Matting Your Fine Art Print

We provide only the highest quality museum quality matting materials for our artworks. Our mats are 100% pure cotton and will preserve and protect your fine art print for hundreds of years.

The Importance of Cotton

Mat board is generally composed of two different materials. Paper is generally used for less expensive artworks whereas cotton is used exclusively on museum quality art pieces.

Paper mat board comes in an extremely broad selection of colors and textures and is about half the price of cotton matting. Paper is also naturally acidic and will, in its natural state, eventually discolor and destroy an artwork. Even paper that has had acids removed can regenerate acids if lignin (wood fiber materials) remain in the paper. In an attempt to eliminate this problem the mat board industry has introduced acid free and lignin free papers. They also have introduced chemically treated (buffered) papers that seek to neutralize any acids that may develop in the paper over time. Even though the mat board industry has done an excellent job of developing acid-free paper mat board, it is generally recognized that paper mat board will eventually become acid and may ruin artworks it was intended to protect.

Cotton is an inert material and will never develop acids. That is why high quality art is always matted behind 100% cotton mat boards. There is no safer nor more stable material for protecting priceless art. Cotton does not contain lignin and does not need to be chemically treated to ensure it does not produce acids. The only down side to cotton is that it comes in fewer colors and textures. Cotton mats tend to have soft colors and are not generally available in the bold colors offered in some paper matting.

All of our mat boards are 100% cotton. We use industry leading Bainbridge and Crescent 100% cotton (in the industry they are referred to as "rag mat" because early mat boards were made from scrap cotton rags) for all of our matting. Cotton matting costs more, but if we are to deliver quality photographic products to our customers then we can not place our prints behind any other type of matting material.

Matting Layers

Matting layers refers to the number of mat boards used between the print and the front glazing (acrylic or glass) material. An artwork can have single, double, or triple matting. The additional layers can offer additional protection but are often simply decoration.

Most smaller prints can be single matted without any problem. Double matting may be used if a separate color edging is desired between the front mat and the print. For larger prints (16x20 and larger) double matting becomes more important as it helps provide further separation between the print and the glazing material. As changes in temperature and humidity occur the glazing and print can expand and contract. The extra thickness provided by two layers of mat board helps ensure the print does not contact and become stuck to the front glazing material.

Triple matting can be used for additional decoration or on very large prints where there is a greater chance of the print and glazing materials coming on contact over time.

Matting Embellishments

By default we always provide double matting (100% museum quality cotton rag matting) on all of our matted prints. You may also optionally elect to have matting embellishments added to your art work. These enhancements commonly include a title window, print remarques, and offset matting. Here is a discussion of each of these additional features.

Offset matting shifts the print toward the top of the artwork, offering more mat space at the bottom of the artwork and less mat space near the top. This is often done when a print will hang at eye level so that there is a more balanced feel to the artwork.

A title window provides a small cutout in the front mat behind which the title and location of the print are displayed. The title window is centered below the print and typically is placed an inch or two below the print.

For our largest artworks we usually include remarque images placed below the main print. Remarque images are small square images that are mounted behind the front mat, to the left and right of the title window and below the main print. There are typically two remarque images per artwork and the images are selected to compliment the main print. They are often of the same subject but may be thematic in nature. For example, a print of a lighthouse might have remarques showing different views of the same lighthouse (same subject). The remarques might also be prints showing views of different lighthouses in similar lighting conditions (thematic) These remarque prints offer an additional level of attractive detail and artistic flair to an artwork. Few artists do these remarques because they require significant additional time and care to ensure they are properly placed in the front mat board. We provide them when requested because we believe the additional resulting impression of these art pieces is well worth the time and effort. We offer remarques only if you select to have matting embellishments added to your artwork.

We endeavor to make each matting embellishment unique to the artwork. We do our best to ensure each artwork is unique and that matting embellishments do not replicate earlier artworks we have produced. We believe this adds uniqueness and additional value to your artwork. We will generally provide a unique set of mat enhancements for your artwork using our creative experience and knowledge of prior artworks we have produced. If you have a specific features that you would like included or omitted from your artwork then please feel free to call us with your request. We will be happy to work with you to produce an art piece you will be proud to display in your home or office.

Complete Artwork

When we prepare a print with matting we consider the entire artwork and not simply the print itself (which is also of outstanding quality, by the way). It is important to us that you be satisfied with your final art piece so we take great care to ensure it has both a balanced and sophisticated look that is a sign of great art.