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Questions about Exhibition Quality Framing

glenerrolrd

Workshop Member
Its been years since I actively printed and framed my work . I used to do quite a bit including cutting my own mats etc to custom sizes . I would like to standardize my process and do this more routinely . I now have the space and am in the process of setting up our 2nd generation digital lightroom .

Almost all my work is 2x3 format and composed in landscape orientation ( horizontal longest side ). I would like to print 12x18 on 13x19 cut sheet print stock . I could go larger to 14x21 on 17x22 paper or even 16x24 if I went to roll stock . For now I think I will be sticking with 12x18 .

I am thinking my mat would be 4 inches on the short side and 6 inches on the long side ....so that would create a 12+4+4= 20 height and a 18+6+6=30 width . So a 20x30 frame .

Am I on the right track ? If so I will work on printing to a 12x18 size on the 13x19 paper and mess with the frames later .
 

bab

Active member
Its been years since I actively printed and framed my work . I used to do quite a bit including cutting my own mats etc to custom sizes . I would like to standardize my process and do this more routinely . I now have the space and am in the process of setting up our 2nd generation digital lightroom .

Almost all my work is 2x3 format and composed in landscape orientation ( horizontal longest side ). I would like to print 12x18 on 13x19 cut sheet print stock . I could go larger to 14x21 on 17x22 paper or even 16x24 if I went to roll stock . For now I think I will be sticking with 12x18 .

I am thinking my mat would be 4 inches on the short side and 6 inches on the long side ....so that would create a 12+4+4= 20 height and a 18+6+6=30 width . So a 20x30 frame .

Am I on the right track ? If so I will work on printing to a 12x18 size on the 13x19 paper and mess with the frames later .
Best way to see what you want
https://www.frameiteasy.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI6eGftI2u2wIVCbXACh1_BAigEAAYASAAEgLGRvD_BwE
 

glenerrolrd

Workshop Member
Great to have a tool to help visualize . From a practical side however ....many frames come in standard sizes and are not built to a custom dimension . I am interested in any insights into standardization ...so that I can reuse the frames and mats with different collections of photographs ,
 
My understanding is that dealers/curators/museums prefer a 1” border on prints. It prevents damage in handling/reframing, and allows the option of using window mats instead of overmats ;
and 18+6+6 would be too wide in relation to 12+4+4 height?

Kirk
 

pflower

Member
I print both 2x3 and 4x3 on A3+ paper.

Sorry I can only work in centimeters these days. One produces an image of 44cm x 30cm and the other an image of 39.5cm x 30cm. These allow a good border on the paper which prevents damage to corners and edges etc. impacting on the image.

I find these work perfectly well in standard frame sizes of 50x40 and 60x50. For a long time I only used 60x50 frames but have recently decided that these result in too large an area of matte rather than image and so recently have been framing at 50x40.

Cutting one's own mattes is a pain. So I have found a matte cutter who produces bottom weighted window mattes 1.5cm larger than the image size which allows for a signature and and further white border on the paper. I then buy standard sized Nielsen frames in bulk. The whole thing is pretty painless and financially quite reasonable.

Of course if you are not going to standardise on a size of image (as opposed to paper size) this might not work for you.

The only way to really decide is to cut large pieces of paper to the size of the frame you choose and as a mock up of a window matte and see what the finished product will look like.

Good luck

Its been years since I actively printed and framed my work . I used to do quite a bit including cutting my own mats etc to custom sizes . I would like to standardize my process and do this more routinely . I now have the space and am in the process of setting up our 2nd generation digital lightroom .

Almost all my work is 2x3 format and composed in landscape orientation ( horizontal longest side ). I would like to print 12x18 on 13x19 cut sheet print stock . I could go larger to 14x21 on 17x22 paper or even 16x24 if I went to roll stock . For now I think I will be sticking with 12x18 .

I am thinking my mat would be 4 inches on the short side and 6 inches on the long side ....so that would create a 12+4+4= 20 height and a 18+6+6=30 width . So a 20x30 frame .

Am I on the right track ? If so I will work on printing to a 12x18 size on the 13x19 paper and mess with the frames later .
 
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