2.39:1 Aspect Ratio Calculator

A 2.39:1 frame is 2.39 units wide for every unit of height, which makes it the widest ratio covered on this site. On a 16:9 television it is shown with letterbox bars top and bottom, and those bars are part of the picture rather than a projection fault — they are what keeps the horizontal proportions correct.

The number changed over time. Early widescreen cinema used 2.35:1, and the value used in practice moved to approximately 2.39:1 after a revision to the anamorphic projection specification. Many people still say 2.35:1 out of habit, and on a normal screen the difference of about 1.7% is difficult to see. The two labels are commonly treated as describing the same family of extremely wide frames.

Because one side of the ratio is a decimal, multiplying is easier than dividing. Work in the direction that keeps the arithmetic on whole numbers where possible.

1. Divide the width by 2.39 to get the height.
2. Round the height to the nearest whole pixel.
3. If you know the height instead, multiply it by 2.39 to get the width, then round that to the nearest whole pixel.

Worked example

At 1920 pixels wide: 1920 ÷ 2.39 = 803.35, which rounds to 803 pixels, so the frame is 1920 × 803. At 3840 wide: 3840 ÷ 2.39 = 1606.69, which rounds to 1607, giving 3840 × 1607. Cinema delivery containers are a special case: a DCI 2K Scope master is 2048 × 858 and a DCI 4K Scope master is 4096 × 1716, and those work out to about 2.387 rather than exactly 2.390 — a difference far too small to see on screen.

2.39:1 is frequently confused with the older 2.35:1 label — both describe the same family of anamorphic cinema widescreen, but the exact standard shifted slightly in the 1970s when the industry changed how the soundtrack was recorded onto film prints. Today "2.35:1" is often used informally even when the actual ratio being referenced is 2.39:1. It's also worth not assuming DCI digital cinema masters and consumer streaming video use the same height reference — DCI masters are built around fixed container widths (2048 or 4096 pixels) that don't map directly onto typical 1080p or 4K consumer frame sizes.

For a scope frame at 2560 pixels wide: 2560 ÷ 2.39 = 1071.13, which rounds to 1071, so the frame is 2560 × 1071. Working from 1920 wide instead gives 803, and from 3840 gives 1607 — the height always lands on an awkward number, which is why scope masters are usually built to a fixed container height rather than a round width.

Type your own numbers into the 2.39:1 calculator above and it will show the same division, plus the reduced ratio and the CSS to copy.

• Anamorphic cinema and streaming feature films.
• Scope-format trailers and title sequences.
• Film-look music videos and narrative shorts.
• Letterboxed widescreen presentations of 16:9 footage.
• Cinema DCP mastering at the Scope dimensions used for digital cinema delivery.
• Vertical video that adds cinematic bars for a filmic look.

2.39:1 is the widest ratio on this site. The 21:9 calculator covers the ultrawide monitor variant, and the 16:9 calculator covers the frame that anamorphic material is usually letterboxed inside.

• 16:9
• 9:16
• 4:3
• 1:1
• 16:10
• 21:9
• 3:2
• 4:5
• 2:3

This 2.39:1 guide is one of ten ratio calculators on the site — the common aspect ratios table lists the decimal value and the typical uses for every one of them.

A 1920 x 803 anamorphic frame placed on a 1920 x 1080 display leaves 277 pixels of unused height, split into two bars of about 138 pixels each. The image fills the full width, so nothing is cropped — the bars are simply the difference between the two shapes.

The bars are not a defect — they are what keeps the picture at the correct proportions. Filling the screen instead would mean cropping the sides of the frame, which is exactly what a television's zoom setting does: 803 / 1080 is about 74%, so a zoom-to-fill would throw away roughly a quarter of the width.

The picture height scales with the screen width. For a 2.39:1 frame the picture height is always the width divided by 2.39:

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<div class="aspectcalc-embed" style="max-width:100%">
  <iframe id="aspectcalc-frame" src="https://aspectcalc.com/embed?h=640"
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          loading="lazy" title="AspectCalc aspect ratio calculator"></iframe>
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</div>
<script>
  // Optional: grow the frame to the widget's real height.
  // Delete this whole block to keep a fixed-height frame instead.
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