, however, your line will need to be extremely straight to match the accuracy of a simple half-fold.
You can also do this method with a line that extends from the bottom right corner if you reverse all of the directions after this, but for convenience’s sake we’ve decided to just give a single set of directions.
Carefully fold and crease along this edge. The folded edge should divide the rest of the paper into halves — if it doesn’t, you may need to make minor adjustments at this point so that it does.
For instance, if you’re using a standard 8 1/2 × 11 inch (27. 9 cm) piece of paper and you want to divide it into thirds along the 11 inch (27. 9 cm) side, simply divide 11 by 3. 11/3 = 3 2/3 or 3. 667. This means the folds should be 3 2/3 inches apart.
In our example above with the 8 1/2 × 11 inch (27. 9 cm) paper, we would measure 3 2⁄3 inches (9. 3 cm) along the 11 inch (27. 9 cm) side and mark this distance.
