Standard Poster Size

The poster has become one of the top mediums in sending messages publicly for diverse commercial and non-commercial campaigns. You can easily find a variety of poster sizes in public spaces from the smaller posters to the ones that can even cover your body. Once you go to the printing shop, you can request any poster size based on your requirements and preferences.

What is standard poster size? In fact, there is no international standard for general poster size. Posters vary in size, which gives artists and designers enough space to use their talents and imagination.

However, as you often see, there are indeed some common poster sizes, each of which can be called the average poster size for a specific purpose in some field.

US Poster Size

8.5”x11” (Letter Poster), 11”x17” (Small Poster), 18”x24” (Medium Poster), and 24”x36” (Large Poster) are the most common poster sizes in US.

Common US Poster Sizes Chart – Dimensions in inches, mm, cm, and pixels

  * PPI (pixels per inch) = DPI (dots per inch) = Resolution
    300 PPI is the best printing resolution of digital printer.

8.5”x11”: Letter Poster

Letter Poster, as the name implies, is a poster made into letter size. The dimensions can also be expressed as  216 x 279 in mm and 21.6 x 27.9 in cm. Since Letter-sized paper is one of the most common office papers in America, it makes letter sized poster the most convenient since everyone can even print them with a regular desk printer.

Because of its small size, the poster can fit bulletin or shared community boards, and is more suitable for indoor use, it is very popular in small exhibition halls or corridors as a publicity medium.

11”x17”: Small Poster

The 11”x17” poster means that the poster is made by 11×17 paper, or other kind of flat surface materials of same dimensions. The dimensions is 279 x 432 in mm, or 27.9 x 43.2 in cm. 11”x17” paper size is actually a US standard ANSI B size, also called tabloid size or ledger size.

11”x17” poster is the smallest poster in the true sense. The letter size poster and A4 size poster look more like pasters on the wall, as it is difficult to read the information well at a distance over meters.

The poster size is ideal for indoor notifications or advertisements like in the corridors, rooms, entrance doors, and so forth. It’s slightly bigger than the leaflets so you can practically add more text, use a bigger font, and have some flexibility in layout design.

18”x24”: Medium Poster

The 18”x24” poster is slightly larger than the 11”x17” poster, measuring 457 x 610 in mm and 45.7 x 61.0 in cm. This size is right the standard Arch C size of American architectural paper, but in addition to making architectural drawings, it’s also great for posters.

18”x24” posters are suitable for both indoor display and outdoor posting. Therefore, in addition to being seen in shopping malls or office buildings, as a medium of advertising, posters of this size most often appear on campuses, outdoor bulletin boards and sidewalks. In the most comfortable and conventional sight distance, for example, 15 feet, the poster which combines prominent large fonts with photography or well-designed pictures, is very eye-catching.

Of course, posters of this size can also be used as movie posters in some small cinemas or theaters, or some small-scale film and television activities.

24”x36”: Large Poster

The 24” x 36” poster, measures 609.6 x 914.4 in mm and 61.0 x 91.4 in cm, which is a very eye-catching poster size outdoors. The size also is known as Architectural D in the United States, is a drawing size applicable to the construction industry; But it’s also a great size for making large posters too. It’s the ideal size to create eye-catching posters to which you can add vivid embellishments such as images, graphics, and special fonts.

24”x36” poster are very ideal for display in crowded places. This kind of posters are widely used in commercial exhibitions, holiday celebration venues, supermarket halls, sidewalks in business districts and so on. Large size bold text plus well-designed photos or patterns, a 24”x36” poster can easily catch people’s eyes at a distance of 30 feet, thus achieving good publicity effect.

US Movie Poster Size

Since its birth at the beginning of the 20th century, movies have become more and more deeply involved in daily life, and posters have gradually presented outstanding culture. From the original hand-painted posters, to later gradually evolved into all prints, and the size of movie posters has also undergone a long time of change.

Nowadays US Movie Poster Sizes

In Nowadays, although there is no standard size requirement for a normal poster, in the American film industry, there are posters that can be called as in standard size. 27″x40″, 40″×60″, and 11″x17″ are the sizes used popularly now.

 – One-Sheet Size: 27″x40″, displayed in movie theater
 – 40″×60″: Displayed in subway stop and bus stop
 – 24″×36″: Sold online or in poster store and hang in dorm rooms

US Movie Poster Sizes Chart – Dimensions in inches, mm, cm, and pixels

* PPI (pixels per inch) = DPI (dots per inch) = Resolution
300 PPI is the best printing resolution of digital printer.

One-Sheet Size poster is the most common standard poster size in the film industry in nowadays. Since the 1980s, the one-sheet size has been reduced from the original dimensions of 27″x41″ to current 27″x40″, and has been used ever since. Today, the 27″x40″ one-sheet size poster has become the standard, officially produced and distributed posters, as you can see in the lobby of the movie theater in every city.

Old Days US Movie Poster Sizes

The following table is a list of most movie poster sizes used until around the 1980s. Since then, One Sheets, reduced to 27 “X 40”, has been the only poster released in the US.

 

Poster Sizes in Other Countries