35mm Print Sizes

[Richard Pickup]

What are your preferred print sizes in 35mm?
I am especially interested in the following scenarios, for prints you would happily display:
1) Darkroom prints from XP2, HP5+, Delta 100;
2) Prints from scanned negatives from Kodak Ektar and Provia 100F. Nikon Coolscan 5000 or equivalent. Printer Epson R3000 or equivalent.
I am interested to see if "common" sizes are shared among members, and whether small differences come into play (centimetres apart, say). what might be your rationale: perceived sparkle, gaps in tonality and so forth?

 

[mike rosenlof]

1) darkroom prints
For 35mm, I print mostly on 8x10 paper. I leave big borders, about 1/2 inch on the long dimension, leaving 9 inch, depending on my mood or the neg, the short dimension will have 1/2 to 1 inch borders (mostly depending on my mood) making the total image area somewhere in the range of (6-7) x 9 inches.

I like the wide borders if the prints aren't going to be matted, just kept in a box, and if framed, the dimensions are still fine in a standard pre-cut matt.

 

[mike rosenlof]

continuing from my previous post (#2 in this thread)

I don't print 35mm larger than 8x10 for a couple of reasons, mostly I don't think 35mm looks good when printed much larger, I use larger film if that's the objective. But in general, I print small, even from 4x5 which I can enlarge, or 8x10 which I can only do contacts. I like photos as a "hold in your hand" viewing experience. I can also store 8x10s easily. I just don't have the space to store prints larger than 11x14 (I have a few, but not a lot).