How does the K-12 photo banner maker work?
The banner hangs in grade order: a title card with the name and “Class of”, then one photo card per grade, each labeled: KINDERGARTEN, 1ST GRADE, all the way to 12TH. Every card is cut to a real photo-print size, so the banner reads like the string of school prints it is. The strip above the form is the print order itself: what you see hanging there is what the file lays out, card for card.
Your photo is cover-cropped into the card’s window, so a face near the middle of the picture works best: the classic school-portrait crop. No photo for a year? The card still prints, as a labeled empty frame you glue the print into later.
The last sheet of every download is the plan: how many cards, how many sheets at each size, how much ribbon to cut, and the steps in order.
What size should the photos be: 8 × 10, 5 × 7 or half-letter?
That depends on how many sheets you want to print, and the tool computes the answer instead of guessing. For a full kindergarten-to-12th banner (13 grade cards plus the title card):
| Card size | Cards per sheet | Sheets to print | Ribbon to cut |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 × 10 in | 1 | 14 | about 3.5 m |
| 5 × 7 in | 2 | 7 | about 2.5 m |
| Half-letter | 1 | 14 | about 2.6 m |
The 8 × 10 card is the size the store-bought banners use; 5 × 7 is the friendlier run on a home printer: half the sheets, same banner. The plan sheet in your download always lists all three for your actual card count.
What if some years are missing?
Three honest options, all built in. Narrow the grade range to the years you have: K–5 for the little years, 9–12 for high school. Or let the empty grades print as labeled frames and glue the prints in when you find them. Or mix both. The banner is the timeline, not a full album.
How do I print the cards the right size?
- Download the file; it is built on your device, in your browser.
- In the print dialog, pick the paper you chose and set scaling to 100 percent or actual size, never fit-to-page.
- Check the black bar at the bottom of every page: it must measure exactly 1 inch / 2.54 cm. If it comes out short, the printer scaled the page; reprint at actual size.
- Cut along the solid outlines, tape or clip the cards to the ribbon in grade order, and hang.
Fit-to-page is the one mistake that spoils the size: every card shrinks a little, and the 8 × 10 card stops being 8 × 10. The check bar catches it before you cut.
Who is this banner for?
The graduation party wall: thirteen school photos in a row, kindergarten to senior year, above the cake table. Grandparents print it for the party and send the cards around the table one grade at a time. And the graduate can post the line itself; the cards photograph well in a row.
A note on what else is out there, checked October 2026: page one for this search is store banners with pre-cut photo slots (pay, wait for shipping, add your own prints), paid template files that want an online design account, and print-and-glue template sheets where you write the grade labels by hand. The free instant version (upload the photos, get the finished, labeled, true-size banner) is what this page adds.
Is anything uploaded?
No. The cropping, the layout and the download are all computed in your browser. Nothing you add here, photos, names, years, is sent anywhere, and closing the tab erases it. More printables from the same camera roll, all working the same way, are on the photo gifts page: a photo bunting banner with names and letters between the flags, a photo cube to fold, or a memory game for the party table. And the full walk-through (which photo goes with which grade, the sheet and ribbon math, the hanging) is the guide How to make a graduation photo banner; a banner that spells a name in letter flags instead has its own walk-through, How to make a photo banner. The whole graduation shelf (four makers, both guides) lives on the graduation page.
Questions
How do I make a graduation photo banner with my own photos?
Pick the grade range (kindergarten to 12th grade is the classic 13-photo banner), type the graduate's name, add one school photo per grade, and click the download button. You get a title card plus one labeled photo card per grade, sized to a real photo print. Print at 100 percent, cut along the solid outlines, and tape the cards to a ribbon in grade order.
What size should the photos be: 8x10 or 5x7?
Both work, and the tool computes the difference for you: an 8 × 10 banner prints one card per sheet (14 sheets for the full kindergarten-to-12th run), while 5 × 7 prints two cards per sheet, 7 sheets. Half-letter also prints one per sheet, 14 sheets. The plan sheet in every download lists all three, and every page carries a 1-inch bar so you can check the print came out true to size.
What if I don't have a photo for every year?
Print the banner anyway. A grade without a photo prints as a labeled empty frame; glue the print in after, which is how most families finish it. Missing years are also why the grade range is adjustable: a K–5 banner for the young years, or 9–12 for the high-school run, works exactly the same way.
How are the school years computed?
From the class year: the class of 2027 finishes 12th grade in 2026–27, so kindergarten was 2014–15, 1st grade 2015–16, and so on. That assumes every grade went by in order; a moved or held-back year means you may want to turn the years off with the checkbox.
How much ribbon do I need?
The tool computes it for your banner and prints it on the plan sheet. The rule: each card takes its own width on the ribbon, leave 3 cm between cards, and add 15 cm at each end to tie. A full 5 × 7 banner needs about 2.5 m; the same run in 8 × 10 needs about 3.5 m.
Are my photos uploaded anywhere?
No. The cropping, the layout and the file you download are all computed in your browser, and no request carries a photo or a name. Closing the tab erases everything. There is no account and no watermark either.