How many pieces actually fit on the paper you have

A4 to A1, measured. Every number below comes out of the same layout function the generator uses, so what you read here is the size your cutter will meet — not an estimate rounded off in a blog post.

4 min read · piece sizes in millimetres · 12 presets measured

Two numbers decide whether a printed puzzle is a pleasure or a chore: how big each piece is in millimetres, and how many pieces there are to keep track of. Paper size sets the first, your grid sets the second, and they fight each other. Push the piece count up on A4 and the pieces drop under 20 mm, where scissors stop working and tweezers become part of the hobby.

The full size and piece table

All rows use portrait orientation and a square-cut grid with square cells. “Print area” is the picture block, not the sheet — the rest is the 10 mm margin, the crop marks and the calibration footer.

Measured piece size by paper and grid
Paper	Grid	Pieces	Each piece	Print area
A4	6 × 8	48	31.7 mm	190 × 253
A4	8 × 11	88	23.5 mm	188 × 259
A4	10 × 14	140	18.5 mm	185 × 259
A4	12 × 17	204	15.2 mm	183 × 259
A3	6 × 8	48	46.2 mm	277 × 369
A3	8 × 11	88	34.6 mm	277 × 381
A3	10 × 14	140	27.3 mm	273 × 382
A3	12 × 17	204	22.5 mm	270 × 382
A2	8 × 11	88	50.0 mm	400 × 550
A2	10 × 14	140	39.7 mm	397 × 556
A2	12 × 17	204	32.7 mm	392 × 556
A1	10 × 14	140	57.4 mm	574 × 803
A1	14 × 19	266	41.0 mm	574 × 779
A1	18 × 25	450	31.9 mm	574 × 797
A1	24 × 34	816	23.6 mm	567 × 803

Millimetres, portrait, square cells. Piece size is the cell, edge to edge; classic tabs extend a further 11% of the cell outside it and overlap the neighbouring piece.

The pattern is worth reading twice. Doubling the piece count on the same sheet multiplies it by two, not four, because you also double the rows. A4 at 6 × 8 gives 48 pieces at 31.7 mm; A4 at 12 × 17 gives 204 pieces at 15.2 mm — that is four times the pieces and the piece is nearly half the width. Moving the same 6 × 8 grid from A4 to A3 does not add pieces at all, it just makes each one 46 mm instead of 32.

New parents holding their newborn baby in a lamp-lit bedroom, printed as the picture block of a jigsaw sheet — A4 · 8 × 11 · 88 pieces at 23.5 mm — the grid most people settle on for a gift.

What piece size can a hand deal with

This is the constraint nobody mentions until the pieces are on the table. It is not about difficulty, it is about whether a human can pick the thing up.

Piece size against who is doing the cutting and the solving
Piece size	Cutting	Solving	Good for
Under 15 mm	Knife and mat only	Fiddly	Nobody by hand
15–20 mm	Craft knife	Slow	Adults, high counts, a flat surface you can leave out
20–30 mm	Scissors or knife	Comfortable	The normal range — most gifts land here
30–45 mm	Scissors	Easy	Children from about six, quick evening puzzles
45 mm and up	Scissors	Very easy	Toddlers, grandparents, display pieces

The 20–30 mm band is where a printable puzzle behaves like a boxed one. Below 15 mm a hand-cut sheet stops being a puzzle and becomes a paper-cutting exercise.

A4 caps out around 140 pieces in practice. The generator will happily give you 560 pieces on A4 at 20 × 28, and each piece will be 9.3 mm. That is a laser-cutter project, not a scissors project. If you want a high piece count, go up a paper size instead of up a grid.

How many pixels your photo needs

Piece count does not change how sharp the photo prints. What changes it is the photo’s width against the print area’s width — and the print area is fixed by the paper. This is the number people get wrong: a phone photo that looks enormous on screen is often thin on an A2 sheet.

Effective print resolution from the photo’s long edge
Photo long edge	A4	A3	A2	A1
1,500 px	200 dpi	138 dpi	95 dpi	66 dpi
2,400 px	321 dpi	220 dpi	152 dpi	106 dpi
4,000 px	535 dpi	367 dpi	254 dpi	177 dpi
6,000 px	802 dpi	550 dpi	381 dpi	266 dpi

dpi = pixels × 25.4 ÷ print width in mm, using the 6 × 8 print area for each sheet. 300 dpi is the usual print standard; 150 dpi is acceptable for a photo you will look at from arm’s length.

So the honest floor is about 2,400 px on the long edge for A4 and roughly 4,000 px before A2 looks right. Most modern phone cameras clear 4,000 px without trying. Old WhatsApp forwards do not — they are often downsampled to 1,600 px, which is fine on A4 and visibly soft on A2.

A1 is a different project

Each A-series step doubles the area, so A1 is exactly eight times A4. 594 × 841 mm of paper is not something a home inkjet can print, and no photo shot on a phone will be sharp across it. Two honest routes:

Print it at a copy shop or on a plotter. Take the SVG export at 100%; A1 is a standard roll width and any print shop will handle it. Ask them to print at actual size and check the calibration bar before you pay.
Tile it from A4. A1 is two A3 sheets, or eight A4 sheets in a 2 × 4 arrangement. The generator works in single sheets, so this means printing each region separately and butting them together — which is a real project, not a five-minute one.

For most people the sweet spot above A4 is A3 at 8 × 11: 88 pieces at 34.6 mm, one sheet, prints on any office printer that takes A3, and pieces big enough to cut with scissors in an evening.

Picking in ten seconds

Kids under six: A4, 6 × 8, 48 pieces at 31.7 mm. Big enough to grab, quick enough to finish.
A gift for an adult: A4, 8 × 11, 88 pieces at 23.5 mm. The default for a reason.
Something that takes an evening: A3, 10 × 14, 140 pieces at 27.3 mm.
A wall piece: A2, 10 × 14, 140 pieces at 39.7 mm — big pieces, big picture.
A statement: A1, 18 × 25, 450 pieces at 31.9 mm, printed at a shop.

Start with the default, change one thing

A4 and 6 × 8 is what opens by default. Print one sheet, cut it, see how it feels in the hand — that tells you more than any table.

Open the generator Then check the scale