Jernej LeticaPhotography Tools & Stories
Photo Printing

Make a contact sheet of your photos

Put up to 200 photos on A4, Letter or A3 pages with captions and an optional EXIF line. Save a PDF or page images; nothing leaves your device.

Built and written by Jernej Letica

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Choose photos to start.

How to make a contact sheet

  1. Choose 1 to 200 photos. They are read in your browser, one at a time, and the order you picked them in is the order on the sheet.
  2. Pick the page size (A4, Letter or A3), the orientation and 2 to 8 columns. The number of rows follows from the columns and the page height.
  3. Set the margin and gap, choose a caption (file name, frame number or none), and switch on the EXIF line, a page title, a date or a black background if you want them.
  4. Check the preview of page 1 and the page count, then choose PDF, JPG or PNG and the resolution.
  5. Press Make contact sheet and download the PDF, each page image, or all pages as one ZIP.

Three of my photos on one A4 page

I print at a local lab, mostly 20 × 30 cm and A3, and I choose what to print from a contact sheet instead of from a folder of thumbnails. To test this page I put three of my own photos on it: Lake Jasna at 960 × 1200 px and two Metelkova frames at 1200 × 800 px.

With the page as it opens (A4 portrait, 4 columns, 10 mm margin, 4 mm gap, file names under the frames) every cell is a square 44.5 mm wide. The portrait lake photo and the two landscapes each fit whole inside their square, with nothing cropped. The three photos gave a 1-page PDF of 47,894 bytes; the same page as a JPG was 47,193 bytes and as a PNG 150,111 bytes. As an A3 sheet at 200 DPI, 3 columns, the PDF was 462,408 bytes.

With the EXIF line on and 2 columns, the figure photo read "24 Mar 2023 · 1/2500 s · f/5.6 · ISO 320" and the red bicycle "24 Mar 2023 · 1/400 s · f/4 · ISO 160". The lake photo carries no camera data, so its line stays empty.

Columns decide the rows and the page count

Every cell is a square as wide as a column: the page width minus both margins and the gaps, divided by the columns. Under each square sits one line per caption you switch on. The rows are as many of those cells as fit between the margins, below the title strip when there is one. On A4 portrait with 4 columns and one caption line that is 5 rows, so 20 photos per page.

That is why 12 photos give 1 page with 3 rows of 4 cells, and 25 photos give 2 pages: 20 on the first and 5 on the second. A black background, a title and a date change the look only; the title strip takes 12 mm from the page height, and a second caption line, the EXIF line, takes 4 mm more per row.

Fit keeps the whole photo, fill cells crops it

By default a photo is scaled until its longer side meets the cell, so a 3:2 landscape fills the full width and a third less of the height, and a portrait does the opposite. Switch on "Fill cells" and the photo covers the whole square instead, with the overflow cut off at the cell edge. Fit is the right choice for choosing prints, because you see the whole frame.

Long file names are shortened with an ellipsis to the cell width. For many columns, use frame numbers, which always fit.

PDF for the lab, page images for sharing

The sheet is drawn at 100, 150 or 200 DPI. At 150 DPI an A4 page is 1240 × 1754 px and A3 is 1754 × 2480 px. A PDF holds one such page image per sheet, written with the same PDF writer as the JPG to PDF converter. JPG and PNG give one file per page, plus a ZIP when there are several. Thumbnails are for judging, not for printing the photos themselves; for that, check the size with the DPI calculator.

Memory stays small because each photo is decoded alone straight to the size of its cell. In my runs 60 photos of 6000 × 4000 px made a 3-page PDF of 960,619 bytes in 11.6 seconds, and 200 photos of that size a 10-page PDF of 3,200,763 bytes in 80.7 seconds, without a crash.

Tips for better results

  • Use 4 columns on A4 portrait for sheets you read on paper, and 6 to 8 columns when you only want to see the whole shoot at once.
  • Choose frame numbers as captions when you will tell the lab which frames to print, then write the numbers down.
  • Pick the black background for film-style sheets on a screen; use white to save ink on paper.
  • Keep 150 DPI for a quick check and use 200 DPI for A3.

Privacy

Your file never leaves your device. Reading, drawing and saving the sheet all happen in your browser, and nothing is uploaded. No account is required.

Frequently asked questions

How many photos fit on one contact sheet page?

That depends on the page size and the columns. On A4 portrait with 4 columns, a 10 mm margin, a 4 mm gap and a file name caption, 5 rows fit, so 20 photos per page. More photos continue on the next page.

Is there a contact sheet template I can fill in?

The page is the template. Choose A4, Letter or A3, set the columns, margin and gap, and your photos are placed in the cells. Add a title and date at the top, and save the result as a PDF or as page images.

Can the sheet show the shutter speed, aperture and ISO?

Yes. Switch on the EXIF line and each frame gets its date, shutter speed, aperture and ISO under the caption, when the file records them. Photos without camera data, such as many exported or edited files, simply show no line.

Can I put 200 large photos on a sheet?

Yes. The tool accepts up to 200 photos and decodes them one at a time at the size of their cell. 200 photos of 6000 × 4000 px made a 10-page PDF in about 81 seconds in my test, on a desktop computer.

Does the tool crop my photos?

Not unless you ask for it. By default each photo is scaled to fit whole inside its square cell. Switch on Fill cells to cover the square instead, which cuts off whatever overflows the cell.

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