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Glossary · metric

What is Aspect ratio (advanced)?

Aspect ratio is the proportional width-to-height of a video frame. Standard YouTube videos are 16:9. Shorts and TikTok are 9:16 (vertical). Cinematic content is often 21:9 (ultrawide) or 2.39:1. Letterboxing (black bars top/bottom) and pillarboxing (black bars left/right) appear when aspect ratios don't match the display.

Also called:16:9 vs 9:16 · 2.39:1 · widescreen

See [/glossary/aspect-ratio](/glossary/aspect-ratio) for the basics. This entry covers the niche cases.

Common cinematic ratios beyond 16:9: 1.85:1 (American flat widescreen, slightly less wide than 16:9), 2.39:1 (anamorphic widescreen, 2-3x wider than 16:9), 2.76:1 (Ultra Panavision, extremely rare). YouTube fits all these into its 16:9 viewport with letterboxing — black bars top and bottom for wider-than-16:9 content.

Vertical content has emerged as a category in its own right with TikTok and Shorts. 9:16 became standard around 2020. Some creators upload native 9:16; others crop landscape footage to 9:16 (losing edges) for Shorts.

For downloads, the source aspect ratio is preserved. Converting between aspect ratios always loses content or introduces black bars; the original is generally the right format to keep.

Common questions

Why does my YouTube video have black bars on the sides?
Vertical or square content uploaded to the 16:9 viewer pillarboxes (black bars left and right). The source video is fine; YouTube just centers it in the wider frame.

Related terms

Aspect ratio

Aspect ratio is the proportion of a video frame's width to its height.

Resolution

Resolution is the pixel count of a video frame, expressed as width × height.

FPS (frames per second)

FPS (frames per second) is the number of distinct still images displayed per second of video.

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