Photograph printing and framing: choose the size, frame and surface

Start with the right picture

A framed picture gets looked at from across the room and then, sooner or later, from a hand's width away. It's the second look that exposes problems. Pick a photograph that survives both: a clear subject, focus where you meant it, and no heavy digital zoom. Grain that hides on a phone screen can show on a bigger sheet, so a shot taken in dim light is a gamble.

Use the original camera file where you can. A copy saved from a message or a social post can lose detail before it reaches us, and nothing later puts it back. If you're framing a drawing or a painting instead, photograph it flat, in even light, with the camera parallel to the surface. How to photograph artwork walks through it, and photographing a miniature does the same for a figure.

Why does a photo look soft when printed?

Start with the pixels. The paper sizes guide puts it in one line: pixels divided by dpi gives inches. At 300 dpi, which that page treats as a convention, not a law, A3 wants 3508 x 4961 pixels, about 17.4 million in all. A2 wants 4961 x 7016, about 34.8 million. Each size has its own page with the same arithmetic: A3 and A2.

Two habits shrink a file without you noticing. One is sending a screenshot or a messaging copy. The other is cropping hard: if you zoom in on the subject, you keep only a slice of the pixels, and a picture that could carry A3 whole may not carry it after the crop. Changing the dpi label on a file doesn't add detail either, because the pixels are what count.

We do the checking at upload. Sizes the file's resolution can't support are withdrawn at upload, so you only choose from sizes your picture can carry. If the size you wanted has gone, go back to the original camera file or a larger export. If it's still missing, take a smaller size. And if the photograph was out of focus when you took it, no size will cure that, because printing shows the file as it is.

Picture printing and framing: paper or canvas?

A framed print puts your photograph on 250 gsm uncoated off-white archival paper, behind clear plexiglass, in a wooden frame. Uncoated means no glossy layer, and off-white means the palest parts of the picture take on the paper's own shade, not a bright blue-white. That suits a photograph with fine detail, where you want nothing competing with the marks. The clear front does catch reflections, and as the hanging guide notes, a canvas can face a window where a framed print can't.

Framed canvas is the same photograph printed on canvas, stretched over a 2 cm wooden stretcher and set inside a frame. The woven surface adds a texture of its own. Our advice, and it's a judgement, not a rule, is to give canvas the pictures built on broad shapes and soft light, and to keep paper for the ones where the value is in fine detail. The front shows your full crop; the edges carry a soft band made from the picture's own colours.

What you can choose, in one place

• Framed prints: A3 (29.7 x 42 cm) or A2 (42 x 59.4 cm), in a black or natural wood frame.
• Framed canvas: 30 x 40, 40 x 50 or 50 x 70 cm across the canvas face, in black, dark wood or natural wood. The frame adds to the outside size, which comes to about 35.2 x 45.2, 45.2 x 55.2 and 55.2 x 75.2 cm.
• Unframed art prints: A4, A3, A2, 50 x 70 or 70 x 100 cm on the same paper, for a frame you already own or a local framer.
• Unframed canvas: 30 x 40, 40 x 50, 50 x 70 or 60 x 80 cm.

If you'd rather have a framer of your own make something to measure, a digital download gives you the prepared file by email and leaves the rest to them.

Canvas printing and framing, or a framed paper print

Look at the edges of the picture first. A photograph that fades to deep shadow at the border, like a night sky or a dark interior, melts into a black frame, while a picture with a bright border gets a firm outline from it. Natural wood is lighter and sits more quietly beside warm colours and pale walls. Dark wood, offered on framed canvas only, is warmer than black and darker than natural.

Then look at the room. A finish that repeats something already there, such as a shelf, a door or a window frame, looks chosen, not added. Measure the wall against the outside size of the frame, not the size of the picture, and if this is one of several, the gallery wall guide covers spacing and how to mix sizes.

Get the crop right before you order

The A sizes share one proportion, the longer side being about 1.41 times the shorter. A photograph taken at 3 to 2 is a little longer than that, so the crop trims a sliver from the long side; the preview shows the area that prints. Look at it at the size you've chosen, because a crop that reads well on a phone can feel tight on a wall.

Keep faces, the horizon and any lettering a comfortable distance from the edges, since the frame sits close to them. Straighten a tilted horizon before you upload, too. Against a perfectly straight frame edge, even a small lean shows.

A five-minute check before you upload

Open the original file at full size and look at the part that matters, such as a face or the edge of the main subject. If it's soft there, it'll be soft on the wall. Then read the file's pixel dimensions from its properties and set them against the A3 and A2 figures above. Save the result as a JPEG, PNG or WebP no larger than 10 MB, and leave layers and edits you don't need behind.

Whose photograph is it?

Before an upload goes through, you tick a box confirming two things: the image is yours or you may use it, and you hold the rights, or permission, for it to be transformed and reproduced the way you asked. The upload is refused without it. If the photograph is someone else's, ask them first. The UK government's copyright guidance explains what copyright covers, and the questions below quote it.

Printing and framing: ordering, timing and hanging

Physical items are made to order, so allow 4-9 working days and order by Thursday 10 December for Christmas (Tuesday 15 December with Priority delivery). Standard UK delivery is included in the price, and when your order ships we email you the tracking details. Delivery and returns covers the rest. Once it's here, hanging a picture straight and level is easier if you measure to the middle of the frame, not to the hook.

To begin, upload the photograph, choose "Print as it is" if you want it left exactly as taken, and check the crop at the size you've picked. You can compare every size and price before you commit.