A little precision. A better frame.

Aspect ratio calculator

Find your frame. Keep its proportions.
Calculate pixel dimensions for photos, prints and screens.

Choose your proportions

Enter original pixel dimensions, or use a ratio such as 3 × 2.

Original widthOriginal height

Set your new size

Edit either value. The other follows your original ratio.

New width (px)New height (px)

YOUR FRAMELandscape

3:2

Proportional preview · not actual size

OUTPUT DIMENSIONS1920 × 1280 px

Exact whole-pixel proportions.

No photo needed. Calculations happen in your browser. This tool does not upload, crop or resize an image file. Privacy details.

A field guide to the frame

Popular aspect ratios, with examples

Read a ratio as width : height. A 3:2 frame is wider than it is tall; 2:3 is its upright counterpart. The examples below are exact mathematical dimensions, not minimum upload sizes or a ranking of the most-used formats.

3:2 The classic photograph

A familiar shape from 35 mm still photography and many digital cameras. It leaves room around a subject without becoming a very wide panorama.

6000 × 4000 px → 1500 × 1000 px

Try it for: A landscape photograph for a 6 × 4 inch print. Turn it upright for a 2:3 portrait.

Keep 3:2 when your original already uses it and you want to retain the whole frame.

4:3 A little more height

Used by Micro Four Thirds cameras and many phone photo modes. Compared with 3:2 at the same width, it gives you more vertical room.

4000 × 3000 px → 1600 × 1200 px

Try it for: A travel scene with foreground and sky, or a 12 × 9 inch landscape print.

Check your actual camera setting: the device type alone does not guarantee the file’s ratio.

16:9 The widescreen frame

A standard shape for HD and UHD video, widescreen presentations and YouTube’s desktop player. It gives horizontal compositions plenty of space.

3840 × 2160 px → 1920 × 1080 px

Try it for: A landscape video or presentation slide. Another exact example is 1280 × 720 px.

A 3:2 still photo needs cropping or padding to fit this shape without stretching.

1:1 The balanced square

Useful for product tiles, square photo layouts and profile-image source artwork. A square has equal width and height, regardless of its resolution.

3000 × 3000 px → 1080 × 1080 px

Try it for: A consistent product grid, or a 10 × 10 inch print.

If the destination displays a circular avatar, keep important details away from the corners.

4:5 A compact portrait

A useful upright composition for portraits and feed-style graphics. It also matches an 8 × 10 inch print without changing proportions.

2400 × 3000 px → 1080 × 1350 px

Try it for: An 8 × 10 portrait, or a vertical product photograph with room for a short caption in the design.

This is not the same as a tall 9:16 frame. Check the destination’s current requirements before exporting.

9:16 The full-height composition

A common starting point for vertical video and story-style layouts viewed on phones. It is the portrait counterpart of 16:9.

2160 × 3840 px → 1080 × 1920 px

Try it for: An upright demonstration clip or a tall graphic designed for a vertical viewing area.

Keep faces and text clear of interface overlays. Safe areas depend on the app, placement and device.

Frame illustrations show shape only, not actual photographs or relative pixel counts. For camera examples, see Panasonic’s aspect-ratio explanation and Adobe’s photography ratio guide. YouTube documents its 16:9 desktop player and adaptable playback in its resolution and aspect-ratio guidance. Sources reviewed September 30, 2026.

How to choose the right aspect ratio

Start with the destination. A print frame, slide template or video canvas may already define the shape. If you are publishing online, check that particular placement rather than assume one ratio fits every surface of an app.
Check the original. Divide width by height, or enter both values in the calculator. Our photo metadata reader can help inspect dimensions when available. Use the dimensions of the image as it will actually be displayed, especially if an orientation tag rotates it.
Protect the composition. Decide whether the subject, horizon, hands and text survive the crop. Leave extra room when the same photograph must work in landscape and portrait layouts.
Set the output size. Pick the ratio first, then the pixel dimensions. Increasing the pixel count cannot recover detail that was absent from the original.

Other useful shapes

Ratio	Example dimensions	Example use
2:3	1000 × 1500 px	Portrait version of a 3:2 photograph; a 4 × 6 inch upright print.
5:4	3000 × 2400 px	A 10 × 8 inch landscape print; the reverse of 4:5.
7:5	2100 × 1500 px	A 7 × 5 inch landscape print. It is not exactly 3:2.
2:1	2400 × 1200 px	A deliberately wide landscape or banner composition.
21:9 (7:3)	2520 × 1080 px	An exact ultrawide design canvas. Displays marketed as “21:9” may use a slightly different pixel ratio.

For a ratio without a preset, enter its two numbers as the original width and height. For a decimal ratio such as 1.85:1, use the equivalent whole numbers 185 and 100. The calculator will reduce it to 37:20.

