Standard image dimensions and print sizes
Screen dimensions are fixed numbers you can just look up. Print sizes are not: the pixel count you need depends on the DPI you are printing at, which is where most people go wrong. Both are below.
Open the resizer →Screen and print dimensions in pixels
| Size | Pixels | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1920×1080 (Full HD) | 1920 × 1080 | The standard desktop wallpaper and video frame. 16:9. |
| 1280×720 (HD) | 1280 × 720 | Lighter 16:9 option; still the default for video thumbnails. |
| 2560×1440 (QHD) | 2560 × 1440 | Common on 27-inch monitors. Use for wallpaper on high-DPI screens. |
| 3840×2160 (4K UHD) | 3840 × 2160 | Four times Full HD. Only worth it if the source has the detail to fill it. |
| 640×480 / 800×600 | 640 × 480 / 800 × 600 | Legacy sizes; still requested by some older upload forms. |
| 500×500 / 300×300 | 500 × 500 / 300 × 300 | Square thumbnails and avatars. |
| 1200×628 | 1200 × 628 | Open Graph / link preview image. What most platforms crop to when you share a URL. |
| A4 at 300 DPI | 2480 × 3508 | 210×297mm. The standard document page for print. |
| A3 at 300 DPI | 3508 × 4961 | 297×420mm. Posters. |
| A5 at 300 DPI | 1748 × 2480 | 148×210mm. Flyers and half-page inserts. |
| US Letter at 300 DPI | 2550 × 3300 | 8.5×11 inches. The North American document standard. |
| 4×6 inch photo | 1200 × 1800 | Standard photo print at 300 DPI. |
| 5×7 inch photo | 1500 × 2100 | Common frame size at 300 DPI. |
| 8×10 inch photo | 2400 × 3000 | Portrait print at 300 DPI. |
| Business card | 1050 × 600 | 3.5×2 inches at 300 DPI. Add bleed if your printer asks for it. |
DPI is the whole story for print
Pixels have no physical size until you print them. DPI — dots per inch — is the conversion. At 300 DPI, one inch of paper needs 300 pixels, so A4 (8.27 × 11.69 inches) needs 2480 × 3508. At 150 DPI the same page needs half that in each direction and will look noticeably soft up close.
300 DPI is the standard for anything held in the hand. 150 DPI is acceptable for posters viewed from a few feet away. Below 150, print quality degrades quickly regardless of how good the original photo was.
Enlarging does not add detail
Resizing a 600×400 photo up to 2480×3508 does not make it printable at A4 — it stretches the same information across more pixels, which reads as blur. The detail has to exist in the original. If it does not, either print smaller or start from a higher-resolution source.
Aspect ratio decides what gets cut
Forcing a 4:3 photo into a 16:9 frame means something leaves the picture. Decide whether you would rather crop (lose the edges) or letterbox (keep everything, add bars). For portraits, crop from the bottom rather than the top — cutting the top of a head reads as a mistake in a way that cutting the chest does not.
Common questions
What DPI should I use?
300 DPI for anything held and read closely — documents, photo prints, business cards. 150 DPI is fine for large posters seen from a distance.
Why does my A4 print look blurry?
Almost always because the source image has fewer pixels than A4 at 300 DPI needs (2480 × 3508). Enlarging cannot create the missing detail.
Does resizing reduce the file size too?
Yes — fewer pixels means a smaller file, usually dramatically so. Resizing is often the better first move when you are far over an upload limit.