The two sizes everyone means by "movie poster"
When people in the film business say "the poster", they usually mean one of two prints.
- The US one-sheet: 27 x 40 inches, portrait. This is the standard theatrical poster in the United States and a size many frames sold as "movie poster frames" are built for, alongside the 24 x 36 inch retail size. Older US one-sheets were often 27 x 41 inches, which is why vintage frames do not always fit modern posters.
- The UK quad: 30 x 40 inches, landscape. The standard cinema poster in the United Kingdom is wider than it is tall. Quad artwork is usually a reworked layout of the same campaign, not the one-sheet turned sideways, because a portrait composition does not fit a landscape frame.
Every other size in this guide is either a smaller lobby format, a retail or event print, or a digital placement measured in pixels. The tool above gives you all of them, worked out at the print resolution and bleed you choose.
Other print sizes you will meet
These sizes come from long-standing US cinema and poster trade practice. No single standards body publishes them, so confirm the size with your printer or venue before you build the file.
| Size | Inches (width x height) | Shape | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| US one-sheet | 27 x 40 | Portrait | Theatrical poster |
| UK quad | 40 x 30 | Landscape | UK cinema poster |
| Half sheet | 28 x 22 | Usually landscape | Older lobby display |
| Insert | 14 x 36 | Tall portrait | Older lobby display |
| Window card | 14 x 22 | Portrait | Shop windows, small venues |
| Lobby card | 14 x 11 | Landscape | Sets of scene stills |
| Retail print | 24 x 36 | Portrait | Shops, events, reprints |
| Small print | 11 x 17 | Portrait | Flyers, small screenings |
Outside North America, many printers work in the international A series instead. Those sizes come from the ISO 216 paper standard: A1 is 594 x 841 mm (about 23.4 x 33.1 inches), A2 is 420 x 594 mm and A3 is 297 x 420 mm. All A sizes share the same proportions, so artwork scales between them without cropping. They do not share the proportions of a one-sheet.
From inches to pixels: the arithmetic
A printer needs enough pixels to cover the paper at the resolution they print. The calculation has three steps, and the tool shows each of them in the breakdown.
- Add the bleed. Bleed is extra image beyond the finished edge. It is added to every side, so the width grows by twice the bleed and so does the height.
- Multiply by the resolution. Resolution is measured in dots per inch (DPI), meaning how many pixels the printer places along each inch. Inches times DPI gives pixels.
- Round to whole pixels. You cannot have half a pixel, so the tool rounds each side to the nearest whole number.
Worked example: a one-sheet at 300 DPI
This is the first worked example on this page, done by hand with the same numbers the tool shows.
- Trim size: 27 x 40 inches.
- Bleed: 0.125 inches on each side, so add 0.25 inches to each dimension. The canvas becomes 27.25 x 40.25 inches.
- Width in pixels: 27.25 times 300 is 8,175 pixels.
- Height in pixels: 40.25 times 300 is 12,075 pixels.
So the file is 8,175 x 12,075 pixels. That is about 98.7 million pixels. In CMYK, the four-ink color mode printers use, each pixel at 8 bits per channel takes 4 bytes, so the uncompressed image is about 395 MB. Layered working files are larger still. Make sure your computer and your file transfer method can handle that before you start.
Worked example: a UK quad at 150 DPI
- Trim size: 40 x 30 inches, landscape.
- With 0.125-inch bleed: 40.25 x 30.25 inches.
- Pixels: 40.25 times 150 is 6,037.5, which rounds to 6,038. 30.25 times 150 is 4,537.5, which rounds to 4,538.
The quad file is 6,038 x 4,538 pixels. Its shape is 4:3, the same proportion as 40 to 30.
What the result panel shows
For a print size, the tool returns six figures and a working.
- Trim size is the finished poster, in inches, width first.
- Size with bleed is the canvas you should set up in your design software.
- Pixels with bleed is that canvas at your chosen resolution. This is the export size to send the printer.
