How to Print a 3.5 x 5 Photo From an iPhone at Home

If your printer takes 3.5 x 5 photo paper, Photos prints on it directly. On letter or A4, Photos has no size setting and the photo fills most of the page, so set the size in Apple’s free Pages app, or let iPrint Printer fit up to four per sheet on an AirPrint printer.

Want a lab or a store’s photo counter to print them instead? Order through their own website; the rest of this guide is about printing at home. It starts with the size and how much of an iPhone photo it trims, then takes each paper in turn: 3.5 x 5 photo paper, letter or A4, and 4 x 6 photo paper, and ends with what to do if you need a true 3 x 5.

In this guide9 sections

What size is a 3.5 x 5 photo?

It’s 3.5 by 5 inches, or 8.9 x 12.7 cm. The shape is 7:10, a little squarer than a 4x6 (2:3), and that suits 4:3 photos. Apple’s iPhone User Guide lists the Camera’s aspect ratios as 1:1, 4:3 and 16:9, and filling a 3.5 x 5 print trims about 7% off a 4:3 photo’s short side, against about 11% for a 4x6. A 16:9 photo is the exception: it loses about a fifth of its length, more than it would at 4x6.

3x5 or 3.5 x 5? The two are easy to mix up. A 3 x 5 is half an inch narrower, enough that one won’t stand in for the other in a frame or an album sleeve. Measure the opening if you’re not sure, and for a true 3 x 5, see the last section.

On 3.5 x 5 photo paper: print from Photos

If your printer feeds 3.5 x 5 photo paper (check its specifications; not every printer takes paper that small), Apple’s Photos app does the job at no cost:

Load the paper where the printer’s manual says. Some printers have a separate photo tray for small paper.
In Photos, open the photo, tap the Share button, then tap Print.
Choose the printer. If the print options list paper sizes, pick 3.5 x 5.
Tap Print.

Crop first, so you decide what’s trimmed rather than the printer. One crop preset comes close to the print’s 7:10 shape: 5:7, which Apple’s guide names among the presets. Tap Edit, the Crop button, then the aspect ratio button, and pick 5:7; printed at 3.5 x 5, that crop loses less than a millimetre more from each side.

iPrint Printer has no 3.5 x 5 paper setting (its papers are Letter, A4 and 4 x 6 photo paper), so for 3.5 x 5 paper, Photos is the tool. Printing on an HP? The HP guide covers where photo paper goes and what HP’s own app does.

On letter or A4 paper at no cost: Pages or a layout website

Four 3.5 x 5 prints fit on a letter or A4 page, two across and two down, and Photos won’t put them there: Apple’s print steps have no size setting, and iOS sizes a photo to the paper, whatever its pixel size. Apple’s free Pages app can. The Pages walkthrough has every tap; at this size, three things change:

The numbers. Under Format, then Arrange, set the height to 5 in. With Constrain Proportions on and a 5:7 crop, the width comes out at about 3.57 in; trim the extra sliver when you cut.
The layout. Copy the photo, paste it three times, and drag the four into two rows of two with a small gap between them.
The check. Print one sheet and measure a print with a ruler before you print more.

A free layout website can build the same sheet as a PDF if it takes a custom size. imresizer’s layout generator, for one, takes a width and height in inches or centimetres and asks for no login. The catch is printing that PDF at actual size from an iPhone, which the wallet-photo guide explains, so measure the first sheet there too.

How to print 3.5 x 5 photos with iPrint Printer

iPrint Printer has 3.5 × 5 in its size menu and fits up to four on a letter or A4 sheet, each sent at its exact size with a 3 mm gap for cutting. It needs a printer that supports AirPrint, on the same Wi-Fi as your iPhone or iPad, and its test page and test photo are free, so you can check your printer and the size before paying.

