<p>The interaction of climate and the soil surface during drying periods can lead to the formation of desiccation cracks. Desiccation cracks can alter soil water flux and induce large volumetric deformations, leading to geotechnical problems. For these reasons, the characteristics of desiccation cracks in clayey soils have been widely studied under laboratory conditions, varying different soil properties, boundary conditions, and geometrical configurations. However, the geometrical configurations of the experimental setups and the horizontal size of the soil sample have not been considered. In this paper, the horizontal size of soil samples was varied to assess the effect of horizontal scale on crack characteristics and propagation (degree of cracking, horizontal strains, and fractal dimension). Particle Image Velocimetry was used to obtain the strain data, and the fractal dimensions were determined using the Box Counting method. The results showed a significant influence of the horizontal size of the sample on the magnitude of strains in this research. The fractal dimension was not constant with sample diameter because of the high heterogeneity in crack geometry, which is influenced by sample size. However, a unique relationship was found between fractal dimension and cracking degree.</p>