Choosing the page size for your JPG photos

2026-10-04

Each JPG becomes one page, and Page setup decides the shape of that page. Open it with the settings button in the toolbar — it shows your current choice, for example A4 · Automatic · Small margin. The setting applies to every page of the PDF.

A4 is the usual paper in most countries, Letter in the US, Canada and Mexico. The size starts as one or the other based on your browser’s language region together with your device’s time zone, and you can change it at any time.

Photos on A4 or Letter

On A4 or Letter, each photo is scaled to fit inside the margins and centred on the page. Nothing is cropped and nothing is stretched. Because a phone photo is usually 4:3 and a sheet of paper is closer to 1:1.4, some white space is normal — it shows up as bands above and below, or at the sides.

• Orientation — Automatic gives a landscape photo a landscape page and a portrait photo a portrait page. It judges each photo the way its card shows it, after the camera’s direction tag and your own rotations. Portrait or Landscape uses one orientation for every page; a landscape photo on a Portrait page simply appears smaller, with more white space.
• Margin — None lets the photo reach the edge of the page, Small leaves 6 mm on each side and Wide 15 mm. Many printers cannot print right up to the edge, so a margin is the safer choice for paper.

Fit to image

With Fit to image, every page takes the exact shape of its photo, with no margin and no white bands. A portrait shot becomes a tall page, a panorama a long, narrow one, so a PDF of mixed photos has pages of different sizes.

The page does not grow with the photo’s pixel count: a 50-megapixel shot and a small picture from a chat get the same page length. The long side is 297 mm where A4 is the usual paper and 279.4 mm where Letter is; the settings show the exact length under the option. While Fit to image is selected, Orientation and Margin are hidden, because the page already follows the photo.

Will the photo be sharp enough to print?

Scaling a photo up to fill the page adds no detail. To check, divide the pixels on the photo’s long side by the page’s long side in inches — 11.7 for A4:

• A 12-megapixel phone photo, 4032 px across, gives about 345 pixels per inch on A4: plenty for print.
• A 1000 px photo saved from a messaging app gives about 85 per inch: fine on screen, soft on paper.

If you pick Smaller file, each photo gets a candidate of at most 2000 px on the long side — about 171 per inch on A4; a very long or wide image keeps at least 600 px on its short side — which is used only if it makes the file smaller; otherwise the photo keeps its Quality first version. More in JPEG quality and PDF size.

Which one to choose

• To print, choose your printer’s paper, A4 or Letter, with a Small or Wide margin.
• For receipts and documents you photographed, A4 or Letter with Automatic keeps the pages one size, which is easier to file.
• For a set of photos to view on a screen, Fit to image shows each photo without white bands around it.

If a page still comes out sideways, the photo itself needs turning on its card — see how to combine JPG photos into one PDF.