Some people find the measurements of watercolour paper a bit confusing. Here is a short summary of paper sizes that might help.
Watercolour Paper Sizes
- Loose sheets of watercolour paper often come in Imperial sizes (these use inch measurements).
- Pads and blocks of watercolour paper usually come in European (ISO) ‘A’ sizes (these use metric measurements).
- Imported American pads usually come in inch sizes but are neither Imperial nor A sizes.
Imperial Watercolour Paper Sizes
A sheet of Imperial Paper is also called ‘Full Imperial’.
- Full Imperial is 30 x 22 in (approximately 76 x 56 cm)
- Half Imperial is 15 x 22 in (approximately 56 x 38 cm)
- Quarter Imperial is 15 x 11 in (approximately 38 x 28 cm)
We offer a free cutting service at Jackson’s for our watercolour papers. We can cut Imperial sheets in half or quarters on request. You can choose this in your shopping basket on the Jackson’s.com website or when ordering by phone. Paper stretchers are often made to accommodate Full, Half or Quarter Imperial sized paper.
European ‘A’ Watercolour Paper Sizes
A Full Imperial sheet of paper and an A1 sheet are the two largest standard sizes. Full Imperial is a bit smaller than A1. (A0 exists but is usually special ordered.)
Like the half and quarter Imperial sizes the A sizes are based on the next size down always being half of the larger size above it. So two pieces of A2 paper will fit side by side inside one piece of A1 paper.
- A1 is 84.1 x 59.4 cm (approximately 33 x 22 in)
- A2 is 59.4 x 42 cm (approximately 22 x 16 in)
- A3 is 42 x 29.7 cm (approximately 16 x 12 in)
- A4 is 29.7 x 21 cm (approximately 12 x 8 in)
Further Reading
Molotow Masking Fluid Markers – Easy to Apply and No Paper Tearing
Travel Brushes for Painting On the Go
Choosing Colours to Fill Your Watercolour Box
Shop Watercolour Painting on jacksonsart.com
16 thoughts on “Watercolour Paper Sizes”
Useful post – I’m adding it to Paper and Non-Canvas Supports – Resources for Artists
Hi Katherine.
Glad you found it helpful.
I have added to it a link to our glossary definitions of Art Papers, as well.
Imperial sizes on pictures please
Hi John
Thanks for the request. It makes sense. I’ll see what we can do.
Hi again John,
We will now be adding both the metric and Imperial measurements to all the blog image captions.
Thanks!
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Very useful and concise explanation, thank you. I’d never
really got to grips with imperial sizes!
Glad you found it helpful Jenny!
Thank you! I’ve carefully bookmarked your article so I can
refer to it when ordering.
Also it’s useful to know that Jackson’s will cut the full sheets
for me. That’s something I struggle to do here on my kitchen
table. I just can’t seem to get the edges straight. I’ll ask you
to do it next time!
I heard about these measure system
just now while in reading a book.
Thank you for your description.
Hi, may I know where to get 61cm x
91.4cm size (300gsm) watercolor paper
?
Hi Juleen
Khadi make a 70x100cm paper that you could trim to the required size.
KHADI : DOUBLE ELEPHANT PAPER : 320GSM
The other option is a roll of paper that can be cut to any size you need.
Hi, Can you supply A0 size watercolour
paper300gsm?
Hi Tracey
We sell Khadi 320gsm paper in double elephant size which is between A1 and A0. It is 70x100cm and A0 is 84×119.
We also sell watercolour paper in large rolls that artists use to get oversized sheets by cutting off the size they need.
how Many full sheet will be there in Arches :
Aquarelle : Roll : 140lb : 300gsm : 1.13x9m :
Rough?
Hello
A full imperial sheet of watercolour paper is 56 x 76 cm.
A roll of Arches watercolour paper is 113 x 900 cm.
The roll is twice the width of the short side of the sheet, so you can get two side-by-side, going longways on the roll. Then the length allows 11 on each half, for a total of 22 full sheets. If you cut carefully, not cutting the whole roll all the way down the centre of its length, but leave some uncut at the end, you can get one more sheet going crossways. For a grand total of 23 full sheets and one smaller sheet.
If you are calculating the cost of the roll versus the sheets, they work out the same. The sheets are less expensive when bought in a 10- or 20-pack. So there wouldn’t be a savings for cutting your own. The reason for using a roll is to cut sheets larger than an imperial sheet, for very large paintings.
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