What Is Picture Frame Matting

A mat is a flat and usually thin piece of material included or sold separately from a picture frame.

What is picture frame matting.

You ve purchased a small print and it feels swallowed by the wall. Additional decoration to make your art pop or they re used to separate the artwork from the glass frame. At frame usa we offer a wide variety of frame mats that run anywhere from standard mat sizes to to custom frame mats. Mats create visual space for the artwork to breathe.

Mats make your pictures shine for greatest impact but they also serve a protective purpose. Add elegance and protection when framing photos or artwork by adding a frame mat in a complementary color. The color of the mat is the first decision you must make when framing a picture or painting. The mat opening will be slightly smaller than the suggested picture size.

A custom cut mat and our white gallery frame are all it takes to make your finest press clippings to shine. Our website s custom build a frame allows you to enter your artwork size and using these dimensions automatically calculates the recommended mat window opening and frame size. When you want to frame artwork with a unique size order a custom frame to get an exact match for your print. In the picture framing industry a mat or matte or mount in british english is a thin flat piece of paper based material included within a picture frame which serves as additional decoration and to perform several other more practical functions such as separating the art from the glass putting mats in a frame is called matting a term which can also usually be used interchangeably with mat.

Mats create space between your picture and the acrylic or glass front for air to circulate which prevents condensation from building up that can cause mildew or buckling over time. In matting it therefore shades should dominate. On our site you can create a frame up to 40 x 60 inches. A color s value is where it falls on the white to black ladder.

Choose one of our acid free pre cut mats or customize an uncut matboard. Buy a frame a few sizes up then cut a mat board to fit in the frame and showcase the art. Mats usually serve one of two purposes. In between are tones.

White mats work well for black and white photography because they amplify the monochromatic effect of the print. A mat can really make your photo pop and complement the flat nature of the medium. When it falls more toward black it s a shade. Instead of the artwork jutting right up to the frame a mat provides a border of whitespace.

This allows the mat to overlap the image slightly holding it behind the frame. Cream colored mats are popular because this color is versatile enough to complement almost any image. Frames for unique print sizes. Generally the mat will cover 1 4 on each side of the image.

When it falls more toward white it s a tint. The picture of blueberries is comprised largely of shades.