Rubber Stamp Size Chart: Will Your Design Fit?
Most size charts are a picture of some rectangles. This rubber stamp size chart takes your own numbers, runs them against the limits stamp makers publish, and tells you which rule you broke and by how much. Every threshold below is linked to the page it came from.
Check a spec against the rubber stamp size chart
- Listed plates run 9.5 by 25.4 mm to 38.1 by 76.2 mm rectangular, and 19.1 mm to 50.8 mm round.
- Raster artwork wants 600 dpi at the finished size, text stays at or above 7 pt, lines at or above 0.25 mm.
- Keep 1 mm clear of every edge, which costs you 2 mm on each axis.
- A circle's usable area is the square inscribed in its safe circle, roughly 71 percent of the diameter minus the margin.
Type the plate you are planning, in millimetres, centimetres or inches. The outline redraws to scale as you go, the dashed line is the 1 mm margin your artwork has to stay inside, and the bars are your lines of text at the size you entered. Lines that run past the usable area turn red and stack at the bottom.
- Edge clearance
Live area is 45 x 17 mm after a 1 mm margin on each side.
Source: Stamps Plus artwork guide
- Smallest text size
Your smallest text is 7 pt against a published minimum of 7 pt.
Source: Stamps Plus artwork guide, Onlinestempel design guide
- Thinnest line
Your thinnest line is 0.3 mm. Published floors are 0.25 mm and 0.3 mm.
Source: Stamps Plus artwork guide, Onlinestempel design guide
- Artwork resolution
900 px across 47 mm is 486 dpi, against the 600 dpi Stamps Plus requires and Onlinestempel calls ideal.
Re-export at 1111 px wide or more, or send vector instead.
Source: Stamps Plus artwork guide, Onlinestempel design guide
- Lines of text derived
17 mm of usable height holds 5 lines at 7 pt; you asked for 4.
Arithmetic from: Stamps Plus artwork guide
- Standard plate
Fits the Printy 4912, listed at 3/4" x 1-7/8" and measured here at 19.1 x 47.6 mm.
Or load a spec that has already been through it:
Where every number in this checker comes from
Six rules run against your spec. Five are figures that stamp makers publish on their own artwork pages, and the sixth is arithmetic from one of the other five, which the checker marks as derived rather than passing it off as a manufacturer requirement. Nothing here is a threshold invented to make the output look thorough.
Resolution: 600 dpi for raster artwork
Stamps Plus asks for images supplied in black and white at a resolution of at least 600 dpi. Onlinestempel names the same number but not as a hard floor: it calls 600 dpi ideal for a stamp graphic and will take less, at a cost to the result. The checker treats it as a requirement, which is the stricter of the two readings. Dpi is not a property of a file on its own, so the checker works it out from your pixel width and the plate width you entered. This is the rule behind the query people actually type, which is rubber stamp size in pixels: the pixel count only means something once the physical width is fixed.
Text: 7 pt minimum
Both guides land on 7 pt, measured against a plain face rather than a light or decorative one. Below it the counters inside letters start filling in once the rubber is cut and the ink spreads, which is the difference between a stamp that reads and a grey smudge with a shape.
Lines: 0.25 mm at one source, 0.3 mm at the other
Stamps Plus gives a minimum line thickness of 0.25 mm. Onlinestempel recommends 0.3 mm, or 0.75 pt, for standalone lines. They do not agree, so the checker does not pretend they do: under 0.25 mm is a fail, and the gap between the two figures is a warning rather than a pass. Onlinestempel does not say it refuses a thinner line, only that one may print unclearly or not at all, which is a warning in anyone's language.
Margin: 1 mm clearance from the edge
Stamps Plus asks for 1 mm of clearance from the edge of the plate. It sounds trivial until you notice it comes off both sides of both axes, so a 12 mm tall plate has 10 mm of usable height, not 12. That is a sixth of the height gone on a small stamp, and it is the reason a design that looks like it fits on paper does not fit on the die.
Line count: arithmetic, and labelled as such
Sellers publish line counts for their own models, and those counts are not stable enough to quote. The Printy 4913 is described as taking up to five lines and up to six lines on the same retail page, depending on which part of it you read, so there is no figure to cite even from one seller. The checker instead does the arithmetic in the open: 7 pt is 2.47 mm, ordinary line spacing adds twenty percent, so one line needs about 2.96 mm and the usable height divided by that is your ceiling. It is marked derived in the results for the same reason it is explained here.
California notary seals: Government Code section 8207
Tick the notary box and one more rule applies, quoted from the statute: the seal may be circular not over two inches in diameter, or may be a rectangular form of not more than one inch in width by two and one-half inches in length. That is California and only California. Other states set their own rules and some regulate the wording rather than the size, which is why the notary stamp maker links out to each state authority instead of restating law it cannot keep current.
