Framing Tips

Measuring for Matboard

Best to work from the inside out when creating a framed piece with matboard. Measure your original certificate or artwork and add on your intended mat border, i.e. 1" border around the artwork.

Always allow room for your certificate or artwork to be attached to the mat from behind, at least 1/4" each side.

Add your artwork dimensions to the mat border you've chosen and you now have the inside frame dimension.

Example, 5x7 photo with ¼" per side for attachment to a mat, With 1" mat border each side equals a 6 ½"x 8 ½" frame. Sound confusing? It's not. Many times it's easier to then adjust your frame size to a standard size, in this case 8 x 10, we'll enlarge our mat border slightly for this. Once you work through it a few times it seems simple and straight forward.

Don't forget to do the math and your frame will turn out perfectly.