A4 photo book: portrait or landscape, and what fits
An A4 page measures 210 by 297 mm. Test portrait and landscape using your busiest spread, then use the chosen printer's actual trim, safe areas and fold guidance before placing the rest.
A4 is an ISO 216 paper size, 210 by 297 mm, or 8.27 by 11.69 inches. Because it is ordinary printer paper in the UK, you can test layouts at full size at home before ordering anything.
An A4 portrait book opens to 420 by 297 mm, the size of an A3 sheet on its side. A landscape one opens to a long, low 594 by 210 mm.
Make your photobook
Arrange your photos on A4 pages, check the proof and order a printed copy.
Portrait or landscape
Portrait suits books about people. A single portrait fills a page, two landscape photos stack neatly, and scanned letters and pages of writing sit well.
Landscape suits places, holidays and wide views. One landscape photo can fill a page, and a panorama can run across both.
Match the shape to most of your photos and pair up the rest: two portraits side by side on a landscape page, or two landscapes stacked on a portrait one.
What fits on one A4 page
Worked example only: 10 mm outer, top and bottom margins plus 15 mm at the fold leave 185 by 277 mm in portrait, or 272 by 190 mm in landscape. Use larger margins if required.
- Portrait page, one 3:4 portrait: 185 by 247 mm, with 30 mm left for a caption.
- Portrait page, two 3:2 landscapes stacked: each 185 by 123 mm, 5 mm apart, about 25 mm spare.
- Portrait page, four 3:4 portraits: each 90 by 120 mm in a two by two grid.
- Landscape page, one 3:2 landscape: 272 by 181 mm.
- Landscape page, one 4:3 landscape: 253 by 190 mm, limited by the page height.
- Landscape page, two 3:4 portraits side by side: each 133 by 178 mm.
Edges, bleed and the fold
For an edge-to-edge photo, extend the image to the printer's bleed guide. Keep faces and writing inside its safe area; the example margins above are not a universal print specification.
An open landscape book is about 2.8 times as wide as it is tall. Only a panorama fills that spread without losing most of its height.
Pixels for A4
At a 300 ppi target, an entire A4 page needs about 2480 by 3508 pixels before bleed. The top half of a portrait page is about 2480 by 1754; check the crop and image detail too.
A photo across a whole landscape spread is 594 mm wide, which needs 7016 pixels at 300 ppi. A 4032 pixel wide phone photo gives about 172 ppi there, so check faces at full size.
Test it on paper
Print each planned spread on two A4 sheets at 100 per cent scale and tape them together at the fold. You see the real size of every face and caption.
A tbf scrapbook book can be ordered in either A4 shape once you have checked its print proof. The price shows in the editor before you order; square sizes cannot be ordered.
Steps
Portrait book: a letter and its writer
Left: the scanned letter at 185 by 262 mm, readable at full working width. Right: one 3:4 portrait of the writer at 150 by 200 mm, centred.
Landscape book: a view and two people
Left: one 3:2 landscape at 272 by 181 mm. Right: two 3:4 portraits side by side, 133 by 178 mm each, on the same top line as the view.
Landscape book: a panorama
Sketch a wide crop across two landscape pages, then check it with the chosen binding's centre guide. Move faces outside the fold area even if that changes the crop.
Portrait book: a page of writing
Left: a column of your own writing, sized from a full-size reading test. Right: a landscape photo aligned with the text block, with its dimensions set by the printer's safe area.
Questions
What size is an A4 photo book?
Each page is 210 by 297 mm, or 8.27 by 11.69 inches. Open, a portrait book is 420 by 297 mm and a landscape one 594 by 210 mm.
Is an A4 photo book portrait or landscape?
Either. Portrait is A4 standing up, landscape is A4 on its side. The page area is the same, but the photos that fill it are different.
How many photos fit in an A4 photo book?
Count per page. One to four suits most A4 pages, and a 30-page book at three a page holds 90.