Sources: Stamps Plus artwork guide, Onlinestempel design guide, Owl Stamp Trodat Printy line sizes, California Government Code section 8207. All read on 1 August 2026.
The rubber stamp size chart in millimetres and inches
Twenty-two listed plates, in the units both halves of the market use. The last two columns are the part a picture of rectangles cannot give you: what a plate that size is comfortable holding, and what it is not. Both follow from the line count, which follows from the 7 pt floor, so the table and the checker are reading the same arithmetic.
| Printy model | Shape | Listed size | Millimetres | Lines at 7pt | Best for | Not ideal for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4910 | rectangle | 3/8" x 1" | 9.5 x 25.4 | 2 | A name over a job title | Any address, and most logos |
| 4911 | rectangle | 9/16" x 1-1/2" | 12.2 x 38.1 * | 3 | A name over a job title | A logo beside text, which eats the width |
| 4912 | rectangle | 3/4" x 1-7/8" | 19.1 x 47.6 | 5 | A four line return address | Fine print you want readable after inking |
| 4913 | rectangle | 7/8" x 2-3/8" | 22 x 57 * | 6 | An address plus a contact line and a reference | Pocket carry, since the body grows with the plate |
| 4914 | rectangle | 1" x 2-1/2" | 25.4 x 63.5 | 7 | An address plus a contact line and a reference | Pocket carry, since the body grows with the plate |
| 4915 | rectangle | 1" x 2-3/4" | 25.4 x 69.9 | 7 | An address plus a contact line and a reference | Pocket carry, since the body grows with the plate |
| 4916 | rectangle | 3/8" x 2-3/4" | 9.5 x 69.9 | 2 | A name and a phone number on one plate | A logo beside text, which eats the width |
| 4917 | rectangle | 3/8" x 2" | 9.5 x 50.8 | 2 | A name and a phone number on one plate | A logo beside text, which eats the width |
| 4918 | rectangle | 5/8" x 3" | 15.9 x 76.2 | 4 | A business block with room at the ends | Fine print you want readable after inking |
| 4921 | square | 1/2" x 1/2" | 12.7 x 12.7 | 3 | A name over a job title | Any address, and most logos |
| 4922 | square | 13/16" x 13/16" | 20.6 x 20.6 | 6 | Several short lines stacked tight | Any address, and most logos |
| 4923 | square | 1-3/16" x 1-3/16" | 30.2 x 30.2 | 9 | Several short lines stacked tight | Pocket carry, since the body grows with the plate |
| 4924 | square | 1-5/8" x 1-5/8" | 41.3 x 41.3 | 13 | Several short lines stacked tight | Pocket carry, since the body grows with the plate |
| 4925 | rectangle | 1" x 3-1/4" | 25.4 x 82.6 | 7 | An address plus a contact line and a reference | Pocket carry, since the body grows with the plate |
| 4926 | rectangle | 1-1/2" x 3" | 38.1 x 76.2 | 12 | An address plus a contact line and a reference | Pocket carry, since the body grows with the plate |
| 4927 | rectangle | 1-9/16" x 2-3/8" | 39.7 x 60.3 | 12 | An address plus a contact line and a reference | Pocket carry, since the body grows with the plate |
| 4929 | rectangle | 1-3/16" x 2" | 30.2 x 50.8 | 9 | Several short lines stacked tight | Pocket carry, since the body grows with the plate |
| 46019 | round | 3/4" diameter | 19.1 x 19.1 | 4 | An initial or a single short word in the middle | Curved text, which needs more rim than this |
| 4630 | round | 1-3/16" diameter | 30.2 x 30.2 | 6 | A name curved around the rim with a mark in the centre | Long straight lines, since the chord runs out |
| 4642 | round | 1-5/8" diameter | 41.3 x 41.3 | 9 | A name curved around the rim with a mark in the centre | Long straight lines, since the chord runs out |
| 4645 | round | 1-3/4" diameter | 44.5 x 44.5 | 10 | A club or society seal with text on both arcs | Long straight lines, since the chord runs out |
| 46050 | round | 2" diameter | 50.8 x 50.8 | 11 | A club or society seal with text on both arcs | Long straight lines, since the chord runs out |
Sizes are listed in inches at source and converted here, which is why the millimetre column has decimals the chart does not. Rows marked with an asterisk have a second published figure from another seller that disagrees; the millimetre column shows the smaller of the two. The line count is arithmetic from the 7 pt text minimum, not a figure Trodat publishes.
