What's an A4 size frame?

April 12, 2005 10:52 PM

I bought a matted photo from Australia that says it takes "any standard A4 frame." What size is that in inches?

The website says the photo is 21cm x 31cm which makes it roughly 11.8 in x 8.26 inches. Should I go with 8x12, 9x12, 8.5x11? Argh!

posted by Ugh to media & arts (6 comments total)

Well, you'll need a new mat for the photo, obviously, or an A4 frame. Properly speaking A4 is actually 21cm x 29.7cm (see here) so the photo is actually oversized more than a centimeter in the long dimension anyway.
posted by kindall at 11:29 PM on April 12, 2005

None of those sound good - small amounts of blank space round a photo look hideous and cramping. I suggest either:

1) Find an A4 frame. Tsk... crazy americans and their imperial measurements...

2) Get a frame slightly smaller than the photo in both dimensions, and put up with cropping.

3) Get a much larger frame, and ask a framer to cut a 21 x 31 cm hole in some mounting board, behind which you put the photo. This will look nicest without going the whole hog.

4) Go the whole hog. Get a shop to make the perfect frame.

BTW A4 is 210 × 297mm, so your photo isn't exact anyway.
posted by cogat at 11:30 PM on April 12, 2005

Wikipedia on paper sizes (also specifically on A4). Google width and height. Seems to me that the photo is larger than A4 in one dimension.
posted by TheDonF at 11:33 PM on April 12, 2005

I'm sorry, it says 21cm x 30 cm, not 31. I could probably cut the .26 inches off the sides without it messing it up, but no way off the height because the photo butts too close up against it. The problem is complicated a little by the fact that I have to have the frame ordered and here by Saturday. Damn procrastination!

I think 12x8 would be the best I can do, but that would still leave .2 inches of blank space off the top and bottom. Would that be terribly noticable?

It's exactly like this one this only not the super sexy Alyson Hannigan.
posted by Ugh at 12:04 AM on April 13, 2005

More than you wanted to know about ISO paper sizes.
posted by fatllama at 9:50 AM on April 13, 2005

Yes a space is going to be super noticable.

Go with cogat's #3. Any framing place can cut you a mat to fit a frame in about, oh, 30 seconds.

If you live in the wilds of AK where framing places don't exist you can cut a mat out of some thick card stock with a razor and a ruler to stick in an oversized wal-mart frame. Something that simple is going to look much better than a gap.
posted by Mitheral at 12:08 PM on April 13, 2005