Best 8x10 Picture Frames

What decides an 8x10 frame

8x10 is the most widely stocked frame size in the US and the most common gift frame size, which means the market is enormous and almost all of it is competent. Once a frame at this size holds the print flat behind clear glazing, the differences that remain are narrow. These are the ones that actually change the purchase, in order:

1. Which number the listing is quoting. The single most common 8x10 mistake, and the only one that leaves you with a frame you cannot use. Covered in full below.
2. Mat or no mat. A mat is the cheapest upgrade available at this size and it changes the frame size you need to buy.
3. Glazing material. At 8x10, glass and acrylic both weigh little enough to hang on adhesive, so this is about breakage and clarity rather than weight. Glass is clearer; acrylic survives a drop and is the sensible choice at child height.
4. Whether it stands as well as hangs. 8x10 sits right on the boundary between a desk object and a wall object. Many 8x10 frames include an easel back; many wall-only ones do not.
5. How many you need. Buying 8x10 one at a time costs noticeably more per frame than buying the multipack, and at this size multipacks are everywhere.

Deliberately not on that list: brand. At 8x10 there is no brand whose basic black frame is meaningfully better made than the next one, and paying for a name here buys nothing you can see on the wall.

The 8x10 trap: outer size or mat opening

Frame listings quote one of two different measurements and rarely say which. Read it wrong and the frame arrives either too small for the print or with a gaping mat.

This matters more at 8x10 than at any other size, because 8x10 is both a popular print size and a popular mat opening. At 24x36 nobody is confused: the frame is the poster. At 8x10 the same four digits describe two products.

8x10 is not 8.5x11, and it is not A4

An 8x10 frame will not hold a letter-size sheet. Letter paper is 8.5 x 11 inches, which is half an inch wider and a full inch taller than an 8x10 print. The sheet will not lie flat inside the frame and trimming it cuts into the image.

This catches people framing certificates, diplomas, award letters and anything printed on a home printer — all of which are letter size, not 8x10. If that is what you are framing, buy an 8.5x11 frame; they are stocked alongside the 8x10s.

A third size compounds it. A4 is 8.27 x 11.69 inches, which is neither 8x10 nor 8.5x11. Art prints bought from outside the US frequently arrive in A sizes and will not sit correctly in a letter-size frame, let alone an 8x10 one. Measure the print itself rather than trusting the size in the shop listing.

• 8x10 in — photographs, most small art prints, the standard gift frame
• 8.5x11 in — certificates, documents, anything off a US printer
• A4 (8.27 x 11.69 in) — prints and posters from outside the US

Matting an 8x10, and what it costs you in wall space

An unmatted 8x10 reads as a photograph. The same 8x10 behind a mat reads as framed art, and the only thing that changed is a piece of card. At this size it is the single highest-return decision on the page.

The trade is size. To mat an 8x10 you buy a bigger frame, so the object on your wall grows:

Going up two sizes rather than one is what produces the gallery look, because the border stops reading as packaging and starts reading as deliberate space. It also means a 16x20 object on the wall to show an 8x10 print, which is a real cost in a small room. Mat sizing for standard prints has the full table, and how to mat a print covers cutting your own.

Hanging an 8x10: this is the easy part

An 8x10 frame is one of the lightest things you will ever hang. Weight is not a constraint here and you do not need a hook, a stud or a drill.

• One set of Command Medium strips is rated 3 lb, which is well clear of a typical 8x10 frame in either glass or acrylic. Two sets if you want it to stay level without fussing.
• Command Small strips are rated 1 lb per set and are specified for 4x6 and 5x7 frames. They will often hold an 8x10, but Medium is the size to buy if you are buying for an 8x10.
• Textured or papered walls defeat adhesive regardless of weight. Use a ledge or a rail instead.

Height: center the image at 57 inches, or 6 to 8 inches above furniture if there is any below it. The hanging height guide has the reasoning, and every damage-free method ordered by rated weight covers the rest.

Buying 8x10 in multiples

8x10 is the size most often bought several at a time, and the per-frame cost of a multipack is noticeably lower than buying singles. If you are framing more than two things, buy the pack.

Mixed-size packs that include 8x10 alongside 5x7 and 4x6 are the efficient buy for a gallery wall, because a wall of identical 8x10s reads as a grid whether or not you intended one. If a grid is what you want, that is a feature — grid versus salon style covers the choice, and frame sizes for gallery walls has the size mixes that work.

One caution on packs: they are sold on count, and the frames in them are usually the thinnest molding the maker offers. That is the right trade for a gallery wall where the frames should recede, and the wrong one if the frame is meant to be an object in its own right.

What to frame at 8x10, and where it goes

8x10 is the size of a printed photograph. It is also the size a large share of small art prints are sold in, which is why it is the most stocked frame size in the country and why it turns up in every multipack. What it is not is a size that can carry a large empty wall on its own.

Scale is the thing people get wrong here. A single 8x10 centered on a wide blank wall looks lost, and no amount of careful hanging fixes it — the frame is simply too small for the space it has been asked to fill. The answer is either to group several of them so the group becomes the object, or to use a bigger piece and keep the 8x10 for somewhere it suits.

Places 8x10 genuinely works:

• Desks, shelves and mantels, where the easel back matters more than the hanging hardware and the viewing distance is short.
• Hallways and stair walls, seen from a few feet away, where a run of small frames reads better than one large piece. The staircase guide covers the rise-and-tread spacing.
• Beside a door or in an alcove, narrow spots where nothing larger fits.
• Bathrooms and small bedrooms, where the whole wall is close to the viewer.
• As the filler sizes in a mixed gallery wall, around one or two larger anchors.

The small-apartment case is the one worth calling out, because 8x10 is the size that lets you cover wall without committing to a fixing or to a large object in a small room. The small-apartment gallery wall is built around exactly that constraint, and small-apartment wall art covers what to put in the frames.

For the sizes either side of this one, 5x7 frames and 4x6 frames cover the desk and multi-opening cases 8x10 does not.

The size above this one is worth a look before you commit: an 11x14 frame with an 8x10 mat opening holds the same print with a border, and reads considerably more finished on a wall.

An 8x10 is usually the largest size in a family photo collection, which makes it the anchor of a mixed-size wall. Best picture frames for family photos covers building that wall around it.