- Aspect ratio is the shape in lowest terms, with the decimal width-to-height figure underneath.
- Safe area is the zone for text and logos, in inches.
- Uncompressed file is a rough guide to how heavy the image will be in CMYK. Compressed and flattened files are much smaller; layered working files are larger.
The breakdown repeats the arithmetic line by line, so you can show a printer or designer exactly where the pixel figures came from. Two tables follow: every standard print size at your resolution and bleed, and the common digital sizes. Changing the resolution or the bleed recalculates every row, which is the quickest way to brief a designer on a full set of sizes at once.
What resolution should you use?
There is no single correct DPI. The right figure depends on how close people stand to the print, and your printer has the final word. A rule of thumb that most print shops will recognise:
- About 300 DPI for small prints viewed at arm's length, such as lobby cards, flyers and 11 x 17 prints.
- About 150 DPI for large posters viewed from a few feet away, such as one-sheets and quads.
The tool applies that rule. For any print whose longest side is 17 inches or less, it compares your resolution with 300 DPI. For anything larger it compares with 150 DPI. If you meet the figure, the verdict passes. If you are below it but above half of it, you get a warning: the print may look fine at a distance, but ask your printer first. Below half of the figure, the verdict fails, because the print is likely to look soft or blocky.
Two illustrative results show where the lines fall:
- An insert (14 x 36 inches) at 100 DPI is compared with 150 DPI, because its long side is 36 inches. 100 is below 150 but above 75, so it is a warning. The file would be 1,425 x 3,625 pixels with bleed.
- A lobby card (14 x 11 inches) at 100 DPI is compared with 300 DPI. 100 is below half of 300, so it fails.
Resolution cannot be added after the fact. Scaling a small image up to a higher DPI makes a bigger file, not a sharper picture. Start from artwork that already has the pixels you need.
Trim, bleed and safe area
Three boundaries matter on every printed poster, and mixing them up is the most common reason a poster comes back from the printer looking wrong.
- Trim is the finished size, the edge the paper is cut to. For a one-sheet that is 27 x 40 inches.
- Bleed is the strip outside the trim that gets cut away. The background image must extend into it so that a slightly imperfect cut never leaves a white sliver on the edge. An eighth of an inch on each side is common, but some large-format printers ask for more.
- Safe area is the zone inside the trim where important content belongs. Text, faces and logos that sit too close to the trim risk being cut or looking cramped.
The tool takes a safe margin as an input, with 0.5 inches as the default. On a one-sheet, 27 minus two half-inches is 26, and 40 minus two half-inches is 39, so the safe area is 26 x 39 inches. Keep your title, credits and any required logos inside it.
If you set the bleed to zero, the tool warns you. Some digital printing jobs genuinely need no bleed, but most poster printers expect it, and adding it later means redrawing the edges of the art.
Aspect ratio: why sizes do not swap cleanly
The aspect ratio is the proportion of width to height. Two posters with the same ratio can be scaled into each other perfectly. Two with different ratios cannot; one of them must be cropped or have space added.
- A one-sheet is 27:40, which is about 0.675 wide for every 1 tall.
- A 24 x 36 retail print is 2:3, about 0.667.
- A quad is 4:3 in landscape.
The one-sheet and the retail print look almost identical, but the small difference still matters. Scale a 24 x 36 design up so its width matches 27 inches and the height becomes 40.5 inches, half an inch too tall for a one-sheet. Something at the top or bottom must be cropped. Scale a one-sheet down to 24 inches wide and the height becomes about 35.6 inches, so you need to add background or crop the sides to fill a 24 x 36 sheet.
The fix is to plan for the sizes you need from the start. Keep the background image larger than any single layout, and keep the title, credits and logos on separate layers so you can reposition them for each shape.
The billing block
The billing block is the dense block of credits at the bottom of a theatrical poster: the companies, the cast, the key crew, the producers, the writers and the director. It is set in tall, condensed type so it fits in a narrow band.
