4x6 photo size: resize a photo to 4x6 for printing
The 4x6 photo size is 4 × 6 inches, 1200 × 1800 pixels at 300 DPI, the print Walgreens calls its most popular and Shutterfly the most common. The editor opens on it: crop a phone photo to the 2:3 shape, or fit it whole, and Save exports 1200 × 1800. Part of the image resizer.
4x6 photo size in pixels, cm and at the labs
In pixels at 300 DPI
1200 × 1800 pxcomputed at 300 DPI
In centimetres
10.16 × 15.24 cm, close to 10 × 15computed from 25.4 mm an inch
Shape
2:3, or 3:2 held the long wayWalgreens Photo
Lab minimum
540 × 360 pxWalgreens Photo Help
Best quality
1200 × 1800 pxNations Photo Lab
Output format
– / –
Drop images or browse
JPEG · PNG · WEBP · AVIF · HEIC · up to 50 at once · max 30 MB each
HEIC
PNG
JPEG
AVIF
WEBP
Advanced settings1 on
SmallerAutoBetter
Auto tunes each image.
A hard cap for the number your form demands.
KB
A floor for forms that refuse small files.
Max resolution
×
Empty side keeps the ratio. Never enlarges.
Presets
Every named size, one editor
The same editor, the size already pressed. Pick the document or the platform.
Source: photo.jpg, 576.8 KB at 1920×1280, through the preset this page opens on (the centre cropped to the ratio and scaled to the size), then the engine at its defaults. The row is the real output.
Every byte count is the size of the actual file our engine produced from the named source, the same bytes you would download, not an estimate. The reference photo is one of our own photographs, an iguana on a branch, and the camera photo is a real one too. Drop your own file into the tool above to rerun any of them. How we measure names the sources and the settings.
Answered
How big is a 4x6 photo?
4 × 6 inches, 101.6 × 152.4 mm, 1200 × 1800 pixels at 300 DPI: a 2:3 print, a little wider and taller than a phone.
The pixels are the inches times 300, with nothing to round, which is why 1200 × 1800 is the number every lab’s best-quality advice lands on. In the hand, a 4x6 is about 30 mm wider than an iPhone 16 and 5 mm taller, and in size it is a postcard by the US Postal Service’s rule, which takes cards up to 4¼ × 6 inches. Held the long way it is a 6 × 4, the same print turned, which is how labs in the UK and Europe write it.
Answered
Why does my 4x6 print cut off part of my phone photo?
Because a phone photo is 4:3 and a 4x6 is 3:2: printed the same way round, the lab keeps 88.9% of the short side and cuts 11.1%.
A 12-megapixel iPhone photo, 4032 × 3024, cropped to 3:2 becomes 4032 × 2688: 168 rows go from the top and 168 from the bottom. Apple’s camera offers 1:1, 4:3 and 16:9, and no 3:2. The labs say it too: one of Shutterfly’s own guides warns that the mismatch often leads to automatic cropping. Crop here first and the choice of what goes is yours; the lab then prints the file as it is. Or press Fit, and nothing is cut.
Answered
How do I print a 4x6 photo without cropping?
Three honest ways, and none of them stretches the photo.
Fit keeps the whole photo inside 1200 × 1800: a 3:4 portrait leaves a band of 100 pixels, a third of an inch, at the top and the bottom, in white or a colour you pick. The True Digital print, 4 × 5.3 inches at Walgreens, Walmart and Snapfish, is made for 4:3 photos: at 300 DPI it is 1200 × 1590 pixels. And a variable-width print, offered by Boots and CEWE, keeps the short side at 10 cm and the photo’s own length. The one way the editor refuses is the fourth: squeezing a 4:3 photo into 2:3 distorts every face in it.
Compared
Is my photo size big enough to print a 4x6?
Almost always.
Almost certainly: the labs’ minimums run from 360 × 540 to 640 × 480 pixels, and a phone photo holds several times that. Each row is the lab’s own figure from the page named in the caption.
Lab
Minimum for a 4x6
Best or advised
Files
Walgreens
540 × 360 px
200 PPI or better
not stated
Snapfish
360 × 540 px
a warning below it
not stated
Mpix
400 × 600 px
1000 × 1500 optimal
JPEG, PNG
Nations Photo Lab
500 × 750 px
1200 × 1800 for best quality
JPG, TIFF, PNG
Shutterfly
640 × 480 px
1024 × 768 best; 1200 × 1800 at 300 DPI in its guide
not stated
Printique
not stated
300 DPI at the print size
JPEG, TIFF
Walgreens Photo Help (updated 26 June 2026); Snapfish Help (30 July 2025); Mpix Help (an archived copy of 17 September 2026: the live site refused the connection); Nations Photo Lab's 4x6 prints page; Shutterfly Help (22 December 2025) and its prints guide (10 August 2026); Printique's FAQ. As read in September 2026; each lab's page wins.
The export here is 1200 × 1800 pixels, and our reference photo at that size weighed 237 KB as a JPEG, well inside any upload limit. None of the labs that list file types takes WebP or AVIF, so keep a print file a JPG. Costco is missing on purpose: it closed its photo centres in 2021 and its online photo service in 2023.
Every print
What is the standard photo size: 4x6, and every other print
4 × 6, then the rest.
4 × 6 inches is the standard, the print the labs call their most popular; the rest, from a wallet to 11 × 14, are below with their pixels at 300 DPI and their shape.
