A 12-inch by 60-inch canvas scroll with wooden hangers at top and bottom, in natural oak, black or white. It hangs from a nail. The marks are at their real heights, with a printed ruler beside them if you want one, so you keep measuring on it.

Can I keep marking heights on the print?

Yes, that's the idea. Hang it with the bottom of the scale at the height it shows, and mark on the canvas in pencil or a fine pen.

Your Questions About the Height Marks on the Doorframe, Answered

Q: Can I take the door frame with the height marks when I sell the house?

The casing (the flat trim), yes — if you exclude it in writing before you list and replace it before closing. The jamb the door hangs from is a different job; taking it means rebuilding the doorway.

Q: How do I photograph height marks so they're accurate?

Tape measure hooked on the floor beside the marks, main lens (not wide), stand back four or five feet, three overlapping shots with the phone at the height of each section, daylight from the side, no flash. Write down the height of two marks.

Updated 2026-10-09

The questions below are the ones people actually ask — on forums, in the search bar, and to us. Short answers here; the longer guides are linked where the answer deserves more room.

Moving and selling

What can I do with the growth chart on the doorframe when we move? Photograph it with a tape measure in the shot and write down every height. Then choose: trace the marks onto paper, take the casing off the wall, leave it for the next family, or have the marks printed life-size on canvas so the handwriting moves with you and you keep measuring on it. All eight methods, compared: Every way to save the height marks when you move.

Can I take the door frame with the height marks when I sell the house? The casing — the flat trim around the opening — yes, if you exclude it in writing before you list and install replacement trim before closing. The jamb the door hangs from is a different job; taking it means rebuilding the doorway. Taking the doorframe with you covers both.

How do I transfer a growth chart to a new house? Measure every mark from the finished floor, write the heights down, and re-mark them at the same heights in the new house with names and dates. Or print the original marks at life size and hang the print. Either way, the numbers are what make it possible.

We’re renting and have to paint before we leave. What now? Photograph and record the marks (below). The trim isn’t yours, so tracing or printing are the routes. Some landlords will let you swap the casing for new at your expense; ask before you assume.

Should I leave the marks for the buyers? Some families do, and some buyers love it. A note explaining the marks helps. Take the photos first regardless.

Painting and renovating

Can painted-over height marks be recovered? Pencil under paint is gone. Occasionally a hard-pressed line leaves a dent you can see under a lamp raked across the surface, and ink sometimes ghosts through thin paint, but you won’t get the names and dates back. Check old family photos with the doorframe in the background — birthdays and first-day-of-school pictures have rescued more than one chart.

How do I paint the doorframe without losing the height marks? Photograph and record them first. Then either mask a rectangle around the marks and paint around it, spray a clear fixative over the pencil before painting the rest, or trace the marks off, paint, and re-mark them on the new paint. Details: Painting over the height marks? Do these three things first.

The contractors are coming to redo the hallway. What do I do? Same three things, this week: photograph with a tape in the shot, write down the heights, decide. If the casing is being replaced anyway, ask them to hand you the old piece instead of putting it in the dumpster.

What if the height marks are on the wall instead of the door frame? Everything except taking the trim still works: photograph, record, trace, or print. Cutting the drywall section out is possible but a real patch job.

Photographing the marks

How do I photograph height marks so they’re accurate? Tape measure hooked on the floor beside the marks. Main lens, not the wide one. Stand back four or five feet. Three overlapping shots with the phone at the height of each section, square to the frame. Daylight from the side, no flash. Write down the height of two marks from the floor. The whole method: How to photograph height marks so they stay accurate.

What if the pencil marks are faint? Take one photo with a lamp raking across the frame at a low angle; faint graphite catches the light and shows up when it vanishes under flat light. If a mark is truly gone, the rest of the chart is still right.

Can I use old photos? If a photo shows the frame straight on with a known height in it — a mark you measured, or a door of known height — it can be calibrated. Angled snapshots with a child in front of the frame are harder. Send what you have and we’ll tell you.

About the print

How does a life-size print of the marks work? You upload photos of the frame (three overlapping ones work best), drag two lines onto marks you’ve measured and type their heights. The software straightens and stitches the photos and calibrates them to real scale. You see the print before you order, and you can download a preview.

Is the print life size? Yes. The two heights you measure set the size. The marks sit at the heights they were made, so you can hang it and keep adding marks in your new home.

What do I get? A 12-inch by 60-inch canvas scroll with wooden hangers top and bottom — natural oak, black or white. It hangs from a nail. The marks sit at their real heights, with a printed ruler beside them in your choice of width and colour, in feet and inches, centimetres, or both. You can add a family photo and a title band.

Inches or centimetres? Either, or both on the same print.

Can I keep marking heights on it? Yes — that’s the idea. Hang it with the bottom of the ruler at the height it shows and mark on the canvas in pencil or a fine pen.

Can I include more than one child, or marks from two different doorframes? Marks from one frame, any number of children, are one print. Marks from two frames are two prints, each ordered on its own. The 10% off is for two or more copies of the same print in one order: one for each home, or one for each sibling.

What happens to my photos? Deleted after two hours unless you place an order. If you enter your email, the chart is kept for seven days so you can come back to it. If you go to checkout but don’t finish paying, it’s kept 30 days in case you come back to pay.

Ordering

How much is it? $79, shipping included anywhere in the 50 states. Two or more copies of the same print take 10% off at checkout.

Can I send a print to a different address, or one to each of two homes? Yes. Order the copies you need; if they go to different addresses, reply to the order confirmation with the second address and each one ships separately.

Is this a gift? It’s made for parents leaving the family home, or a grown child moving out. Gift cards are available so the recipient can build it from their own photos.

Something’s not right with my print. Email hello@keepthemarks.com with a photo and we’ll sort it out.

Keep the growth chart, not the wall

Photograph the doorframe, tell us the height of two marks, and see your life-size canvas print before you order. $79, shipping included anywhere in the 50 states.

Make your print →