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Paper Hand Fan Template

A folding paper hand fan: a pleated sector that folds flat and opens to a half circle, with two guards that pin together at the bottom and make its handle. Weddings, summer parties, Japanese and Chinese crafts, and dance costumes.

Hand fan — change shape

Size mm
Only here Your own design

Put a logo, photo or pattern straight onto the box — most free template sites give you the outline and stop there. Drag it where you want it; it is trimmed to the cut lines so nothing prints off the card, and it stays in your browser.

Advanced settingsunits, flaps, board, paper, lines
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Shape settings
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Bigger than the paper? Each piece prints whole on its own sheet. A single piece is never split: pick bigger paper or a smaller size. More about printing

Template

cutfold

Drop a picture anywhere on the drawingTap “Add a picture” below to print your own design on this box.

Print at 100% (“actual size”), never “fit to page”, or the box comes out the wrong size.

The hand fan template, flat and folded

Hand fan template — free printable dieline with cut and fold lines, any size
The printable dieline at its standard size. Type your own size above for yours.
Hand fan folded up from the template — the finished piece
The finished hand fan, made from it.

What this template is for

A folding paper hand fan: a pleated sector that folds flat and opens to a half circle, with two guards that pin together at the bottom and make its handle. Weddings, summer parties, Japanese and Chinese crafts, and dance costumes.

Also called paper fan template · folding paper fan · pleated paper fan · japanese paper fan — all the same shape, and this is it.

How to use this template

All four downloads are the same hand fan at the same size — only the format changes.

PDF printing at home
Print at 100 per cent, or hand it to a print shop as "actual size, no scaling".
PNG 300 dpi Canva, Photoshop, Procreate
Upload, lock it in place and design your hand fan on top. Free plan and phone included. Full Canva walkthrough →
SVG Cricut, Illustrator, Inkscape, Affinity
Vector, with cuts, folds and labels on separate layers. Cricut and Silhouette walkthrough →
DXF Silhouette, laser and vinyl cutters
Two layers, CUT and FOLD — and the one free Silhouette Studio Basic will open.

Getting it printed properly →

Printing it

  1. Type your size above, then download the PDF.
  2. Print at 100% — never “fit to page”, or every measurement comes out wrong.
  3. Too big for the paper? Pick your paper size and leave Fit the pieces to the page ticked: each piece gets its own place on a sheet and the PDF comes out with every page in it, nothing cut in half and nothing to tape.

How to put it together

These pictures are the hand fan itself, not a generic diagram — change the measurements above and the template changes, but the three steps never do.

  1. Cut the solid lines

    Every solid line is a cut. Do the inside shapes first, while the sheet is still whole and easy to hold.

  2. Score every dashed line

    Dashed lines are folds. Score each one first — an empty ballpoint against a ruler — or the card cracks along the outside of the bend.

  3. FANGUARD 1HANDLEGUARD 2HANDLE

    Fold, glue and hold

    Cut out the fan and both guards. Crease every line, alternating: the first one way, the next the other, like an accordion. Glue the first pleat flat on GUARD 1 and the last on GUARD 2, the inner edge of the pleats where HANDLE ends and the outer edge just past the round top. Push a split pin through the holes at the bottom of both guards and open it out.

Glue: a glue stick for paper, white PVA on card — hold each seam thirty seconds, and let it dry before you use it.

Questions about the hand fan

How does it fold flat?
Every crease runs to the same point, the pivot, so the pleats are wedges that lie on top of each other when it is closed and spread back out to the angle you set. Fold them alternately, one way then the other, like an accordion. The pleat count is always even, so both end pleats face the same way and glue flat on the guards.
What size is the default fan?
A 130 mm radius, opening to 150 degrees, with 14 mm pleats at the edge and a 45 mm handle. The fan is about 257 × 163 mm with both guards, so it prints on one A4 or US Letter sheet turned landscape. A bigger fan prints in sections that glue together on a marked end pleat.
What holds the guards together?
A split pin (brad) through the hole at the bottom of each guard, which is the pivot. A small bolt and nut, or a knot of thread, works too. For a stiffer fan, glue each guard to a lolly stick before you pin them.

Print your own design on it

Add a logo, photo or pattern in the panel on the left and drag it onto the hand fan. It is trimmed to the cut outline, embedded properly in the PDF, and never leaves your computer — most free template sites hand you the outline and stop there. How printing your own design works.

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