Print
Pixels at 300 DPI
Shape
Wallet, 2 × 3 in
600 × 900
2:3
Wallet, 2.5 × 3.5 in
750 × 1050
5:7
3.5 × 5 in
1050 × 1500
7:10
4 × 4 in
1200 × 1200
1:1
4 × 5.3 in
1200 × 1590
about 3:4
4 × 6 in
1200 × 1800
2:3
5 × 7 in
1500 × 2100
5:7
8 × 10 in
2400 × 3000
4:5
11 × 14 in
3300 × 4200
11:14
Pixels are the inches times 300, each side rounded. The sizes are the ones Walgreens, Walmart, Shutterfly, Mpix and Printique list; the shapes are computed.
Answered
What size is a wallet photo?
Two sizes share the name: 2 × 3 inches at Walgreens and Snapfish, and 2.5 × 3.5 inches at Shutterfly, Printique and Nations Photo Lab.
Four 2 × 3 wallets tile a 4 × 6 sheet exactly; only two 2.5 × 3.5 wallets fit on one. At 300 DPI the two sizes are 600 × 900 and 750 × 1050 pixels: type the lab’s size into Custom size in inches before you crop. Each lab’s price, dated, and what every print size cuts from a photo are in the wallet size photo guide.
Answered
Is 10 × 15 cm the same as 4x6?
Near enough for a lab, not for a pixel check: 10 × 15 cm is 1.6 mm narrower and 2.4 mm shorter, the same 2:3 shape.
At 300 DPI it is 1181 × 1772 pixels against 1200 × 1800, so a 4x6 file prints on a 10 × 15 cm order a touch smaller and with no extra crop. The name changes by country: Boots and CEWE sell a 6x4″ (10x15cm), Officeworks in Australia a 6 × 4″ (15x10cm), labs in the Philippines a 4R. For a form or a lab that states centimetres, the resize image in cm page opens on 10 × 15 cm.
Be sure first
When the 4x6 preset is the wrong tool
Another print size?
Unlink the sides in Custom size and type it in inches; the resize image in inches page lists the rest.
Printing at home on Letter or A4?
Keep this file and print it at 100%, on 4 × 6 paper, or three to a sheet: two upright and one turned.
Passport photos on a 4x6 sheet?
Size the photo itself: the 2 × 2 inch page opens on the US frame, six of which fit on one sheet.
The size is already pressed above. One drop settles most of these.
Q:What is the 4x6 photo size in pixels?
1200 × 1800 pixels at 300 DPI, the resolution labs ask for in their best-quality advice, which is what the editor exports. The arithmetic is inches times 300, with nothing to round. Labs accept far fewer: Walgreens prints a 4x6 from 540 × 360. A phone photo holds several times the pixels any lab needs, so the shape matters more than the count.
Q:What is 4x6 in cm, and is 10x15 the same?
4 × 6 inches is 10.16 × 15.24 cm. 10 × 15 cm is 1.6 mm narrower and 2.4 mm shorter, the same 2:3 shape, so labs outside the US sell it as the 4x6: Boots calls its print 6x4 (10x15cm). At 300 DPI it is 1181 × 1772 pixels against 1200 × 1800, and a 4x6 file prints on it with no extra crop.
Q:What is the aspect ratio of a 4x6 photo?
2:3, or 3:2 held the long way: 4 divided by 6. Walgreens states it as 3:2 on its prints page. It is the shape of a traditional 35 mm frame and of many cameras, but not of a phone: iPhones shoot 4:3 unless you pick 1:1 or 16:9, so a phone photo needs a crop or a fit to become a 4x6.
Q:Why does my 4x6 print cut off part of my photo?
Because a phone photo is 4:3 and the print is 3:2. Printed the same way round, the lab keeps 88.9% of the photo's short side and cuts the rest: a 12-megapixel 4032 × 3024 photo loses 168 rows at the top and 168 at the bottom. Crop it here first and you choose which part goes; or Fit it and nothing does.
Q:How do I print a 4x6 photo without cropping?
Three ways. Fit keeps the whole photo inside the 4x6 with a band of 100 pixels, a third of an inch, top and bottom of a portrait. The True Digital print, 4 × 5.3 inches at Walgreens, Walmart and Snapfish, is made for 4:3 photos. And a few labs, Boots and CEWE among them, offer a variable-width print that keeps the shape.
Q:What resolution does a photo need for a 4x6 print?
Less than most guides say. Walgreens' minimum is 540 × 360 pixels and Mpix's 400 × 600; Nations Photo Lab asks 500 × 750 as a minimum and 1200 × 1800 for best quality, and Shutterfly calls 1024 × 768 its best on its help page. 1200 × 1800, what the editor exports, clears every one.
Q:Is 5x7 bigger than 4x6, and is it the same shape?
Bigger, and not the same shape. A 5 × 7 is 5:7, taller for its width than a 4x6's 2:3, so a 4x6 crop reframed for a 5 × 7 keeps about 93% of its long side. At 300 DPI a 5 × 7 is 1500 × 2100 pixels. Crop each print size from the original photo, not from the other crop.
Q:Is 4x6 the same as 6x4?
The same print, turned: 4 × 6 is portrait, 6 × 4 landscape, and labs in the UK and Europe write it 6x4. The editor opens on a portrait 1200 × 1800. For a landscape photo, unlink the sides in Custom size, type 6 and 4 in inches and Apply: the frame turns to 1800 × 1200.
Q:How do I make a picture 4x6 on an iPhone?
In the browser: open this page, tap the drop zone and pick the photo; the frame opens at 4 × 6. On the iPhone itself, Photos crops to presets such as Square, 9:16 and 5:7, per Apple's guide, so 4x6 means dragging the frame by eye. An iPhone HEIC photo needs converting to JPG first to open in the editor here.
Q:Do you keep my photo?
No. We keep nothing: files are processed and wiped automatically, never archived and never used for anything else. Saving strips EXIF metadata, including the GPS position a phone writes into the file, so a family photo sent to a lab carries no record of where it was taken. There is no account and no watermark, and 300 images a day are free.
