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Overview.
Measuring a picture can be the easiest, or most difficult part of any framing job. In order to make sure you have a good result, your measurements need to be exact above all else. Other considerations are economic & environmental, though these can be detrimentally distracting if allowed to overshadow the natural proportions of the picture.
When dealing with KIT frame, please give the internal frame measurements in width x height format, measured with millimetres.
In other words, if you were going to only have a mat cut. Please give the external size of the board.
If you were going to have a whole frame made. Please give the internal size of the frame, or the size of the glass. They should be the same.
Please also realise that some portion of a picture or mat is lost under the lip of the frame when finally assembled. This varies from about 3mm to 20mm, with an average of about 6mm. This is especially important when you are going to have a thin border, or you have signed very close to the bottom. So if you have very specific requirements on size, remember to adjust your measurements to suit.
For instance, if you need a 35mm border showing, add an extra 6mm to this size to compensate for what will be hidden. This would give you a 41mm border until it was assembled. If you forget this step you will end up with a 29mm border at the end. Unfortunately if this happens, you will have to bare the cost of getting your job re-made.
2.1 Simple measurements.
Hardly needing to be covered at all. Measuring something simple, such as a certificate or poster going straight into a frame without a mat, means measuring the edges of the paper.
Be sure to crop off any unwanted kinks or scuffs, & think about squaring & evening up any borders on the paper if it has them.
2.2 Standard mats.
Measuring up for a mat is a basically straight forward task. Decide on the size you want your hole, then ad your borders. There are a few pitfalls concerned with these measurements though, and they are worth reading to ensure a improved result.
2.2.1
Come in on the edges of your work a little so that they can be firmly held in place by the mat. If you forget this, the opening size in the mat will be exactly the same as the paper, meaning your picture will most likely escape the confines of its border & become loose & damaged.
5mm is a good bench mark for most pictures to loose on each side. Of course this will depend on the size of the picture, & the proximity of the edge to any key feature. This is not however the case when measuring up for etchings etc.
2.2.2
Put a border on each side. Many members of the public (& some framers) will forget to add a border on both sides of a mat. For instance a 300 x 300mm picture with a 50mm border would end up at 400 x 400mm. If you look at the maths, we have added 100mm to each measurement. This is because the mat will be all the way round the picture. In other words 50mm on the left, & 50mm on the right. This adds up to 100mm combined.
2.2.3
When giving your mat measurements to KIT frame, please give them in the form of first the exterior size, then the border width.
For instance 250 x 360 60mm
This shows a width of 250mm. A height of 360mm. And a border width of 60mm.
2.2.4
A really quick way that removes a lot of the calculation errors that can occur, is to add the border size before making your measurement.
For instance if a mat is going to have a 70mm border, instead of taking the opening size & adding 140, you can centre the 140mm mark on your ruler as the starting point. So if you had a 400 x 460mm picture, you could measure that 400 x 460mm & then add the 140 to each measurement. Or you could put the 140mm mark on where you want to measure from & you will see that the other edge of the paper is going to be 540mm & 600mm.
It may sound complicated, but once you get the hang of it, you should find it easier & quicker.
2.2.5
If your paper is exactly the same size, or larger than your mat you may run into trouble.
If the picture is going to be fully framed, it is going to sit on the bottom of the frame that may give your picture acid burn. Because it is supporting its weight on the bottom instead of being hung from the top, it may also buckle or fold.
If you are just going to mat your work, you may find it hard to stick the mat to the backing in order to make a solid unit. In order to adhere the two together, you really need at least 20mm space so that you don't get glue on the picture.
2.3 Weighted bottoms.
To measure a picture up that has a weighted bottom,you should calculate the pictures width the same way as described above. You should then add the bottom border to the top border, then to the opening height, for the mat's height.
Weighting the bottom of mats is one of those personal choices that you may subscribe to or you may not. If you do want to have a bigger bottom, then you must be sure you have your measurements the right way around for KIT frame to read them properly.
For instance of you had a picture 500 x 600 with a 70mm border top & sides, & a 100mm border on the bottom, you would have an external mat size of 640 x 770mm. If you gave that size to us as 770 x 640mm with the same border sizes, your mat opening would be 630 x 470mm. This is a common mistake so take care when orientating your measurements.
When giving KIT frame measurements of mats with bigger bottoms, Please give them in the form of, first the exterior size, then the side & top borders, a slash, then the bottom border.
For instance 250 x 380 60/80mm
This shows a width of 250mm. A height of 380mm. And a border width of 60mm on the top & sides, with a 80mm border on the bottom.