Sellers disagree about the same stamp
The Printy 4913 is listed at 7/8 inch by 2-3/8 inch on the size chart this table is built from, which is 22.2 by 60.3 mm. Another seller lists the same model as 22 by 57 mm. The width differs by more than three millimetres depending on whose page you are reading. The 4911 does the same thing on the other axis: 9/16 inch at one seller, 0.48 inch at another, a gap of about two millimetres on a plate only fourteen millimetres tall.
Some of that is the difference between the plate and the impression it leaves, and some is rounding a conversion twice. Either way, a design drawn right up to a published figure can arrive too big. The table above therefore shows the smaller of the two figures wherever we hold two, marked with an asterisk, and the checker measures against the smaller one too.
We only carry a second published figure for two of the twenty-two models, because those are the two we looked up. Assume the same spread exists across the rest of the chart rather than assuming the unmarked rows are exact. If a millimetre matters to your design, ask your supplier for their own plate dimensions rather than trusting any rubber stamp size chart, including this one.
What this checker cannot tell you
It reads six numbers off a form. It has never seen your artwork, so it cannot know that your logo has a hairline you forgot about or that your chosen face has thin serifs at 7 pt. The business logo checker covers the file side of that, by looking at the actual pixels.
It does not know your supplier. The plates listed here come from one dealer's published chart for one manufacturer's range. Other manufacturers cut different sizes, custom dies are made to order at any size at all, and none of that is knowable from a form.
It is not legal advice. The California rule is in there because the statute states a number and the number can be checked. Everything else about a notary seal, in California or anywhere else, including what has to be printed on it and whether a stamp is acceptable in your process, is a question for your commissioning authority.
The preview is drawn in millimetres, so it prints at life size at 100 percent, with two exceptions the caption calls out: a plate over 90 mm is reduced to fit the panel, and a narrow screen can shrink it further. On screen it also depends on your browser treating an inch as 96 pixels, which is close but not a promise. Hold a printed copy against a real stamp, not the screen.
Questions people ask about stamp sizes
What is the standard rubber stamp size?
There is no single standard. What exists is a range of plate sizes that self-inking bodies are built around, and the Trodat Printy range is the one most sellers list: from 9.5 by 25.4 mm at the small end to 38.1 by 76.2 mm, plus round plates from 19.1 mm to 50.8 mm across. A four line return address needs roughly the 4912, listed as 3/4 inch by 1-7/8 inch, which is what the checker returns for that spec. A custom die can be cut at any size, so the chart is a guide to what is cheap and quick, not a limit.
What are rubber stamp sizes in mm, cm and inches?
Sellers in the United States list in inches and sellers elsewhere list in millimetres, which is why the same stamp appears twice under different numbers. One inch is exactly 25.4 mm, so a 7/8 by 2-3/8 inch plate is 22.2 by 60.3 mm, or 2.2 by 6.0 cm. The checker above takes any of the three units and converts before it runs the rules, so you do not have to do this by hand.
What is the usual round rubber stamp size?
Listed round plates run 19.1, 30.2, 41.3, 44.5 and 50.8 mm across. The catch with a circle is that the usable text area is not the diameter: a line near the rim runs out of chord, so the honest working area is the largest square inside the safe circle, about 71 percent of what is left after the 1 mm margin comes off each edge. A 41 mm round plate gives roughly 27.6 mm of usable height, not 39 mm. The checker uses the inscribed square for its line count for this reason.
What rubber stamp size in pixels do I need?
Pixels alone mean nothing until you say how wide they have to spread. Stamps Plus requires at least 600 dpi and Onlinestempel calls 600 dpi ideal while accepting less at a quality cost, and dpi is just pixels divided by inches. A 600 dpi file across a 38 mm plate needs about 900 px; across a 76 mm plate it needs about 1800 px. Send vector where you can, since an SVG, EPS or PDF has no resolution to get wrong.
What are the notary stamp size requirements?
They are set by each state, so there is no national answer. California is written into the checker because its statute states a figure: Government Code section 8207 allows a seal that is circular and not over two inches in diameter, or rectangular and not more than one inch by two and a half inches. Other states differ, and some regulate wording rather than size. Confirm yours with your own commissioning authority before any official use.
What is the smallest text a rubber stamp can hold?
Both makers whose guides this page cites give the same floor: 7 pt. Below that the letterforms start closing up when the rubber is cut and the ink spreads. That floor is also what caps the number of lines a plate can hold, since 7 pt at ordinary line spacing occupies about 3.0 mm of height per line.
Is this rubber stamp size chart a substitute for asking my supplier?
No. It checks a spec against figures that stamp makers publish, which catches the common mistakes before you pay for a die. It has not seen your artwork, does not know what sizes your supplier actually cuts, and cannot tell you how their rubber behaves. Treat a clean result as permission to send the file, not as a proof.