Photo print sizes, explained

Choosing a print size sounds trivial until you are looking at a list of dimensions and wondering whether a photo from your phone will survive being enlarged. Here is the short version.

What the sizes are for

• Small (around 4×6 in / 10×15 cm). Sets, albums, things you post to someone. Cheap enough to order many.
• Medium (around 8×10 in / 20×25 cm). The desk-and-shelf size. A single frame that does not dominate a room.
• Large (around 12×16 in / 30×40 cm and up). Wall prints. One photograph carrying a space, so it needs to be one of your best.

How much resolution you actually need

The usual rule is 300 pixels per inch for a print held in the hand. So a 8×10 wants roughly 2400×3000 pixels — well within what any phone from the last several years produces.

For a large wall print the rule relaxes, because nobody stands six inches from a framed picture. At normal viewing distance 150–200 ppi looks perfectly sharp. This is why a phone photo can print far bigger than people assume.

What genuinely kills a print is not the megapixel count. It is compression — a photo that has been through a chat app has had detail thrown away permanently, and no size is safe for it.

Aspect ratio, and the head-cropping problem

Phone photos are usually 4:3. Common print sizes are not. A 4:3 photo printed at 8×10 has to lose something, and the printer will take it from the edges.

Two ways to handle it:

• Pick a size that matches the ratio. Simplest and safest.
• Crop it yourself first, so you decide what goes rather than an algorithm.

Either way, check the preview before ordering. Tightly framed group photos are where this goes wrong most often.

Finish

Matte hides fingerprints and reflections and suits framed prints in bright rooms. Glossy carries deeper colour and more contrast, and suits small prints you hold. Neither is better; it depends where the print will live.

A reasonable default

If you are unsure: order the small size in a set of your favourites, and one medium of the single best. It costs little, and it tells you far more about what you want on the wall than staring at a size chart does.

Fondays prints from the original files in the shared pool, so what you order is the full-resolution photo rather than a copy that has been through a group chat. See sizes and pricing.