Billboard sizes: bulletins, posters and digital boards
The standard US billboard, the bulletin, is 14 ft high × 48 ft wide, printed on 15 × 49 ft vinyl with 6 in of bleed on every side. A 30-sheet poster shows 10 ft 5 in × 22 ft 8 in, and an 8-sheet (junior) poster 5 × 11 ft. Files are built at scale: the OAAA’s production spec puts a bulletin at 1 in = 1 ft, a 49 × 15 in file at 216 to 240 ppi, which is about 20 ppi at full size. Digital billboards mostly take 1400 × 400 or 840 × 400 pixels.
Billboard sizes: dimensions and pixels
| Format | Inches | Millimeters | Pixels at 20 ppi | Notes and template |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bulletin, 14 × 48 ft (live area) | 576 × 168 in | 14630.4 × 4267.2 mm | 11,520 × 3,360 px | |
| Bulletin vinyl, 15 × 49 ft | 588 × 180 in | 14935.2 × 4572 mm | 11,760 × 3,600 px | 6 in of bleed on every side |
| Bulletin, 10.5 × 36 ft | 432 × 126 in | 10972.8 × 3200.4 mm | 8,640 × 2,520 px | Vinyl 11.5 × 37 ft |
| 30-sheet poster, 10 ft 5 in × 22 ft 8 in | 272 × 125 in | 6908.8 × 3175 mm | 5,440 × 2,500 px | Live and printed area the same |
| 8-sheet (junior) poster, 5 × 11 ft | 132 × 60 in | 3352.8 × 1524 mm | 2,640 × 1,200 px | Vinyl about 5 ft 2 in × 11 ft 2 in |
Digital billboard sizes
Digital boards are designed in pixels, not feet. The OAAA lists these two sizes, and Lamar, one of the largest US operators, says the same two specs reach over 90% of its screens:
| Digital format | Pixels (width × height) | Shape |
|---|---|---|
| Digital bulletin (14 × 48 or 10.5 × 36 ft) | 1400 × 400 px | 7 : 2 |
| Digital poster (about 11 × 23 ft) | 840 × 400 px | 21 : 10 |
Other operators and newer screens use other sizes, so get the spec for the boards you have booked. A digital ad shares the screen with others and is up for a few seconds at a time, and some operators restrict content: Lamar, for one, doesn’t allow QR codes on its digital billboards.
Building the file at scale
At full size a bulletin would be a 49 × 15 ft document, far beyond what design apps handle, so billboard files are built at a fixed scale. The OAAA’s production spec sets bulletins at 1 in = 1 ft, a 49 × 15 in document (the vinyl with bleed) at 216 to 240 ppi, and 30-sheet posters at 1/10 scale, 27.2 × 12.5 in at 180 to 200 ppi. Some plants use 1/2 in = 1 ft at 300 ppi instead, as some Lamar markets do, so build on the template of the company that prints and posts the board.
Whatever the scale, the image ends up at roughly 12 to 20 pixels per inch of real billboard; the OAAA targets 18 to 20 ppi at full size. That looks coarse up close and sharp from the road. The table gives pixels at 20 ppi of full size, which are the same counts as 240 ppi in a 1 in = 1 ft file. Type and logos should be vector, so they stay sharp at any scale. Billboards are named height × width in feet; the table gives width × height in inches.
Bleed, live area and the road
Bulletin vinyl is pulled around the board’s frame, so the OAAA spec adds 6 in of bleed on every side: a 14 × 48 ft board is printed 15 × 49 ft, and anything that matters stays inside the 14 × 48 ft live area. Lamar’s 5 × 11 ft junior poster spec asks for 1 in of bleed instead, so the bleed depends on the format and the operator; it comes with the template.
A billboard is read by drivers in a few seconds, from hundreds of feet away. Keep to a handful of words, one image and a name or web address, with strong contrast between type and background; a phone number or a long address is hard to take in at speed. The same campaign often runs on printed and digital boards, which have different shapes, so plan the layout for both from the start.
Questions
- What size is a standard billboard?
- The standard US bulletin is 14 ft high × 48 ft wide, printed on 15 × 49 ft vinyl with 6 in of bleed on every side. Smaller bulletins are 10.5 × 36 ft, and posters are 10 ft 5 in × 22 ft 8 in (30-sheet) or 5 × 11 ft (8-sheet).
- What resolution does a billboard need?
- About 18 to 20 ppi at full size, which is what the OAAA targets. In a file built at 1 in = 1 ft that means 216 to 240 ppi. A 14 × 48 ft bulletin at 20 ppi is 11,520 × 3,360 pixels, or 11,760 × 3,600 with its 6 in of bleed.
- What size is a digital billboard in pixels?
- Most digital bulletins take 1400 × 400 pixels and digital posters 840 × 400, the two sizes the OAAA lists and that Lamar says cover over 90% of its screens. Other operators can differ, so check the spec for the boards you book.
- What scale should a billboard file be?
- The one in the printer’s template. The OAAA spec uses 1 in = 1 ft for bulletins (a 49 × 15 in file for a 14 × 48 ft board with bleed) and 1/10 scale for 30-sheet posters; some plants use 1/2 in = 1 ft at 300 ppi.
If the printer sends the file back
Terms on this page: DPI / PPI (resolution), Vector, Raster (bitmap), Bleed.
Real jobs at these sizes: Takmeel highway billboard.
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