"This blog post won’t be controversial at all", we said in a sarcastic tone when drawing out the structure of the topic.
From inches to centimetres, or even millimetres, to A-sizing, B-sizing, understanding not only what all these sizes mean, but more importantly which one to go for, can be incredibly confusing. The worst part is that all this confusion is so unnecessary!
In this blog post, we’re going to run you through the standard poster sizes you can expect to find out there, and then try and tidy things up for you to make it easier to understand.
First things first, can we agree to use metric instead of imperial measurements?
I know this is the first point of controversy, but we have to cover it for everything else that follows.
Some people have grown up knowing and using nothing other than imperial measurements (inches, feet, yards), and others metric (mm, cm, m). Here at GOAT Prints, we prefer to use metric, only because it provides us with greater clarity and precision that is easier to visualize. For example, some posters are 70cm in height, that is 25.55 inches.
For us, it is easier to visualise 70cm, than it is 25.55 inches. And for that reason, we tend to stick to metric. If by doing so this post becomes difficult for you to follow, then we suggest opening up a google tab in your browser so that you can convert, simply type in “70cm in inches” and it will give you the answer straight away. Apologies in advance for any inconvenience this may cause.
Right – With that out of the way, let’s get down to business.
What poster sizes are available on the market?
The short answer to this question is: A lot. And there is no agreed international standard on what sizes a poster should be, which is what makes this topic such a mess.
However, we promised you simplicity, so, for the sake of this post, we will break sizes down into three categories:
- Small
- Medium
- Large
Small Posters
Within the “small poster” range, you will often find the following sizes:
- 20 x 30 cm
- A4 – 21 x 29.7 cm (this is your standard paper notebook page size).
- A3 – 29.7 x 42 cm (this is double A4 – It may seem weird to have both A3 and A4 in the same category considering that one is double the size of the other, but as far as posters go, this is still “small”).
Medium Posters
- A2 - 42 x 59.4 cm
- 45 x 60 cm
- 50 x 70 cm
Large Posters
- A1 – 59.4 x 84.1 cm
- 60 x 90 cm
- 61 x 91 cm
Which poster size should you chose?
This is where it becomes more complicated, because the choice of poster size depends on multiple factors:
- Where is the poster going to go? What type of room is it going to be in? What kind of wall space do you have available?
- What type of poster do you plan on buying? Posters that are aggressive in their design and nature may be more suitable in smaller sizes, and vice versa.
- Who is it for? If the person you are buying for (including yourself) prefers items that are more discreet, then a smaller poster would be better. If the chosen individual has a minimalist apartment, with few objects and little decoration, then, again, the smaller poster might be the better option.
We will assume for the sake of this post, that you already know what size category you are looking for.
Which are the ideal poster dimensions in each category?
As much as we would like to say to you that our poster sizes are the ideal ones, it really depends on one factor: Framing.
Most posters are framed, we believe that this is a reasonable assumption to make. From there, the next question you have to ask yourself is: Who is going to frame it?
If the answer to that question is yourself, then it really does not matter which size you get, because often you can get the frames from your supplier (If you would like to purchase a frame for your GOAT Print poster, simply drop us an email and we can arrange this for you).
If the recipient of the poster is going to be the one framing it, then you need to have a guess at where they are likely to get their frame from.
If you think they are going to get their frame online, then here again, the poster size does not really matter, because they will find the size they need somewhere on the web.
If you believe they will go to their local IKEA to get a frame, then you might want to have a look at what sizes they have available and let that be the deciding element of your decision making.
Finally, if the recipient (or yourself) has no intention of framing the poster (this is a real shame, but we would understand), then of course, you are free to buy whatever size you think is best.
We hope this has been helpful in some way. If you have any questions at all about any of our prints, or framing, or just want to say hi, please feel free to get in touch with us at hello@goat-prints.com.