Understanding Aspect Ratios in Photographic Prints

Ratios are simply fractions.
I can hear the groans from here—everyone loved fractions in school, right?

This is one of those cases where simple is good and complicated is not. I’ll keep this as straightforward as possible and point you toward more information if you’d like to go deeper.

In photographic prints, the photographer chooses a crop that best supports the composition of the image. This usually happens after the photograph has been uploaded to a computer. When a file comes directly from the camera, it typically starts with a 3:2 aspect ratio.

From there, the artist decides how the photograph wants to live as a print.

I tend to work with standard aspect ratios because they make printing, framing, and displaying photographs much easier. One of the most familiar examples is the 8×10 print. Most people have seen, owned, or framed an 8×10 photograph at some point.

An 8×10 print is eight inches by ten inches (or ten by eight, depending on orientation). This size corresponds to a 4:5 ratio, meaning the simplified fraction is ⅘. Once you understand that relationship, the sizing becomes predictable. If you double the dimensions of an 8×10, you arrive at a 16×20 print.

So if you see one of my photographs offered as an 8×10 and are interested in a larger print, the next size in that same ratio would be 16×20. Aspect ratios allow photographers, printers, and collectors to work with exact measurements while preserving the integrity of the image.

Below are some common aspect ratios and the photographic print sizes that correspond to them.

Common Aspect Ratios and Print Sizes (in inches)

1:1 ratio
Common print sizes: 6×6, 12×12

1:2 ratio
Common print sizes: 6×12, 8×16

3:2 ratio
Common print sizes: 2×3, 6×9, 12×18, 16×24, 20×30

5:4 ratio
Common print sizes: 8×10, 16×20, 24×30

6:5 ratio
Common print sizes: 10×12, 20×24

7:5 ratio
Common print sizes: 5×7, 10×14, 20×28