Picture Frame & Poster Size Visualizer

How to use the frame size visualizer

1. Pick what you are framing: a photo or print, a poster, an A size, or type any other size.
2. Choose a mat: none, a standard mat, or a wide 3″ one. The answer is the frame to buy and the mat border it leaves.
3. See it to scale on a 12-foot wall above an 84″ sofa, or on a photo of your own wall. For your photo, stand straight in front of the wall, tap both ends of something you have measured (the sofa, a window) and type how wide it is. The photo stays on your device. Drag the frame to try it anywhere.

Standard picture frame sizes

These are the frame sizes shops stock, in inches, from Frame USA’s list. A frame’s size is the picture or mat it holds: an 11 × 14″ frame holds an 11 × 14″ mat or print, and its outside is bigger by the width of the moulding.

What size frame for a print with a mat

A mat is the card border between the picture and the frame. It gives the print room to breathe and keeps the glass off it. The standard pairs, from PaperSizesWiki’s table, and the border each leaves:

Any other size gets a 2″ mat, then the standard frame that holds it with the most even border. The border is rarely the same all round, because standard frames keep their own proportions, not the print’s.

Standard poster sizes

The US movie poster, the “one sheet”, is 27 × 40″; before the mid-1980s it was 27 × 41″, which is why frame shops still sell both. A 24 × 36 poster is generally framed without a mat.

A sizes: A4, A3, A2, A1

Prints from outside the US come in ISO A sizes, which match no US frame exactly.

Standard canvas sizes

A stretched canvas wraps round wooden bars, so it is its own outside: it hangs with no frame and no mat. Fredrix, which has stretched artists’ canvas since 1868, sells its Red Label canvas on two depths of bar: “standard 3/4″ profile and a gallery 1-3/8″ profile”. On the deeper gallery bars the picture or the paint carries round the sides. Pick a canvas in the tool above to see it to scale on your wall.

From Fredrix’s Red Label part list, read 5 October 2026: 44 sizes on standard bars, 35 on gallery bars. Canvas prints are sold in the same sizes; check the bar depth on the listing.

Three worked examples

An 8 × 10″ photo with a mat. The standard pair is an 11 × 14″ frame: the mat shows 1½″ at the sides and 2″ top and bottom. With a 1″ frame the whole thing is 13 × 16″ on the wall.

An 18 × 24″ poster with a 2″ mat. 18 + 4 by 24 + 4 is 22 × 28, a standard size, so buy a 22 × 28″ frame and the mat is 2″ all round.

An A4 print, no mat. A4 is 8.3 × 11.7″, so the nearest frame is 9 × 12″, which leaves a thin gap: about ⅜″ at the sides and ⅛″ top and bottom. Use a mat, or order a custom frame.

Common framing mistakes

• Buying a frame by the print size when you want a mat. An 8 × 10 print with a mat needs an 11 × 14 frame, not an 8 × 10.
• Measuring the outside of the frame. A frame’s size is its opening. The outside is bigger by the moulding on both sides.
• Buying art too small for the wall. An 8 × 10 over a sofa looks lost. See it here on your own wall first, then check the size against the gallery wall calculator, which says how big art over furniture should be and how high to hang it.
• A metric print in a US frame. A4 and the other A sizes fit no US frame exactly; plan on a mat or a custom frame.

Read next

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• A Frame TV gallery wall
• Vintage botanical print decor ideas
• Picture frame molding ideas

Frame and poster size questions

What are the standard picture frame sizes?

The common ones are 4 × 6, 5 × 7, 8 × 10, 11 × 14, 16 × 20, 18 × 24 and 24 × 36 inches, with squares (5 × 5, 8 × 8, 12 × 12) and in-between sizes like 12 × 16, 20 × 24 and 22 × 28. A frame’s size is what it holds, not its outside.

What are the standard poster sizes?

11 × 17 (tabloid), 12 × 18, 18 × 24 and 24 × 36 inches, plus 27 × 40 for movie posters. Each has a frame of the same size, so a poster needs no mat to fit.

What size frame for an 8×10 print with a mat?

An 11 × 14″ frame. The mat window shows the 8 × 10 print with a border of 1½″ at the sides and 2″ top and bottom.

What size mat for an 8×10 picture?

An 11 × 14″ mat with a window for an 8 × 10 print, which fits a standard 11 × 14 frame. The window is cut a little smaller than the print so the mat holds its edges.

What size is a movie poster?

27 × 40 inches: the US “one sheet”. Posters printed before the mid-1980s are usually 27 × 41″, and frame shops sell both sizes.

What size frame for an A4 print?

No US frame is exactly A4 (8.3 × 11.7″). A 9 × 12″ frame holds it with a thin gap, so the usual answer is a mat: with a 2″ mat, a 14 × 18″ frame. Or buy a frame made for A4.

What are the standard canvas sizes?

Fredrix’s stretched canvas runs from 5 × 7 to 48 × 60 inches: 8 × 10, 11 × 14, 12 × 12, 16 × 20, 18 × 24, 20 × 24, 24 × 30, 24 × 36, 30 × 40, 36 × 48 and 48 × 60 among them, on ¾″ standard or 1⅜″ gallery bars. A stretched canvas needs no frame: it wraps round its bars and hangs as it is.

How do I know what size frame I need?

Measure the picture. With no mat, buy the frame of that size. With a mat, add the border on each side and buy the standard frame that holds the total: an 11 × 14 print with a 2½–3″ mat goes in a 16 × 20.