Photo booth print formats: Which printer can really handle 2×6, 4×6, and panorama?

The datasheet says "2×6". Then, in the box, there's a roll with perforation, and the strip is torn off instead of being cut. You'll remember that sooner or later — usually later, usually on Saturdays.

"Can the printer do 2×6?" is the most frequent question before a photo booth purchase. There is no yes or no answer. One person cuts the strip with a knife. The next one has a perforation in the paper that does the separation. A third one cannot do it at all — ironically, the device that prints panoramas up to 1.40 meters.

Here's what each machine actually outputs. The basis is driver manuals and manufacturer pages from DNP, Mitsubishi, Citizen, and HiTi, 44 sources in total. Where we couldn't verify something, it's noted.

The calculation basis: 300 dpi

The entire device class calculates in 300 image points per inch. This results in the pixel dimensions a template must have: a 4×6-inch image is 1200 × 1800 px, the 2×6 strip is 600 × 1800 px, 5×7 is 1500 × 2100 px. Some devices also have a 300×600 mode for smoother transitions; this doesn't change the template dimensions.

Templates in 72 dpi look fine on the screen. But when printed, they come out blurry. This happens more often than you think, and it usually only becomes apparent when the first guest holds their print in their hand.

The strip: three ways, one format

The 2×6 strip is the photo booth format. However, it's not created equally everywhere:

• Guillotine cut. The printer prints a 4×6 sheet and cuts it once lengthwise — two strips per sheet. This is how the DNP DS620 and DS-RX1, Mitsubishi CP-D80DW and CP-D90DW, Citizen CX-02 and CY-02, HiTi P525L and P750L work. The DS620 and RX1 can even get four strips from a 6×8 sheet.
• Perforation for tearing off. The DNP QW410 does cut: Its knife cuts across the paper web, turning a 4×6 sheet into three 2×4 strips, and a 4.5×8 sheet into four 2×4.5 strips. The 2×6 strip, on the other hand, is created by dividing the sheet width — for this, DNP provides a centrally perforated 4×6 roll that becomes two strips. It works — but it requires a different consumable order and a different handle on the device.
• Not at all. HiTi P710L and X610 have no strip cutting at all, even though both can handle large formats — the X610 can even do panoramas up to 6×56 inches. This is the most unpleasant variant because it cannot be inferred from the data sheet.

A special case is the Mitsubishi CP-D70DW: it requires suitable firmware for multi-cutting. The CP-D90DW cuts variably and can even combine 4×6 and 2×6 from the same sheet.

The format matrix

Eight devices across all classes — from the 4.5-inch mobile device to the 8-inch machine — and as the last column, a deliberately inserted counterexample. The table can be shifted sideways:

As of 28.09.2026, from driver manuals and manufacturer specifications. The narrow HiTi formats are created by cutting from larger material.

Two lines deserve an explanation. The 4×4 square is only found in the table for QW410 and Mitsubishi D90. It is not a rare format: The 4-inch devices can do it (QW410, Citizen CZ-01), and Mitsubishi offers it across the entire range (CP-D70DW, CP-D80DW, CP-D90DW). Only DNP and HiTi do not document it for their 6-inch machines — square means 5×5 from 5×7 material or 6×6 from 6×8 material. Therefore, anyone who wants to sell 4×4 needs a different device than the DS620A.

And the Canon CP1500 is listed as a counterexample, not as an alternative. It's an end-user device: no strip cutting, no 6-inch material — and most importantly, around 41 seconds for a postcard-sized image. An event printer takes eight to twelve seconds. With two hundred prints on an evening, that's the difference between a line that clears and one that grows. For a kitchen table, the device is excellent; in a photo booth, it's out of place.

The remaining researched devices in one sentence

• HiTi P750L — can practically do everything the P525L can, including the narrow strip formats.
• HiTi P710L — 5×7, 6×8, and 6×9, but no strip cutting.
• HiTi X610 — the panorama specialist: up to 6×56 inches in continuous printing, but also without strip cutting.
• Mitsubishi CP-D70DW — 2×6 only with suitable Multi-Cut firmware; otherwise similar to the D90.
• Mitsubishi CP-D80DW — can do 2×6, 5×7, and the squares, but no 6×9, no 3.5×5, and no panorama.
• Citizen CY-02 — bears the Citizen name, but comes from a different manufacturing (Sinfonia-based). Strips yes, panorama no.
• Citizen CZ-01 — identical to QW410: 4×6, 4.5×8, and the 4×4 square. DNP documents the 2×6 strip for the QW410 via the perforated roll, but Citizen does not for the CZ-01 — the same device, two different specifications.
• Citizen CX-02W — identical to DS820, so the 8-inch class up to 8×32 inches via SDK.

Together with the table, there are fifteen devices. Two restrictions from this should be kept in mind when assembling a box. P710L and X610 do not cut any strips at all; therefore, the format that makes up a photo booth is missing. And only DS620A, D90, X610, and DS820 can do panoramas — the format that can be used to justify a surcharge.