On a professional release, the contents and size of the billing block are often governed by contracts. Agreements commonly express the minimum size of a credit as a percentage of the size of the title, and union agreements on signatory productions also affect who must be named and how. If your film has those obligations, get the required wording and sizes from your producer or lawyer before the designer starts. On an independent release with no such contracts, keep the billing block legible and accurate, with names spelled exactly as each person wants them.
For a film adapted from a book, the billing block usually includes the source credit in a form such as "based on the novel by" and the author's name. Use the wording in your rights agreement if it sets one.
Digital sizes: pixels, not inches
For any poster that will only appear on a screen, print resolution and bleed do not apply. The size is a pixel count set by the platform. The tool switches to pixel mode for digital uses and shows the dimensions, the ratio and a simple safe area.
| Use | Pixels | Ratio | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Streaming poster | 2,000 x 3,000 | 2:3 | A common portrait shape; each platform sets its own exact spec |
| Streaming key art | 1,920 x 1,080 | 16:9 | A common landscape shape; many platforms ask for larger masters |
| YouTube thumbnail | 1,280 x 720 | 16:9 | The size the YouTube Help Center recommends |
| Feed portrait | 1,080 x 1,350 | 4:5 | Portrait posts in social feeds |
| Feed square | 1,080 x 1,080 | 1:1 | Square posts |
| Vertical full screen | 1,080 x 1,920 | 9:16 | Stories, Reels and Shorts |
Platforms revise these specs, sometimes without much notice. Before you deliver, check the platform's current help pages or the delivery specification your distributor sends you.
Safe areas on screens
On screens, the danger is not a cutting blade but interface elements drawn on top of your art. The tool's digital safe area keeps 10% of the width and height clear on each side, which is a simple starting rule rather than a platform standard. On a 1,280 x 720 thumbnail that leaves a 1,024 x 576 pixel zone for text and faces.
Two specific traps:
- YouTube thumbnails show the video length in the bottom-right corner. Keep text and faces away from it.
- Full-screen vertical video has buttons, captions and the account name stacked over the bottom and right side of the frame. Preview the image on a phone before you publish.
Color: print and screen are different
Screens make color by mixing red, green and blue light, known as RGB. Printers mix cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink, known as CMYK. Some bright screen colors, especially saturated blues and greens, cannot be printed exactly, and they shift when a file is converted.
- For print, ask the printer which color profile they want and whether they prefer to receive CMYK files or do the conversion themselves. Order a proof before the full run.
- For screens, export in sRGB, the standard color space for web and apps, unless a platform specifies otherwise.
From book cover to film poster
If your film is adapted from your own book, you may want the poster to echo the cover. There are two practical points to check first.
The shapes are related. A 6 x 9 inch book, one of the most common trim sizes for paperbacks, has a 2:3 shape. So do a 24 x 36 inch retail print and a 2,000 x 3,000 pixel streaming poster. Cover art built at 6 x 9 can often be recomposed for those sizes with little cropping, provided the original image has enough resolution. It will not drop straight into a 27 x 40 one-sheet, which is slightly wider, or a landscape quad, which needs a new layout.
The rights may not carry over. Cover art is usually licensed for the book. A photograph or illustration licensed for a book cover is not automatically licensed for a film poster, film marketing or merchandise. Check the agreement with your cover designer, illustrator or stock image library before you reuse any element, and get a written extension if it is needed.
Paper, finish and printing
The size is only part of the brief. Before you send a file, settle these with the printer:
- Paper weight and finish. Matte paper reduces glare under lights; gloss makes colors pop but reflects. Ask to see samples.
- Single or double-sided. Theatrical one-sheets for backlit display cases are often printed on both sides, with a mirrored image on the back so the poster glows evenly when lit. If your poster is going into a lightbox, ask whether the venue expects this.
- Quantity and proof. Order a proof, even a small one, before a full run. Colors on paper rarely match colors on a screen exactly.
- Delivery format. Most printers want a flattened PDF or TIFF with bleed included. Ask whether they want crop marks added and whether fonts must be converted to outlines.
