Photo Print Size Calculator
Calculate maximum photo print size from your camera's megapixel count at 150, 300, and 600 DPI.
Find the largest sharp print size for any resolution.
Enter megapixels and aspect ratio to see max print sizes at different quality levels.
Print size depends on your camera’s megapixels and the DPI (dots per inch).
The formula:
- Total pixels = Megapixels × 1,000,000
- Width (pixels) = sqrt(Total pixels × Aspect ratio)
- Print width (inches) = Width pixels / DPI
- Print width (cm) = Print width (inches) × 2.54
Standard camera aspect ratios:
- 3:2, most DSLRs and mirrorless cameras
- 4:3, most smartphones and compact cameras
- 16:9, video mode
- 1:1, square format
Print quality guidelines:
| DPI | Quality | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| 150 | Acceptable | Large posters viewed far away |
| 300 | High quality | Photos, magazines, brochures |
| 600 | Professional | Fine art, close inspection |
Common camera resolutions:
| Megapixels | Max print at 300 DPI (3:2) |
|---|---|
| 8 MP | 8.1 × 12.2 in (20.6 × 31.0 cm) |
| 12 MP | 9.9 × 14.9 in (25.2 × 37.8 cm) |
| 24 MP | 14.0 × 21.1 in (35.6 × 53.5 cm) |
| 48 MP | 19.8 × 29.8 in (50.3 × 75.6 cm) |
The reassuring news is that megapixels matter far less than camera marketing implies. At 300 DPI, a 12-megapixel phone photo prints a crisp 10 by 13 inches, comfortably covering the prints most people ever order. You only need 40- and 50-megapixel sensors if you crop hard or print genuinely large, which most of us never do. Chasing megapixels for ordinary prints is solving a problem you don’t have.
Two things actually limit print size. The first is cropping: every time you cut into a frame you throw away pixels, so a heavy crop of a 24 MP shot might leave you with 8 MP of usable detail. The second is viewing distance, the same rule that governs screens. A photo on the wall is viewed from several feet away, so it can be printed at 150 DPI and still look sharp, which is how poster and canvas prints get away with far less resolution than a photo held in the hand. What you can’t do is fake it: upscaling software invents pixels but not real detail, so a small file blown up large just looks soft.
How we build and check this converter
This converter runs entirely in your browser, so the numbers you enter stay on your device. The math behind it is written by hand and tested against worked examples and standard references before the page goes live.
SuperGlobalCalculator is independently built and maintained. See how we build and verify our calculators.