What is the museum and gallery standard for matting and framing a print?
While not specific to the IPF5000, this question from the discussion forum was succintly answered by Kirk Thompson: The usual way to print, mat, & frame a fine-art print is first of all not to print close to the edge of the paper. Leave at least 3/4″ of white paper so that when you’re famous & your print is sold to a long series of collectors, the image area won’t get banged up when they remove, re-mat, & re-frame it. For exhibitions, mat board is not colored, it’s archival white mat board; and there are no black or colored layers between the overmat & the image. (Colored mats disqualify you from exhibiting anyplace but the rural county fair.) You normally use a 2-ply backing of archival mat board, called the ‘undermat’ – & a 4-ply ‘overmat’ (or8-ply if you have someone else cut them with a pro cutter). Westminster Bright White (for example, from Light Impressions) is the archival standard. The ‘natural’ white color is too yellow to match inkjet papers, except maybe Ultrasmooth. If the
