Printed and Framed in Canberra

What the framing is protecting against

The damage a frame does is slow and invisible until it is permanent. Ordinary mountboard is wood pulp, and as it ages it turns acidic and burns a brown line into whatever it touches - the bevel window print you have seen on any framed certificate from the 1980s. Standard glass passes the ultraviolet that bleaches pigment and paper alike. A print pressed against cold glazing sits where condensation forms.

Our framing levels are the set of choices that avoid that: acid-free matboards and backing, a gap between the print and the glazing, and at the Conservation and Museum levels, reversible techniques so the print can be taken back out. The fine art framing page sets out what each level includes and how long it is built to last.

None of it is visible in the finished frame. That is rather the point - you are paying for what does not happen to the print over the following decades.

Print, mat and frame as one job

The framing bench sits beside the print room. Your file is printed on archival paper, matted and framed without the print being packed, couriered and unpacked between suppliers. Fewer handovers is fewer opportunities for something to go wrong, and one price instead of three.

You design it online: upload your image, pick the paper and size, then the frame, mat and glazing, and the price updates as you go. If the image only exists as a physical photograph or artwork, we can scan it first and print from the scan - and an old or damaged photograph can be restored before it is printed.

See turnaround times for the current guide.

If you have something to be framed, see a local framer

We frame the prints we make. We do not frame artwork, objects or memorabilia you bring to us - originals, certificates, textiles, medals and jerseys are a local framer's work, and Canberra has good ones. Our framing recommendations are where we send people.