Open the app (called Printer on your Home Screen), tap Print Photos and pick one photo or several.
Tap Size and choose 3.5 × 5 in. Outside the regions that use letter paper, the menu shows sizes in centimetres, so it reads 8.9 × 12.7 cm.
Set Paper in Your Printer to Letter or A4.
Set the copies. With one photo, the menu marks the number that fills the sheet: 4 (fills the sheet).
Look over the sheets on screen, then tap Print a Free Test Photo. It prints a sample picture the app draws, at 3.5 x 5 in the middle of your paper, so you can check the size before you pay.
Tap Print. The first time, choose your printer.

A full sheet is two rows of two. With several photos, each photo’s copies stay together in the order you picked them, and the next sheet starts when one is full. The screen shows each sheet and how many prints fit, laid out for the quarter-inch margin most printers keep, so a printer with wider margins may fit fewer.

The app fills each print from the middle of the photo and dims what won’t print. To change that, tap the crop button next to the photo, then drag to move it or pinch to zoom.

The plans show only after the app has reached your printer: Unlimited Printing is $4.99 a week, $9.99 a month or $49.99 a year, after a 3-day free trial for eligible new subscribers. If it never finds the printer, you won’t be asked to pay.

On 4x6 photo paper

Have 4 x 6 photo paper but no 3.5 x 5? Choose 4 × 6 in photo paper under Paper in Your Printer: one 3.5 x 5 fits per sheet, centred, leaving half an inch to trim off the width and an inch off the length. It’s a way to use paper you already have; for more than a few prints, letter-size photo paper fits four to a sheet.

If you need 3 x 5 instead

For a print of exactly 3 x 5 inches, tap Size, choose Other Size and type a width of 3 and a height of 5. Other Size takes any width and height from 1 cm to 29.7 cm per side, in inches or centimetres, and the screen shows how many fit on the sheet before you print. Pages works too: under Format, then Arrange, size the photo so it covers 3 x 5 inches, then trim it to size when you cut.

On iPad

An iPad prints a photo from Photos with the same two steps, Share and then Print, in Apple’s iPad User Guide: fine on 3.5 x 5 photo paper, one large print on letter. Pages for iPad has the Format, then Arrange controls for the free layout. In iPrint Printer on an iPad with iPadOS 26 or later, 3.5 × 5 in is in the same Size menu, and up to four fit on a letter or A4 sheet, as on iPhone.

Before you print a batch

Your printer has to support AirPrint and be on the same Wi-Fi as your iPhone. iPrint Printer doesn’t print over USB or Bluetooth, can’t set up a printer’s Wi-Fi, and can’t reach a printer the iPhone can’t see.
Prints sit inside the printer’s margins, so each 3.5 x 5 has white paper around it to trim.
The test page and the test photo are free. Printing your own photos needs Unlimited Printing.

Bigger and smaller prints use the same steps: 4x6 photos and 5x7 photos fit two to a letter sheet, and wallet-size photos up to 8.

FAQ

Can I print a 3.5 x 5 photo from my iPhone?

Yes. If your printer takes 3.5 x 5 photo paper, print from the Photos app. On letter or A4 paper, place the photo at 3.5 x 5 inches in Pages, or choose 3.5 × 5 in iPrint Printer, which fits up to four on a sheet.

How many 3.5 x 5 photos fit on a letter sheet?

Up to four, in two rows of two, on letter or A4. That leaves room for the quarter-inch margin most printers keep and a cutting gap; iPrint Printer lays its preview out for that margin, so a printer with wider margins may fit fewer and use more sheets.

Is 3x5 the same as 3.5 x 5?

No. A 3 x 5 print is half an inch narrower, so the two don’t swap in a frame or an album sleeve. Measure the opening first; for a true 3 x 5, type it with Other Size in iPrint Printer, or set it in Pages.

What is 3.5 x 5 in centimetres?

About 8.9 x 12.7 cm (88.9 x 127 mm). Outside the regions that use letter paper, iPrint Printer’s size menu shows it that way, as 8.9 × 12.7 cm.