In addition, when you going through the print purchase process you'll see that print paper sizes are grouped into types: Standard Sizes, Other Sizes, Panoramic Sizes, and Square Sizes. If you need a refresher on what an aspect ratio is and how it relates to print paper size, just take a look at this page. You can see the title and caption of a photo when you look at individual photos in the 'lightbox' view (that is, when you click on an individual image in a photo gallery). Please note that every image on this site (except those with the very common 2x3 aspect ratio) includes its aspect ratio as a note at the end of the photo's caption: they all look like '' (where '1x3' may be some other ratio). There are many other paper print sizes available and they may be used by simply choosing to crop the photo to fit or choosing to print the photo without cropping and accepting the white bands on the top / bottom or on the sides. And it limits the list of paper sizes to those which are available from the photo lab we are using and that fit the aspect ratio exactly. However, it only lists those aspect ratios that pertain to images on this website. The next time I ask my intern about the size of a 2x4, hopefully she’ll know the right answer: 1.5 inches by 3.This page lists the various paper sizes that will exactly fit specific aspect ratios. However, as my intern proved, not everyone knows that there is a difference between nominal and actual lumber dimensions. Yes, that lawsuit was a little ridiculous. Now they must also label their products using descriptive words like “inch” and “feet” instead of standard industry symbols like “ or ‘. They were ordered to pay a $1.6 million dollar settlement in California and were required to label their lumber with both nominal and actual dimensions. The Marin County, California Department of Weights and Measures took civil action against Lowe’s because they unlawfully advertised their lumber according to the nominal dimensions. According to their website, the purpose of these standards is to: 'Establish nationally recognized requirements for products and to provide all concerned interests with a basis for common understanding of the characteristics of a product.'Ĭonsidering all of these facts, the entire building industry was scratching its head a few years ago when Lowe’s was sued over its lumber labeling policy. Lumber sold in the United States in governed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Yes, it might appear as if lumber mills are selling you one thing but giving you another - but it’s actually not like that at all. While comparing nominal and actual lumber dimensions, you might be thinking that this is another case of companies trying to pull one over on consumers. Here are the basic rules to keep in mind: This fact makes no difference in the building industry because architects and contractors are (hopefully) aware of this discrepancy.īelow is our lumber dimensions chart to help you quickly find the actual size: Īs you can see from the lumber dimensions chart above, there is a bigger difference between the nominal and actual size of larger lumber pieces. Most lumber is described using nominal dimensions but is actually smaller in reality.

The actual dimensions of a 2x4 are 1.5 inches by 3.5 inches or 38mm by 89mm. During this finishing process the 2x4 shrinks.

However, it must be dried and planed before it can be sold for purchase. When a 2x4 is cut from a large piece of lumber it is actually around 2 inches by 4 inches in size. The wood you find at your local home improvement store or lumber yard is described in nominal dimensions. Unless you’ve worked as a carpenter, you might be surprised to learn that a 2x4 is not actually 2 inches by 4 inches. She quickly replied “2 inches by 4 inches - duh” and went back to work. The other day I asked my intern a simple question: “what is the actual size of a 2x4?”

1x2 actual size