16x20 Print.. Mat Board size?

[George Collier]

I've used 20x24 frames/mattes for 16x20 prints in the past for shows because being standard size, everything can be cheaper. I used to feel like it was a bit tight, but was told by a number of people in the exhibition and art community not to worry about it for shows - if someone wants to buy a print, you can have one framed for them any way they want.

[ROL]

...if someone wants to buy a print, you can have one framed for them any way they want.

That's assuming their artistic sensibilities trump your own. One has to draw the line somewhere in presentation. The only time I've ever heard anything like that is as a pure expression of commerce. While I don't officially frame prints for buyers, nor officially care, the mounted and windowed print determines frame size, not the buyer. Of course, if the "artist" just isn't into that (e.g. the work's creator absolves themselves of any aesthetic decisions regarding presentation), he/she can always offer bare prints, cut, cropped, widowed (or not) to any size judged by the buyer – a true collaborative effort () of both purchaser and creator. Heck, why not just invite buyers into your lab to help you determine cropping under the enlarger, contrast, areas of dodging and burning, or other manipulations? Many people, because of ignorance or heedlessness, throw bare prints into a frame squished directly against the glazing (including me on occasion ...OK, it was a small inkjet print in a dime store portrait frame of my dog at the river). All those "archival" print treatments so vehemently touted and argued in classical photography forums are then just so much hot air. All that seems to speak more of a concession to commercialism than it does of professionalism. OTOH, one might possibly care enough about their work to decide on its eventual size and content without the participation and judgement of others.

[George Collier]

ROL - you make some good points and although I didn't go into this, part of the "cost / commerce" decision is the total scope of the event. If mounting a show in the city library with 20 - 30 prints to frame, I could make a different decision than when framing one image for a competition in a more upscale venue. But you are right that the presentation is a part of the image's final form and will, or can affect the viewer.

[MattKing]

One can mount 16x20 in a 20x24 Mat Board for storage and handling purposes and then over-mount the result in a larger board for display and presentation.

[rich815]

One can mount 16x20 in a 20x24 Mat Board for storage and handling purposes and then over-mount the result in a larger board for display and presentation.

I'd listen to him. After all, he is the MattKing.