Reference · Size guide

Art Board and Canvas Panel Sizes: Standard Dimensions and Thickness

Rigid painting surfaces come in the same inch sizes as canvas and frames, but in eight different constructions and half a dozen thicknesses. Here is what each board is, how thick it is, what sizes it comes in, and which one to buy for plein air, for framing, and for studies.

By the Austin Gallery editors · September 8, 2026

The art board types, side by side

Every board on this page is a rigid alternative to stretched canvas or loose paper. What separates them is the face (canvas, gesso, clay or paper) and the core (cardboard, hardboard, layered paper or foam). The face decides what you can paint on it; the core decides how thick and how stiff it is, and therefore how it frames and travels.

Canvas panel sizes

Canvas panels (also sold as canvas boards) are primed cotton glued over a cardboard or fiberboard core. They are the cheapest painting surface per square inch, they stack flat, and they fit any standard frame. The sizes are the standard canvas and frame sizes; the list is the same one on our standard canvas sizes chart, minus the large sizes, because a cardboard core cannot stay flat past about 18 x 24. Most brands stop at 16 x 20 or 18 x 24.

Bulk panels for studies

Arteza Canvas Panels, 11 x 14, Pack of 14

Fourteen primed 11 x 14 panels, the standard study size, at under two dollars each. Cotton face, acid free core, fits an 11 x 14 frame straight from the easel.

$24.99 at Amazon →

Archival panels for work you will keep

Fredrix Artist Series Canvas Panels, 8 x 10, Pack of 12

Twelve 8 x 10 panels on an archival core from the oldest canvas maker in the US. The panel for plein air pieces and small commissions that need to last.

$45.00 at Amazon →

If you want a range of sizes rather than a stack of one, the Arteza 28 panel assortment ($40.99) mixes four sizes in one box.

Gessoed hardboard and Ampersand boards

Gessoed hardboard is tempered hardboard (or MDF) coated with acrylic gesso, with no canvas. The surface is smooth or lightly textured, it does not flex, and it takes oil, acrylic, casein and egg tempera. Ampersand is the reference brand: Gessobord is the general purpose gesso panel, Claybord has a kaolin clay ground for ink and scratch work, Aquabord has a textured clay ground for watercolor, Pastelbord has a grit surface, and Hardbord is the bare panel for priming yourself. All come flat at 1/8 inch or cradled, meaning mounted on a wooden frame at 3/4, 1.5 or 2 inches deep, in sizes from 4 x 4 to 24 x 36 and larger in some lines.

The reference gesso panel

Ampersand Gessobord, 1/8 Inch Flat, 8 x 10

Ampersand's 1/8 inch Gessobord in 8 x 10: archival hardboard with a sealed, lightly sanded gesso ground. Fits any 8 x 10 frame and every wet panel carrier.

$8.93 at Amazon →

For ink, scratchboard and egg tempera, the Ampersand Claybord 8 x 10 ($10.76) has the clay ground; to prime your own, the bare Ampersand Hardbord 8 x 10 ($7.00) is the same archival panel without a coating. Generic gessoed hardboard from other brands follows the same sizes and the same 1/8 inch thickness, at lower prices and with less consistent grounds.

Illustration board, mat board and foam board

These three are paper-faced boards sold as full sheets and cut down. Illustration board is drawing paper laminated to a stiff core; Crescent and Bainbridge are the standard makers, in hot press (smooth) and cold press (toothed) faces and in medium and heavy weights. The standard sheets are 15 x 20, 20 x 30 and 30 x 40 inches, which divide evenly: a 30 x 40 cuts into four 15 x 20s.

Illustration board

Crescent 215 Hot Press Illustration Board, 15 x 20, Pack of 10

Ten sheets of Crescent's 215 hot press board in the standard 15 x 20 size. Smooth face for ink, marker and gouache; stiff enough to work without a drawing board.

$40.95 at Amazon →

Mat board is the layered paper board used for window mats and backing. Standard board is 4-ply, about 1/16 inch; museum board is 8-ply, about 1/8 inch, for a deeper bevel. The full sheet is 32 x 40 inches, with 40 x 60 oversize sheets from framing suppliers. Pre-cut blanks in frame sizes (8 x 10, 11 x 14, 16 x 20, 18 x 24) are the practical way to buy it, and uncut blanks double as a surface for pastel, gouache and acrylic sketches.

Mat board blanks

Mat Board Center Uncut Mat Boards, 11 x 14, Pack of 10

Ten uncut 11 x 14 white mat boards, 4-ply. Cut your own windows for 8 x 10 work, or use them as backing boards and pastel surfaces.

$18.99 at Amazon →

Foam board is polystyrene foam faced with paper, in 3/16 inch (5 mm) and 1/8 inch (3 mm), in sheets from 20 x 30 to 40 x 60. It is a mounting and backing material, not a painting surface: the foam dents, and the face is not sized for paint.

Thickness in inches and millimeters

Thickness decides whether a board fits a frame, a pochade box or a wet panel carrier. The conversions are exact (1 inch = 25.4 mm), rounded to one decimal.

The two cradle depths are chosen to match stretched canvas: a 3/4 inch cradle hangs like a standard canvas and fits a standard floater frame, and a 1.5 inch cradle hangs like a gallery canvas. Our standard picture frame sizes chart covers the frame side, including how deep a frame's rabbet needs to be for each thickness.

Which board for plein air, framing and studies

Match the board to the job. For plein air the constraints are weight and the carrier: pochade boxes and wet panel carriers are built around 1/8 inch panels in 8 x 10, 9 x 12 and 11 x 14, and a cradled board will not fit them. For framing, a 1/8 inch panel is the easy case because it goes into a normal frame like a print, while a paper-faced board goes under glass with a mat. For studies, the only number that matters is price per panel, which points to bulk canvas panels.

Boards are also the answer when a stretched canvas is impractical: a 12 x 16 panel in a pochade box, a 16 x 20 panel that ships in a flat mailer, a cradled 24 x 36 that will not sag the way a cheap stretched canvas that size does. The large canvas size guide covers where boards stop and stretched canvas takes over. For paper surfaces, the best watercolor paper guide compares the sheets and blocks, and the fraction sheet size guide explains the 1/4 and 1/8 sizes that canvas boards are sold in outside the US.

Frequently asked questions