Why Are Some Art Prints A1 Only? Three Maps Too Dense to Shrink

October 12, 2026 Mike Bell

The Levellers discography map in A1, framed in black wood on a wall, one of the three maps in the range sold at A1 only.

Why Are Some Art Prints A1 Only: 3 of My 70 Music Maps

Why are some art prints A1 only? Three of my 70 music maps are, and it comes down to density rather than policy. The rest of the range is in the discography music maps collection, where 67 of the 70 come in A3, A2 and A1, and only the Levellers map and the two Beatles maps are held at A1.

This is the question I get asked most often by people who have found a map they want and then cannot find the size they expected on the product page. It is a fair question, because every other map in the range offers three sizes, and the answer is not that I am trying to sell you the expensive one.

The Three Maps That Are A1 Only

The two Beatles entries are the same map in two editions, one on the standard ground and one on black. They carry identical artwork and sizing, so if one is A1 only, the other is too.

What Makes a Map Too Dense to Reduce

A discography map is not a picture of a band. It is a piece of typesetting with a diagram underneath it. Each album is a station, every credited musician is a named line, and every one of those lines carries a name set in type small enough that the whole career fits on one sheet.

That gives me a hard floor. There is a point below which the smallest name on the sheet stops being readable, and once a map crosses it, reducing the sheet does not make a smaller print; it makes a worse one. The number that decides it is not the album count on its own. It is the ratio of credited lines to physical space.

Map	Stations	Credited lines	Why does it stay at A1
The Beatles	13	139	More than ten credited names for every station, stacked into a short span of years
The Beatles, black edition	13	139	Same artwork, and reversed-out type on a dark ground needs more room, not less
Levellers	17	40	Five continuous lines running nearly the full width, with the branch labels packed between them

Those station and line counts are from my own research sheets - the same ones I published when each map was drawn.

Close view of the Levellers discography map showing Jon Sevink's violin line running through the catalogue alongside the five-piece backbone, with the name type at printed size.

The Beatles Map Is the Clearest Case

Thirteen releases and 139 credited lines are the tightest ratio anywhere in the range. Most maps spread their names across decades, so the sheet has somewhere to put them. The Beatles recorded their entire studio catalogue in eight years, which means almost every name on that map has to be fitted into the same narrow horizontal band.

On a sheet that crowded, the difference between A1 and A2 is not cosmetic. Reduce it and the orchestral credits on the later records, where a lot of those 139 names live, into a grey block. The reason to own one of these maps is that you can stand in front of it and read a name you did not know was there. Take that away and you have an expensive poster of some coloured lines.

What A1 Only Means for the Price

It means those three maps start at A1 rather than A3, and that is the honest cost of the decision. On the other 67 maps, the smallest size is an A3, and I would rather be straight about the gap than bury it.

A1, 841 x 594 mm, unframed or in a black wood frame
36 x 24 in, unframed or in a black wood frame

Those are the only four options on each of the three. The 36 x 24 in format is a separate format rather than a conversion of A1, so it is a genuine alternative for anyone buying to a US or Canadian frame size rather than a metric one. Black wood is the only frame I offer, on these and on everything else.

The Other 67 Maps

Every other map in the music collection comes in all three sizes, every size unframed or ready to hang in a black wood frame.

A3, 420 x 297 mm, unframed or framed
A2, 594 x 420 mm, unframed or framed
A1, 841 x 594 mm, unframed or framed

The three-inch formats, 16 x 12 in, 24 x 18 in and 36 x 24 in, sit alongside those and are separate formats rather than conversions. If you are weighing the two larger sizes against each other, I have written that up separately in A2 or A1, choosing a size for a discography map art print, and the paper itself is covered in what is a Giclée print.

Close view of the Levellers discography map showing Mark Chadwick, Jeremy Cunningham, Charlie Heather, Jon Sevink and Simon Friend as five continuous lines across the catalogue.

Why I Do Not Just Offer A3 and Let People Decide

I thought about it, and I decided against it for a reason that has nothing to do with margin.

Someone buying a Beatles map at A3 would receive a print with 139 names on it, most of them unreadable without leaning in with a lamp. They would not write and complain. They would just quietly think the work was not very good, and they would be right, because at that size, it is not. A map that cannot be read has failed at the only thing it is for.

The same logic runs the other way across the range. Where a map is sparse enough to hold up at A3, A3 is a real option and usually the sensible one.

How to Check Before You Order

The size dropdown on each product page is the authority, and it only lists sizes that are actually made. If A3 and A2 are not there, the map is one of the three above. I would rather you found that out on the product page than in a parcel.

Questions About A1 Only Art Prints

Which art prints are A1 only?

Three: the Levellers discography map and both editions of the Beatles discography map. Every other map in the range comes in A3, A2 and A1.

Why are some art prints A1 only and not the others?

Because of the ratio of credited names to sheet area. Those three carry too much small type to stay readable when the sheet is reduced, and a map you cannot read is not worth selling.