Understanding Common Aspect Ratios for Images and Video

When creating a photo, designing a webpage, or thinking of marketing materials, it’s essential to understand your visuals’ format and size. Different dimensions may hugely influence the perception of the image, while incorrect size may stretch or distort them. Using the right aspect ratio can ensure your visuals appear in a shape that fits specific needs of your project.

Being confused about aspect ratios and image sizes is common. There are a lot of combinations that suit different uses, such as desktop, mobile, social media, and so on! While the options can seem endless, you don’t have to be a math genius or a professional designer to choose the best aspect ratio for your visuals. The basics of how aspect ratio and image seize work are pretty simple.

Let’s go over standard aspect ratios, so you can easily frame your photos and achieve the most impact and the best user experience with your visuals.

What you will find in this article:

What is an aspect ratio?

The aspect ratio of an image or video is the proportional relationship between its width and height. How the aspect ratio is calculated may seem a bit complicated but think of it as the shape of your image or video as it appears on the screen. It is usually written as two numbers and separated by a colon in an x:y format, such as 3:2 or 4:3. The width is commonly listed first and height second. For example, an aspect ratio of 16:9 means the width is greater than the height, and an aspect ratio of 1:1 means they are the same.

Aspect ratio is an easy way to describe the format of an image, but it doesn’t tell you a specific measurement of an image, like centimeters or inches, and it doesn’t refer to the total pixels an image contains. The aspect ratio only tells you how wide the image is compared to its height. For instance, in an aspect ratio of 4:3, for every 4 units of width, there are 3 units of height, which means that a tiny and huge image can have the same aspect ratio. The same with the image resolution: it could be 800×600 or 1600×1200, but the aspect ratio will remain 4:3.

Why is an aspect ratio important?

Understanding the aspect ratio you need for a specific purpose will ensure that your visuals won’t be cropped, stretched, or distorted in any other way. It’s a crucial part of creating any visual content since it helps you display it in an intended way without losing the quality.

You should also take into account that pictures from a mobile phone, a digital and a film camera will have different aspect rations. This means the image’s composition will always vary depending on which camera you use. Similarly, each social media has its common aspect ratios, which you should keep in mind while creating your visuals.