The trap of identical construction

Several devices are the same device under different names. Citizen CX-02 is a DNP DS620, CX-02W is a DS820, CZ-01 is a QW410 — all OEM productions from DNP. The CY-02, on the other hand, comes from a different family (Sinfonia basis), although the name fits into the same series.

The obvious conclusion would be to transfer the function list of one to the other. That goes wrong. The DS620 can do panorama formats; for the structurally identical CX-02, this is nowhere documented. Whoever relies on the catalog of the sister device ultimately sells a format that the machine does not output to the customer.

Borderless: why the printer prints beyond the size

Photo booth prints should be borderless. Dye-sublimation printers achieve this by printing slightly larger than the nominal size and cutting off the excess. At DNP, these are 1240 × 1844 image points for 4×6, not 1200 × 1800, and 1844 × 2436 for 6×8, not 1800 × 2400.

The nominal size is therefore the safe zone, not the image edge. Backgrounds and color fields are generously applied beyond this, and names, dates, logos, and QR codes are clearly inside. Otherwise, a piece of text migrates into the margin with every print.

In our own calibration of a QW410, it was one to three millimeters of excess, depending on the format — measured on real prints, not on the data sheet. Whoever skips this prints either with a white edge or cuts off the QR code.

Panorama: rare, expensive in terms of material

Only a few devices can handle long formats. 6×14 and 6×20 inches are mastered by the DNP DS620 (from firmware 1.52 and only via the appropriate printer software), the Mitsubishi CP-D90DW, and the HiTi X610. The X610 is the only one that prints almost endlessly, up to 6×56 inches.

A panorama consumes the material length of several normal images: 6×14 costs two 6×8 lengths, 6×20 costs three. It should therefore be listed in the offer as well. Whoever offers panoramas at the price of a single print pays extra, and does so with each individual one.

The QW410 and CY-02 cannot print panoramas. And HiTi P710L and X610 have no strip cutting — a device that can do panoramas cannot automatically do strips either.

The pitfalls in brief

• 2×8 is only available on DS620, and only through doubly perforated 6×8 material for tearing off. Nothing to build a workflow on.
• 4×4 can be done by the 4-inch devices and all Mitsubishi devices, but not by any 6-inch machine from DNP or HiTi — square means 5×5 or 6×6 there.
• DS-RX1 cannot do 6×9 and cannot do panorama.
• CP-D80DW cannot do 6×9, cannot do 3.5×5, and cannot do panorama.
• Citizen CX-02: The 5×7 material was discontinued in 2024.

What this means for practice

We now drive a small core set of template formats: 4×6, 2×6, 2×4, 5×7, 6×8, 6×6. Everything else runs over a free pixel size. The attempt to maintain its own presets for each device usually ends with none of them being correct.

And the paper names are better read from the driver instead of being guessed. Every manufacturer calls the same thing something different, and these names are where the cutting variants hang; in the DNP driver, the strip is called "PR (4×6) 2inch cut", for example. BoothDock Studio retrieves the list directly from the installed printer.

How far this can go was taught to us by the QW410. Two print profiles, set up differently, delivered identical prints for weeks. The driver didn't read the cut, overcoat, and decurl from the fields it displays, but exclusively from a 140-byte manufacturer-specific block. It took several evenings to find this — and no data sheet in the world mentions it.

The most useful recommendation is at the end, because it's the cheapest: Have a real print shown to you before buying, in exactly the format you want to sell. A sheet of paper, five minutes. After that, you won't need this article anymore.

Sources

The compilation comes from 44 sources, official documents first — collected on 21.08.2026, and reviewed for this article on 28.09.2026. The most important ones:

• DNP — driver manuals DS620 (V1.0.5.2), DS820 (V1.0.0.2) and DS-RX1/RX1HS (V1.23) with paper sizes, Multiple-Layout, and 2-inch-Cut specifications as well as pixel print areas. Also, the DS620A product page (panorama formats and required firmware 1.52) and the European QW410 product page.
• Mitsubishi Electric — data sheets for CP-D70DW, CP-D80DW, and CP-D90DW(-P), including Multiformat specifications from 5×15 to 15×51 cm and the panorama capability of the D90.
• Citizen Systems — product information for CX-02 (Multi-Cut 6×2 to 6×8 via SDK), CX-02W (8×2 to 8×32), CY-02 (2×6 strips) and CZ-01 (4- and 4.5-inch class).
• HiTi — product pages and FAQs for P525L, P750L, P710L, and X610, from which the driver modes also originate (e.g., "4×6-2 split (2×6*2, cut)").
• Canon — the SELPHY-CP1500 specifications on canon-europe.com for the end-customer formats and the print duration of around 41 seconds per postcard image.

Where multiple sources contradicted each other, the driver manual takes precedence over the product page, and the product page over the retailer's entry. Statements that were only found with retailers were not included — that's why there's a dash in the matrix in some places, even though the opposite can be found online. Only what was actually accessible on 28.09.2026 is linked; the other documents are mentioned so that the information doesn't depend on an address that may change tomorrow.

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