One of the first questions that come up when an artist decides to sell their artwork is: What is the best size for art prints? It’s always a good idea to stick to the standard fine art print sizes. But there are small and larger size prints, so what is a good size for your prints? This post explains what size art prints sell best and helps you find the best size for your prints!
Offering prints is an excellent way to showcase and sell your art to a broad audience.
Years ago, artists had to pay upfront for a large number of prints, hoping to be able to sell them all – or at least a substantial amount to make up for the money invested. If the prints didn’t sell, the artist would be left with the inventory and lose profit.
Nowadays, prints don’t need to be made in mass-production anymore. Artists can sell individual reproductions of their work without having to cash out a large upfront payment. It’s commonplace that artists order prints as needed from online printing services like Pictorem and FinerWorks, or print-on-demand providers, such as Printful or Printify.
That’s why fine art prints become more and more popular and affordable.
One of the first questions that artists wonder about when they start selling prints is: what is the best size for art prints?
In fact, the size may influence pricing and popularity of a print. That’s why it’s important to know about the standard fine art print sizes and what size art prints sell best.
To help you figure out the best size for your art prints, we will talk about the typical art print sizes in this post and help you find a good size for your prints!
But before we get into the nitty-gritty, you need to know that every good art print requires a high-resolution image to create the print.
What is a good image size for art?
The first thing that makes a good image size for art printing is the resolution. To create a high-quality print, you need to have an image with a resolution of at least 150 dots per inch (DPI, or PPI for pixels per inch).
The DPI determines the detail in the print. The higher the resolution, the better. That means an image with a resolution of 300 DPI is even better! Because the higher resolution will ensure that pixelation is not visible, even to the most discerning eye.
The next thing that accounts for a good image size for art is the dimension in pixels. The larger the print you want to create, the larger the image dimensions you need.
Let me give you an example. Let’s say you want to create a small art print measuring 8 x 10 inch. For that purpose, an image size of 1200 x 1500 pixels would be enough. However, to make a large art print of 24 x 24 inch, you will need an image size of at least 3600 x 3600 pixels.
Learn more about the Best File Format For Printing Digital Art.
Standard Fine Art Print Sizes
Art print sizes are typically measured by width and height in inch (or centimeters). For instance, an 11×14-inch print is eleven inches in width and fourteen inches in height.
Why is it important to know the standard fine art print sizes? Because the standard sizes fit the common frames that you can get in consumer stores or online. That makes is easier for art buyers to find an adequate frame and display the art print in their homes.
Related: Best Photo Finish For Framing Art Prints – Matte vs Glossy
As a result, prints offered in the standard sizes tend to sell better than uncommon sizes.
Art Print Sizes Chart
These are the standard art print sizes in US dimensions (inch):
- 5×7
- 6×8
- 8×10
- 10×10
- 11×14
- 12×12
- 12×16
- 14×14
- 12×18
- 16×16
- 16×20
Common Sizes for Larger Canvas Prints:
- 12×16
- 18×24
- 20×24
- 24×36
- 30×40
- 36×48
Small Art Print Sizes
Many artists prefer to offer small art prints in addition to larger sizes.
So what are the advantages of small art print sizes?
First of all, small art prints are more affordable. They are not only cheaper to produce, but also cheaper and easier to ship and frame.
Moreover, small art prints are easier to display in limited space. For example, it is no problem to display a small print on a shelf or a little side table.
Small prints are also a great way to introduce your art to new customers. People usually don’t like to spend a large amount of money to purchase a piece from an artist they don’t know yet. If they like the small print, they are more likely to buy a larger piece in the future.
Small art prints are also popular gifts. When you know that a friend of yours admires a certain piece of art, it’s a nice idea to gift them a small print of it for their birthday or other occasion.
All things considered, small is the best size for art prints when you want to reach a wider audience and ultimately make more sales!
Large Art Prints Sizes
As a rule of thumb, large art print sizes start around the 16-inch mark.
Even though large prints have bigger impact and a higher profit margin for the artist, small art print sizes sell better than large art prints.
Why is that? Well, there are a couple of reasons.
First of all, larger prints cost substantially more than small prints. They are more expensive to produce, more expensive to frame, and more expensive to ship. And if you want to make profit, you’ll still need to add a margin on top of that!
Then, there’s the space factor. Especially in the cities, our living spaces tend to be limited. Only few people have the space to display a large artwork. Do they have the space to display two large artworks?
That means your chances of selling large prints are not only restricted by the money people are willing to spend, but also by the space they have available to display the print in their homes.
For high-quality, yet affordable, large art prints, I recommend checking out FinerWorks and Pictorem.
What is a good size for prints?
The best way to go for many artists is to offer their artwork in a variety of different sizes, including small, medium, and large prints.
That gives your customers the possibility to choose the size art prints they like best – and you have overall better chances to make sales!
The only thing you should keep in mind is to offer your art in the standard print sizes. Because if you offer uncommon print sizes or oversized prints, it will be hard to find a frame. That will discourage many potential customers from buying your art.
I chose to do it the same way in my web store, too. I’m offering all my art prints in three different sizes and two different paper types.
Related: Best Paper For Printing Digital Art
Alternatively, customers can also purchase a high-resolution image to download that they can print out themselves or display in an electronic frame.
In conclusion, what is the best size for art prints?
At the end of the day, the best sizes for art prints are the smaller sizes, the most popular print sizes being:
- 8 x 10
- 10 x 12
- 11 x 14
If you offer your art in these sizes, the prints will be affordable and your customers won’t have a problem finding a frame in most stores or online.
Think about it that way: the most common smaller frame sizes are 10 x 8 and 10 x 12. 16 x 20-inch frames are often used for larger artwork.
- A 10 x 8-inch frame will fit 3 print sizes: 5×7, 6×8, and 8×10.
- A 10 x 12-inch frame will fit 4 print sizes: 5×7, 6×8, 8×10, and 10×12.
- A 16 x 20-inch frame will also fit 4 print sizes: 11×14, 12×16, 12×18, and 16×20.
For these reasons, many artists prefer to sell smaller prints of their artwork.
Small size art prints sell better because they are easy and less expensive to frame, and everyone has the space to display them somewhere in their home!
Good advice. I have noticed when displaying my photos and art work in 11×14, they get more notice. And I love your lip images!
Hi Sandy, thanks for stopping by!
I think large vertical images get the most attention, especially on social media. So it makes perfectly sense to showcase your art prints in 11×14 (:
By the way, happy to hear that you like my lip art ♥︎
This may be a silly question by why not 5×7 print instead of the 10×12 size?
Hi Yasmine, thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment! I’m not sure if I understand correctly what you mean… Generally speaking, 12×10 is a more popular print size than 5×7. Of course, there’s nothing wrong about offering art prints in 5×7, but more people seem to prefer to get a slightly larger print of their favorite artwork. To find out what your customers like best, you can start offering both print sizes and then see what sells best and offer more of that (:
I went over this internet site and I conceive you have a lot of superb information, saved to bookmarks (:.
Thanks for stopping by and dropping a comment, Traynor. Always happy when my posts can help other artists along the way. (: