Standard Photo Sizes Explained

Nowadays, only less than 30 percent of photographers print their photos. Most of them process their pictures for publishing on social media. If you plan to print photos, you need to have a basic understanding of standard photo print sizes too. In this article, we will have a look at the different standard photo sizes for printing images.

If you are not used to printing, selecting the correct photo print size can be a bit tough. I will share the common print sizes through this guide. It will help you choose the correct size next time.

Standard Photo Sizes 🏙

1. 6×4 Size

Most digital cameras and DSLR cameras capture images in a 3:2 aspect ratio.

So, you can use  the 6 inches x 4 inches standard size for printing photos in small sizes. It is a standard photo size used by many photographers and hobbyists. You don’t have to crop the image here.

If you have shot the picture horizontally you can go for landscape orientation. Vertical orientation can be chosen for an image shot vertically.

So, it is the photographer who should make the choice, portrait vs landscape, while shooting itself. If the image is in the vertical orientation, it will be a 4×6 photo.

You can print photos in 4×6 size if you want to send prints to your friends or relatives as a postcard.

2. 7×5 Size

7×5 photo size is the most common medium size print.

Most wedding and portrait photographers share photo prints in 7×5 size (7 inches x 5 inches). Since this is a common size you can easily get a matching photo frame.

You will have to crop the photo in the 7X5 ratio to match the print size.

  READ MORE : 4×6 Vs 5×7 – Which is Best For Prints?

3. 10×8 size

There are many Instagram photographers out there. They will be cropping their final image in 5×4 size or a 1:1 square size.

10×8 size is mainly targeted towards these photographers who want to print their photos. You can get different varieties of photo frames in this size. This is actually a traditional format size and is very good for fine art prints.

4. A4 size

A4 size is the normal paper size, which 11×8.5 inches. You can even print your photos in 12×8 size by fitting it on A4 size, without doing any photo cropping for ratio adjustment. Thus you can maintain the same 2:3 aspect ratio. You will have to cut the blank edges.

5. A3 Size

16.5×11.7 is the A3 paper size. It is a commonly available photo print size. You can even fit a 16×12 size on the A3 paper by chopping off the edges after printing to remove the blank space.

6. Ultra Large Size

Any size larger than the 16×12 size can be considered as Ultra Large. These photo print sizes are good for exhibition and sale. 24×16, 30x 20, 36×24 are some commonly used Ultra large print sizes.

You need to make custom photo frames since these prints are not the regular sized ones.

Shooting for Prints

If you are interested in printing photos then you should keep that in mind while shooting. Shooting in RAW format gives you the flexibility to adjust image resolution as per print size.

If you are planning to crop images to match with print size then you should leave some space while composing the image, to accommodate this crop.

You need to take proper care while processing photos for printing. If you are using Adobe Lightroom for processing, please make sure that you have the correct Lightroom export settings for print.

Always do a print preview on your computer monitor with the print size. It will give an idea of how the final print will look. You should color calibrate your post-processing monitor to get the right colors and details.

Before printing the final prints, take a small size sample print with the same printer to ensure that you are getting the right colors, tone, and contrast.

As we all know, the latest digital cameras are coming up with higher Megapixels, which makes it easy to crop the image for any size without losing any details.

I always recommend you print your photos in whatever size possible. It will give you the actual feel of what you have captured.