How to use the Standard Canvas Sizes Chart
- Choose your units. Press Inches or cm at the top. The table always shows both, but the comparison drawing, its grid and the legend follow your choice.
- Narrow the list. Pick a System (US inches, the French F · P · M standard, or common metric retail sizes), then filter by Shape, Ratio or Size — or type straight into the search box:
16x20,30F,paysageor50x70all work, in either order. - Tick the sizes you are weighing up. Up to six rows appear in the to-scale drawing. Switch between Overlay and Side by side, flip Portrait and Landscape, and keep the dashed paper sheet visible if it helps you picture the real thing on a wall.
- Take the list with you. Copy table puts the visible rows on your clipboard as tab-separated text that pastes cleanly into a spreadsheet, and Download CSV saves them. The link under the tool keeps your filters and selection, so you can send a shortlist to a framer or a client.
Why painting to a standard size pays off
A canvas size is a decision you live with long after the paint dries. A standard size means a frame you can buy off the shelf instead of ordering one, a shipping box someone already makes, and a size that buyers can picture. The common US sizes — 8×10, 11×14, 16×20, 18×24 and 24×36 inches — line up with photo and poster frames sold almost everywhere. A 17×21 inch painting needs a custom frame and often a custom crate, and either one can cost more than the canvas itself.
The ratio matters as much as the size. An 8×10 and a 16×20 are the same 4:5 shape at different scales, so a composition you test as a small study enlarges cleanly. An 11×14 looks close but is 1:1.27, and a design worked out on 8×10 needs a strip added or cropped. The 18×24 and 9×12 share 3:4, the ratio most phone cameras shoot in, and 24×36 is 2:3, the same shape as a full-frame camera’s 36 × 24 mm sensor.
Unit conversions are where most size mistakes happen. A 16×20 inch canvas measures 40.6 × 50.8 cm, not 40 × 50, and a 40 × 50 cm frame bought abroad will be 6 mm short on one side and 8 mm on the other. Use the table to check both columns before you order anything that has to fit; for a size that is not listed, the Canvas Size Calculator converts it and names the nearest standard.
How the French F, P and M sizes work
Many European art shops still sell stretched canvas by the 19th-century French standard. A number sets the long side, and a letter sets how wide the canvas is:
- F — Figure (portrait): the squarest of the three, ratios from about 1.2:1 to 1.5:1.
- P — Paysage (landscape): narrower, about 1.3:1 to 1.7:1.
- M — Marine (seascape): the longest and thinnest, about 1.4:1 up to 2:1.
So every “10” is 55 cm long: a 10 F is 55 × 46 cm, a 10 P is 55 × 38 cm and a 10 M is 55 × 33 cm. The names describe the shape, not the subject; nothing stops you from painting a portrait on a Marine canvas.
| Number | Long side | F (Figure) | P (Paysage) | M (Marine) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 41 cm | 41 × 33 | 41 × 27 | 41 × 24 |
| 10 | 55 cm | 55 × 46 | 55 × 38 | 55 × 33 |
| 20 | 73 cm | 73 × 60 | 73 × 54 | 73 × 50 |
| 30 | 92 cm | 92 × 73 | 92 × 65 | 92 × 60 |
| 50 | 116 cm | 116 × 89 | 116 × 81 | 116 × 73 |
| 100 | 162 cm | 162 × 130 | 162 × 114 | 162 × 97 |
The ratios are not perfectly consistent. A 30 F (92 × 73 cm) is almost exactly 4:5, but a 10 F is closer to 5:6, so don’t assume two F canvases are the same shape. Japanese “gō” (号) canvas sizes borrowed this numbering but use slightly different measurements: a Japanese F10 is 53.0 × 45.5 cm. Confirm which system a supplier means before ordering frames.
Matching a canvas to your reference photo
Cropping a reference to fit a canvas is fine, but it is easier when the shapes already agree. These canvases have exactly the same ratio as common photo formats:
| Reference | Ratio | US canvases (in) | Metric canvases (cm) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phone photo (4:3) | 3:4 | 6×8, 9×12, 12×16, 18×24, 30×40, 36×48 | 30×40, 60×80 |
| Camera photo (3:2) | 2:3 | 4×6, 20×30, 24×36 | 20×30, 40×60, 60×90, 100×150 |
| Social portrait post (4:5) | 4:5 | 8×10, 16×20, 24×30 | 24×30, 40×50, 80×100 |
| Square post | 1:1 | 4×4 up to 48×48 | 10×10 up to 100×100 |
Widescreen 16:9 frames have no standard canvas twin. The nearest common shapes are 1:2 panoramas such as 12×24 inches, so plan to add sky or foreground rather than squeeze the scene. To work out exactly how much to add or crop, put the photo and the canvas into the Aspect Ratio Calculator.
Tips from practice
Buy the frame before you prime the canvas. If the painting is meant for a ready-made frame, check that the frame exists in your size and depth first. Frames are cut with a small allowance, usually around 1/8 inch, so a canvas that is a few millimeters oversize will not go in. If you plan to mat a work on paper instead, the Frame & Mat Size Calculator works out the window and frame sizes.
Check the depth, not just the face. Standard stretched canvas is about 3/4 inch (1.9 cm) deep and fits most frames. Gallery-wrapped canvas is usually 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) deep and is often hung unframed with painted edges, or set in a floater frame.
Think about the wall, then the easel. Tick a size together with the paper sheet and picture it from across a room. A 24×36 that feels huge on the easel can look modest over a sofa, while a 9×12 needs to be seen up close.
Keep a series on one ratio. If you plan a set of paintings to hang together, choose sizes from a single ratio family — 8×10, 16×20 and 24×30, for example — so the set reads as a group and studies scale up without redesign.
Leave margin for the stretcher’s give. Commercial canvases can vary by a few millimeters. Measure the actual canvas before ordering a custom frame or crate, and measure across both diagonals to check it is square.