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What is the Size of a Standard Photo?

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Here’s a question I had no idea people were asking.  “What is the size of a standard photo?”  That’s a bit of an odd question and there’s really no single good answer for that question.  However, we’re going to dive in and answer this question anyways.  So, if you’re ready, here we go.

Graphic image depicting the standard or common picture frame sizes for photography and fine art by Cramer Imaging
There are stock frames available on store shelves for most of the common sizes of standard photos.  These are some examples.

The first thing I thought when I learned that people want to know what the size of a standard photo is was “There’s lots of different ‘standard’ photo sizes.  Be more specific.”  I started thinking about standard sizes for different functions such as wallet-sizes, photo albums, wall displays, etc.  Then I realized that there’s a completely different part to this question which covers a more European approach.

Cramer Imaging's professional quality landscape photograph of the Virgin River and mountains at sunset in Zion's National Park, Utah
Some photos require cropping to fit ‘standard’ size photo dimensions.
Cropped to 4:5 Cramer Imaging's professional quality landscape photograph of the Virgin River and mountains at sunset in Zion's National Park, Utah
This photo has been cropped so that it fits an 8×10 or 16×20 size in US measurements.

In Europe, if you live there you already know, they don’t go by the dimensions of a photo print as their size measurement.  They use a different system of sizes beginning with the letter A and going up incrementally from 0 to 10.  Since realizing that this is also a part of that question, I decided I had better add it in as well.

Standard Photo Size Based on Use (US)

When it comes to my first answer to the question, I fall back upon my native US experiences.  There’s lots of different answers for what a ‘standard’ photo size is.  The photography industry, as a whole, offers lots of different sizes for photo prints.  The most common sizes are below.

  • wallet-sized
  • 4×6
  • 5×7
  • 8×10
  • 11×14
  • 16×20
  • 20×24
  • 24×36

All of these are in the standard measurement of inches.  If you need a conversion to metric and centimeters, simply multiply the measurement in inches by 2.54.  You’ll get the metric measurement.

Cramer Imaging's fine art landscape photograph of the American Falls, Idaho reservoir in the winter at sunset
Not all US ‘standard’ size photos, such as the 4×6, require cropping from the dimensions of most camera sensors

Now, those may be standard sizes for photo prints, but what good does that do if you don’t know what size will work best for your purposes?  The chart below should help with that.

Common Use Size (inches)
Wallet 2.5×3.5
Photo Album 4×6
5×7
Small Wall Displays 8×10
11×14
Large Wall Displays 16×20
20×24
24×36

Standard Sizes for European Prints

Since Europeans use a different system to measure length and width (meters in the metric system) and a different system for sizes of prints, it seemed only right to include that information as well.  Use the chart below to get a good idea of how the European standards apply to the standard size of a photo.

Common Use Size Dimensions
(mm)
Dimensions
(inches)
Wallet A7 74 x 105 2.9 x 4.1
Photo Album A6 105 x 148 4.1 x 5.8
A5 148 x 210 5.8 x 8.3
Small Wall Displays A4 210 x 297 8.3 x 11.7
A3 297 x 420 11.7 x 16.5
Large Wall Displays A2 420 x 594 16.5 x 23.4
A1 594 x 841 23.4 x 33.1
A0 841 x 1,189 33.1 x 46.8

Conclusion

When trying to decide what the size of a ‘standard’ photo is, it really does help to get more specific.  Are we talking the US or European standards?  What do you plan on using the photo for?  After all, a wallet-sized photo may be a standard size but not for a wall display.  It’s too small for that purpose.

Once you understand the system to use and your purpose for the photo, finding out the standard size(s) will be easy using the charts above.

Do you feel we missed a definition of a ‘standard’ photo size?  Share it below in the comments.  We’d love to learn together.

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