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Lake photo in a white mat and black frame — How Wide Should A Photo Border Be

Guide

How wide should a photo border be?

There is no single right width, but there are ranges that read the same way to most people — a frame, a mat, a statement — and they are easiest to state as a share of the photo.

On screens: percent of the long edge

Two to three per cent reads as a thin frame; four to six per cent as a clean white border; eight to twelve per cent as a mat. Past fifteen the border becomes the subject. The figures hold whatever the photo’s size because they scale with it.

Border widths in pixels
Photo3 %5 %10 %
4000 × 3000120200400
3024 × 4032121202403
1080 × 13504168135

On prints: millimetres

A print is judged at arm’s length, so width is physical. Five millimetres survives most trimmers and reads as a narrow border; ten reads as deliberate; twenty and above as a mat. At 300 PPI, 5 mm is 59 pixels, 10 mm is 118, 20 mm is 236. Without a resolution the millimetre figure has no pixel meaning — which is why this site leaves the field unset rather than guessing 72 or 300.

Questions

Why percent of the long edge rather than pixels?

Because photos differ in size by a factor of ten. 60 pixels is a hairline on a 6000-pixel master and a slab on a 600-pixel screenshot; 5 % is the same proportion on both.

Should the bottom be wider?

For a mounted print, slightly: 1.1 to 1.2 times the other sides counters the way a centred picture looks low. On screens an even border usually looks right.

What about panoramas?

Percent of the long edge makes the border look heavy on a wide panorama's short sides. Set the sides unlinked, or think in percent of the short edge — 8 % of the short side is about 3 % of a 3:1 panorama's long side.

Back to the measuring surface