Photo print size calculator
Standard photo frames are five fixed shapes, and a photograph either shares one of those shapes or gives up part of itself at the edges. This works out both halves of that trade for every frame at once: the resolution the print lands at, and how much of the picture the paper takes away.
Enter the pixel dimensions of your photo to see how each frame treats it.
| Question it settles | Whether a photo fills a standard frame, and what the frame cuts off |
|---|---|
| Input | Pixel width and height. Nothing is uploaded and no file is opened. |
| Frames compared | 4 × 6, 5 × 7, 8 × 10, 11 × 14 and 16 × 20 inches, turned to match your photo |
| Crop reported as | Which pair of edges is trimmed, and the share of the picture that goes with them |
| Resolution reported as | Effective DPI once the frame is filled, taken from the tighter of the two edges |
| Also shown | Largest print with nothing cropped, at 300, 240, 200 and 150 DPI |
Why 8 × 10 crops a photo that 4 × 6 leaves whole
The frames are not scaled versions of each other. Written as a ratio of long side to short, 4 × 6 is 1.5:1, 5 × 7 is 1.4:1, 11 × 14 is about 1.27:1, and 8 × 10 and 16 × 20 are both 1.25:1. A camera shooting 3:2 drops into 4 × 6 with nothing removed and loses a sixth of its width at 8 × 10. The file is identical in both orders; only the shape of the paper changed.
On a phone photo, the small print cuts the most
Phone cameras usually shoot 4:3, which is squarer than a 4 × 6 and longer than an 8 × 10. The crop therefore switches edges as the print grows, and it is largest at the cheapest size. These are the readings for a 4032 × 3024 file:
- 4 × 6 — 672 DPI, about 11% removed from the top and bottom
- 5 × 7 — 576 DPI, about 5% removed from the top and bottom
- 8 × 10 — 378 DPI, about 6% removed from the sides
- 11 × 14 — 275 DPI, about 5% removed from the sides
- 16 × 20 — 189 DPI, about 6% removed from the sides
Cropping and resolution answer different questions
A file can carry more detail than the paper can resolve and still lose a fifth of the photograph, and the reverse is just as common. The DPI column describes how finely the pixels land once the frame is full; the crop column describes how much of the scene is still inside it. Reading one column and ignoring the other is how a perfectly sharp print arrives with the top of somebody's head outside the border.
When the shape does not match
A mismatch is a decision, not a fault, and there are four ordinary ways to take it. The second table exists for the third one: it gives the largest print that keeps the whole frame at four working resolutions, so the sheet can be chosen around the photograph instead of the other way round.
- Order the frame that shares the photo's shape — 4 × 6 for a 3:2 camera file
- Accept the centre crop, once you know which edges it comes off
- Print the whole picture smaller on a larger sheet and let the border carry the difference
- Crop it yourself first, so the placement is your choice rather than the machine's
- A 6 × 8 sheet is exactly 4:3 and takes a phone photo whole, if your lab will cut one
FAQ
- My photo is 4032 × 3024. Can I print it at 8 × 10?
- It lands at 378 DPI, which is more detail than the paper needs. The cost is shape rather than sharpness: about 6% of the picture leaves at the sides, roughly a third of an inch from each edge measured on the finished print.
- Which of these sizes have the same shape as each other?
- 8 × 10 and 16 × 20 are both 1.25:1, so a photo that fills one fills the other and the crop is identical — only the resolution changes between them. 11 × 14 is near at 1.27:1 without being equal, and 5 × 7 and 4 × 6 are each their own shape.
- Where does the lab take the crop from?
- Usually the centre, which is why anything close to an edge disappears first. This page reports how much comes off and from which pair of edges, not where the cut is placed. Cropping the file before you order is how that decision stays with you.
- A size says it fits. Is nothing trimmed at all?
- It means the two shapes differ by less than half a percent of the area, which is under the trim a lab already takes at the paper edge. Real files miss their nominal ratio slightly: a 4288 × 2848 camera file is described as 3:2 and is actually 1.5056:1, about 0.37% away from a 4 × 6.