A worked example

Fitting a 3:2 photo into a 16:9 frame

Imagine an original photo measuring 6000 × 4000 pixels. You want an output measuring 1920 × 1080 pixels. The shapes differ, so proportional resizing alone cannot fill the destination.

Crop to fill

Keep the 6000-pixel width and crop the height to 3375 pixels: 6000 × 9 ÷ 16 = 3375. Then resize the crop to 1920 × 1080.

You remove 625 rows in total, or 15.625% of the original pixel area. A centered whole-pixel crop removes 312 rows on one edge and 313 on the other. Move the crop to protect your subject.

Fit with padding

Fit the whole photo inside the destination instead. At 1080 pixels high, the 3:2 photo becomes 1620 × 1080.

A 1920 × 1080 canvas then has 300 unused columns: 150 pixels of padding on each side when centered. Nothing is cropped, but the image does not fill the width.

Avoid stretching

Forcing the original directly to 1920 × 1080 uses different horizontal and vertical scale factors. People, circles and other familiar shapes can look distorted.

Use crop or padding when preserving the subject’s proportions matters. Our calculator keeps proportions; it does not perform these image-editing operations.

Aspect ratio, print size and resolution

A print has two separate requirements: the shape of the paper or frame and enough pixels for the intended output. For an image at a chosen pixels-per-inch value, multiply each dimension in inches by that value.

Example pixel dimensions at 300 PPI; width comes first
Print size	Ratio	Pixel dimensions
6 × 4 inches	3:2	1800 × 1200
7 × 5 inches	7:5	2100 × 1500
8 × 10 inches	4:5	2400 × 3000
12 × 8 inches	3:2	3600 × 2400
10 × 10 inches	1:1	3000 × 3000

300 PPI is a common high-quality print target, not a universal requirement. Ask the print provider about viewing distance, output method, bleed and borderless trimming. Adobe explains how pixel dimensions, resolution and print size interact.

Changing only a file’s PPI setting does not add detail. A 1800 × 1200 image can map to 6 × 4 inches at 300 PPI, or 12 × 8 inches at 150 PPI. The pixel count and aspect ratio remain the same. PPI describes image pixels per inch; printer DPI describes dots and is not the same measurement.

Common aspect-ratio mistakes

Confusing shape with resolution. 1920 × 1080 and 3840 × 2160 are both 16:9, but the second has four times as many pixels. Neither number alone guarantees a sharp photo.
Reversing width and height. 1080 × 1920 is 9:16, not 16:9. Use the orientation swap when you want to turn the frame upright.
Assuming every print fits. A 3:2 photograph fits a 6 × 4 print proportionally, but not a 7 × 5 or 10 × 8 print. Preview the crop before ordering.
Treating a rounded label as exact. 1366 × 768 is close to 16:9, but reduces exactly to 683:384. Small pixel-rounding differences are normal; this calculator reports exact reductions rather than silently relabeling them.
Ignoring video pixel shape. This calculator assumes square pixels. Some legacy or anamorphic video uses a separate pixel aspect ratio, so stored width ÷ height may differ from the displayed frame ratio.
Using one social export everywhere. The feed, thumbnail and full-screen viewer may crop differently. Preview each destination and check its current specifications.

Back to the calculator ↑

Behind the numbers

Same shape.
Different size.

Aspect ratio describes width compared with height, not image quality or resolution. A 6000 × 4000 photo and a 1920 × 1280 image both have a 3:2 ratio. Divide both original dimensions by their greatest common divisor to find the simplest ratio.

To keep the same proportions, use new height = new width × original height ÷ original width. For a 6000 × 4000 photo at 1500 pixels wide, the new height is 1000 pixels.

Pixels must be whole numbers. If a calculation needs rounding, we flag the small difference rather than claim an exact ratio. Very narrow or wide frames may be too thin to see clearly in the preview.

Before you export

Does choosing a preset crop my photo?

No. Presets set the proportions for the calculation. Changing a 3:2 photo to 1:1 requires cropping, padding or distortion in an image editor. This calculator only gives you dimensions.

Which ratio should I use?

3:2 and 4:3 are common photographic shapes; 16:9 is widescreen, 1:1 square and 9:16 tall. These are proportions, not promises about a platform’s current upload requirements.

What about print sizes?

Use the same units on both sides: a 6 × 4 inch print is 3:2. Pixel dimensions alone do not determine print sharpness; you also need the intended pixels per inch. The inputs here accept whole numbers.

Can this improve image quality?

No. Calculating a larger size does not restore missing detail. To inspect the original image dimensions and camera settings, use our local photo metadata checker, or explore the photography guides.