2.4 Freeform dimensions.
When you have something that you don't think will fit neatly into a common framing convention, or you are trying to achieve some kind of logistical half way point. You may find that your picture size & your frame size don't have much to do with each other. At his point you need to sit back & work out exactly how you want everything to look.
For instance, if you had an exhibition of 50 different sized pictures, that you wanted to fit into one standard frame size, You would have several decisions to make.
2.4.1
Firstly, the frames all need to be big enough to fit the largest picture within them. This means that you may end up with massive borders on some of the smaller works.
If this is not going to work, you can consider 3 or 4 different sizes so there is not such a discrepancy, while still keeping a level of consistency
2.4.2
Are some of the pictures going to have bigger sides than the top & bottom? This is not a generally sought after look & can make the pictures look unprofessional. If this happens, you can increase the height of the frames or make them skinnier.
2.4.3
In an exhibition setting, it makes good visual sense to have the mid points of all the pictures lining up. While not necessary, it can be more appealing even though it takes a lot of tweaking out to get the proportions comfortable.
2.4.4
When giving such unconventional information to KIT frame, please provide a diagram of exactly what you expect. It doesn't need to be to scale, though it should be orientated in our usual fashion, & must be plotted in millimetres.
2.5 Multi aperture.
Frames can hold more than one picture. And for professional results a mat can be cut with more than one opening to accommodate such a group. This is a simple task that can make a great deal of difference to the finished look of a project.
2.5.1
Each opening needs an amount of mat surrounding it in order for it to sustain structural integrity. While we are capable of cutting mats with as little as 5mm in between, they are weak & unadvised. A width of about 30mm seems comfortable & we use this width as a standard on more than 90% of such jobs.
When finally assembling such components, it is a very good idea to glue the strips of mat between the pictures, to the backing to promote strength.
2.5.2
Remember to add the width in between the pictures as many times as is necessary For instance if you had 6 100 x 150mm pictures to be matted with a 50mm border with 30mm between. remember to add 5 x 30mm (150mm) for the 5 gaps between the pictures. Then add the other 600mm for the pictures & 100mm for the border to give a final width of 850mm.
2.5.3
When giving such unconventional information to KIT frame, please provide a diagram of exactly what you expect. It doesn't need to be to scale, though it should be orientated in our usual fashion, & must be plotted in millimetres.
2.6 Floating.
When a picture is going to be floated conventionally, you simply follow the steps in 2.2 Standard mats,except you don't have to take 5mm off the edges of the picture for it to sit under the mat.
If you are going to float & then mat the picture, you need to add both the border width & the floated amount to the exterior size of the paper. However, when you come to giving KIT frame your sizes, provide the exterior mat size, along with the border width, & indicate you are having another board underneath.
For example an A4 piece of paper floating on 10mm of mat with a 80mm border would be given in the form of 390 x 477 80mm + float.
Not 390 x 477 90mm + float.
2.7 Etchings etc.
The general convention with etchings, woodblocks, linocuts & lithographs is to come out some amount from the plate ( outer edge of printing block ) mark. What this amount will be will vary depending on what sort of picture you have, its condition & many other factors such as signatures & watermarks.
In general it is not good to come out too far from the plate mark because the picture starts to look loose & unfocused. It is also not good to come in too tight, as the picture can seem constricted. A good visual medium seems to be around the 10mm mark.
If the signature exceeds this 10mm on the bottom, it is perfectly acceptable to drop the opening to accommodate it. You should then increase the height of the mat to allow even proportioning with the larger hole.
It is a long standing practice in print making that the paper that a picture is printed on should not be cut down. If this convention is to be followed, you must increase the size of your mat until its just larger than the paper, or fold it.
2.8 Canvas.
When measuring up a canvas to have a strainer cut for it you should allow for a few factors.
2.8.1
Test the stretchyness of the canvas & accommodate for this in the measurement. Be careful because if you pull it in only one direction at a time, it will move a lot further than if you stretch both sides at once.
2.8.2
Check how much bleed you have. If the picture ends 2mm from the edge of the canvas, you are going to have to make some compromises. Ideally you should have at least 30mm in order for the canvas to extend round to the back of the strainer, with a little left over to pull on.
Generally if the canvas is going to be framed it should be OK to staple into the side of the strainer instead of the back, as the staples will be hidden by the moulding. This means that you don't need as much empty space around the picture, in order to pull it taught.
If you aren't going to frame it, you may have to pull some of the painting itself round the back so that no edge at all is shown. Your other option is to allow the staples to be visible & not concern yourself with such details.
2.8.3
When framing a canvas you should really have it stretched & ready to go before measuring the frame. This is because the canvas size may need to be tweaked, & because the canvas thickness itself can make a large difference to the exact size once complete.
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