Posters for festival screenings
Festivals usually ask for a poster image when you submit or when you are accepted. It is often a digital file used in the program, on the website and in the festival's own social posts, and the requested pixel size varies from festival to festival. Some festivals also ask for printed posters for venue displays when the film screens; the size depends on the venue's frames, so ask before printing.
A good habit is to prepare three versions in advance: a portrait poster with the full billing block, a version with the title only for small placements where a billing block would be unreadable, and a landscape still with the title for websites. Those three cover most requests without a rushed redesign.
The thumbnail test
Most people will see your poster smaller than a playing card, on a phone, in a grid of other titles. Before you finalize any design, shrink it to roughly the size of a thumbnail and look at it from arm's length. If the title cannot be read and the main image cannot be recognized at that size, simplify. Fewer elements, a larger title and stronger contrast between title and background survive the reduction far better than fine detail.
One master file, every size
The most efficient way to cover every size is a single layered master built for the largest print you need.
- Build the master at the largest size, usually a one-sheet or quad, at full resolution with bleed.
- Keep the image larger than the frame so you have room to recompose for other ratios.
- Separate the layers: background art, characters, title treatment, tagline, billing block and logos.
- Make each size its own layout, using the table from the tool for pixel dimensions, and move layers rather than stretching them.
- Export digital versions last, downsampling from the master so they stay sharp.
A checklist before you send a poster anywhere
- Correct trim size for the format, in the right orientation.
- Bleed added to every side, with the background extending into it.
- Text inside the safe area, including the billing block and logos.
- Resolution checked against your printer's minimum.
- Color mode and profile agreed with the printer.
- Credits verified against contracts and the rights agreement.
- Digital versions checked against each platform's current specification.
Sizing mistakes that cost a reprint
Building at the trim size. A file set up at exactly 27 x 40 inches has no bleed. The printer either sends it back or stretches it, and both cost time.
Turning a one-sheet sideways for a quad. A portrait layout squeezed into a landscape frame leaves the image tiny and the sides empty. A quad needs its own composition.
Upscaling a web image for print. A 1,080-pixel social graphic printed at 27 inches wide works out to about 40 DPI. It will look blurred from across a room.
Forgetting the billing block in the safe area. The credits are the smallest type on the poster and the first thing to be clipped if they sit near the trim.
Assuming every platform uses the same digital size. A streaming poster, a festival catalogue image and a social post are three different specs. Export each one deliberately.
Questions to settle before design starts
Agree these with whoever is printing or delivering the poster before the designer opens a file: the exact sizes needed, the orientation of each, the bleed and safe margin, the resolution, the color mode, the file format, the delivery deadline and who signs off the final proof. Ten minutes on these questions saves a round of rework later.
Larger outdoor and transit formats
Bus shelters, billboards and transit posters come in many sizes that differ by country, city and advertising company. They are not standard film formats, and the visible area is often smaller than the printed sheet because a frame covers the edges. If your campaign includes outdoor placements, get the exact specification sheet from the media owner, including the visible area and the required resolution, before you design. The arithmetic in this tool still applies: inches plus bleed, multiplied by the resolution they ask for.
Sources and rules this page relies on
- US and UK cinema poster trade sizes. The 27 x 40 inch one-sheet, the 30 x 40 inch UK quad and the smaller lobby formats are long-standing industry conventions used by distributors and poster printers; no single standards body publishes them, so confirm with your printer.
- ISO 216, published by the International Organization for Standardization. The source of the A-series paper sizes such as A1, A2 and A3.
- YouTube Help Center, guidance on custom video thumbnails, published by YouTube. The source of the recommended 1,280 x 720 thumbnail size; check it for the current file requirements.
- Platform help pages and distributor delivery specifications. Streaming and social image sizes come from each platform and change over time. The sizes in this guide are common shapes, not a substitute for the current spec.
- Your printer's file requirements. Resolution, bleed, color profile and file format are set by the print shop. The DPI figures in this page are a rule of thumb, labeled as such.