Printing/Cropping/Preparing for Matting/Framing

meewolfie

I've re-worded this question in the third "reply"...

meewolfie

Answered my own question?
I've done some searching around and have found some good information. I'll share it here in case this pops up in a future search for someone looking for similar information.

My initial question implied the use of pre-cut mats thereby assuming that the opening in the mat board would be pre-determined and then I would have to figure out how to prepare my prints to that they would be the correct size to fit in the mat and display as expected.

If I was to cut own mats, the print size isn't an issue, since I would be able to customize the opening in the mat to frame the picture exactly as desired. My guess is that an initial investment into mat cutting hardware, would pay off over time, as well as be a different kind of convenience (as compared to the pre-cut mats).

Another consideration was that if you want to sign you photos (do many people do this?), some white space between the printed image and the mat edge may be desirable.

I found some good links to articles about framing and matting:

Matting and Framing
Calculating Border Size
Framing Prints

meewolfie

So...

I still have some questions about this topic. I sure hope that there is someone out there with some insight!

- Let's say you have a 5x7 photo that you want to mat and frame.
- You're going to order this 5x7 from smugmug and then cut the mat and frame the photo yourself.

How do you crop your image file in photoshop in preparation for matting?

Since the photo has to be lightly attached to the mat, the mat is going to have to overlap part of the 5x7 print, which means there is going to be a bit more "cropping" done by the mat itself.

When you prepare your file, do you leave some extra part of the image within the 5x7 frame that you know will be covered by the mat?

Or do you get your perfect crop in photoshop and then add a white border that will then be covered by the mat? (If ordering a 5x7 print, the actual image area of the file would probably be about 4.5x6.5 with a quarter of an inch white border)

I ask, because up until now, I've been preparing all of my photo files for viewing on the web. I crop those photos under the assumption that the full image will be on display. If I get these same images printed, and then try to mat them, the mat inevitably crops off areas of the image that I want on display (I'm a tight cropper!)

I've considered taking a "perfectly" cropped 5x7 image and placing it in an 8x10 file so that it's completely surrounded by a couple of inches of white space - this would give me plenty of surface area that the mat would cover and I wouldn't lose any part of the photo itself, since the mat would overlap the white border area. But, then I'd be ordering an 8x10 instead of a 5x7 and that would add a couple of dollars to the price of every print that I order.

This is kind of hard to explain verbally - if this makes no sense (and I don't get any replies!), I'll put together some illustrations to hopefully make some sense about what I'm asking!

If you are printing at home, are you always printing your photos onto paper that is larger than the image itself?

Thanks,
Mary

Frog Lady

Hi Mary,

It sounds like you could go w/ either of your suggestions for a 5x7... Do a less severe crop so that the matte covers the area you originally would have cropped off (think of what you would have done for your tight crop and then back off 1/4" all around to get your below the matte coverage). Conversely, you could crop like you normally would except for a 4.5x6.5 image and then add a 1/4" white frame (increase canvas size) around the picture that would be covered when you mount it in the matte. While both would work, I think that the 1st option would potentially be better so you have a touch more flexability w/ the matte and don't have to worry about white space showing up if the matte isn't perfectly lined up. I wouldn't print out an 8x10 w/ a 5x7 picture in the middle - more work for you in trimming the edges and increased cost (as you noted).

cheers,

C.