Three ways to print from a phone
- 1
On a home printer
On an iPhone, open the photo, tap Share, then Print, and pick an AirPrint printer on the same Wi-Fi. On Android, open the photo, find Print in the share or ⋮ menu, and choose the printer; it uses the printer maker’s plugin or Android’s built-in print service. Load photo paper and set the paper size, or the printer fits the photo onto a plain Letter page.
- 2
At a store, same day
Walgreens, CVS and Walmart all take uploads in their apps, straight from the camera roll, and many stores have 4×6 prints ready in about an hour. Posters and canvas usually take longer. This is the quickest way to get a handful of prints for a card or a frame.
- 3
From an online lab
Labs such as Mpix, Shutterfly and Snapfish ship to your door in a few days, usually on better paper with more sizes. Worth it for anything you’re framing or giving.
Pick a size that fits a phone photo
Phones shoot 3:4, but most classic print sizes are other shapes, so the lab crops to fill the paper. At 4×6 you lose about 11% of the photo; at 5×7, 5%; at 8×10, 6%. Most apps show the crop before you order: check that nobody’s head is at the edge.
- Sizes with a phone’s own shape: 6×8, 12×16 and 18×24. Nothing is cropped.
- To print at 4×6, 5×7 or 8×10 without losing anything, extend the photo to that shape first. The scene is added at the edges instead of trimmed from them.
- Many store apps add white bands instead of cropping if you choose "fit" or "no crop". That keeps everything but leaves borders.
How big a phone photo can print
"Sharp" is 300 pixels per inch, for prints held in the hand; "fine on a wall" is 150.
| Photo | Typical pixels | Sharp (inches) | Fine on a wall (inches) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12-megapixel phone (most iPhones and Androids) | Typical pixels: 3,024 × 4,032 | Sharp (inches): 10 × 13.4 | Fine on a wall (inches): 20.1 × 26.8 |
| 24-megapixel phone (iPhone 15 and later, default) | Typical pixels: 4,284 × 5,712 | Sharp (inches): 14.2 × 19 | Fine on a wall (inches): 28.5 × 38 |
| Photo sent by text or a messaging app | Typical pixels: 1,200 × 1,600 | Sharp (inches): 4 × 5.3 | Fine on a wall (inches): 8 × 10.6 |
| Screenshot of a photo, cropped | Typical pixels: 1,080 × 1,440 | Sharp (inches): 3.6 × 4.8 | Fine on a wall (inches): 7.2 × 9.6 |
Messaging apps vary: some keep the full photo, many send a smaller copy. Zoomed and cropped photos have fewer pixels than the full frame.
iPhones save photos as HEIC by default. Store apps convert them automatically, but some websites reject the file. Convert it with the free HEIC to JPG tool, or set Settings › Camera › Formats to Most Compatible to save JPGs from now on.
If the only copy is small, a screenshot or a photo someone texted you, ask for the original first. If there isn’t one, an upscale rebuilds detail at the print size.