The Framers Forum

Hi
I wanted to announce a new, free online mat cutting calculator.

http://www.mat-app.com/

A couple of years ago I started framing my own photos. I don’t make the frames but I’m using a Logan 350-1 for custom mat cutting. The mat border calculations were always simple enough but without a standard calculation procedure and format I was forever making simple mistakes. For the basic method of just centering the photo in the mat a spread sheet is entirely adequate. But in the last year I found out about the bottom-weighted methods, which I like a lot better, but which make the calculations slightly more complicated. However, it was when I started experimenting with the Golden Rule ratio methods that a more sophisticated calculator really became necessary. So being a retired programmer I wrote a JavaScript program for a browser and liked it enough to polish it up a little and put it up to share. It does basic and bottom-weighted calculations for single, double and triple mats. It also draws as scaled mockup to indicate the relationships among the frame, mat and photo. I say indicate because it does not display an actual photo or frame, just the scaled areas in different colors. I would be interested to know if something like this is of any use to any of you.

I’m also interested in finding out more about different mat cutting techniques. I’ve seen some really beautiful examples here. Are there some other techniques that I should know about? Are any of the books available useful?

I couldn't make head nor tail of it!

Seems to make something that most do in their heads calculation-wise, after deciding whether to centre or bottom weight or not and if so by how much, unnecessarily complicated and time-consuming.

7.75x9.75 with 3" all round is 13.75x15.75 - if you actually wanted to SEE 3" (give or take an amount that makes no difference) you'd increase that to 14.25x16.25 - if you wanted to bottom weight by 25% on 3" that would be 3.75"......... etc.

Most on this side of the pond use metric and those with CMCs can have the software do all that calculation for them, but they've probably only got it to confirm what they've already worked out.

Welcome to the Forum!

Couldn't figure it either Robo.

I have always bottom weighted for landscape, more so for portrait. With panoramic I always lengthened the ends to accentuate the shape...simple as that.

The deeper base stems from after Victorian times when pictures with equal all round matts were sometimes hung high and gave the impression of forshortened bases.

Anyway keep to the simple and easy principles .....worked for me the last forty years.

Good luck

I have to agree with the others i'm afraid, looks way too complicated and is trying to solve a problem that does not exist.

Its way quicker to do it in your head or scribble on a scrap of mountboard if in doubt.

Plus it's all in fractions of an inch , much more accurate and easier in metric , quicker to draw it on a bit paper and use a calculator

Thanks for your responses. I was hoping it would be more useful, but thank you for your constructive comments. Very helpful. I especially appreciate the panorama suggestion as I have a couple I’ve been planning to frame. I’ll give your idea there a try. Thanks.

Its quite a complicated system you have there, Needs to be simpler and easy to follow

it took me a couple of mins here you go;
I've asked admin if I can post the excel file on here but till then
you can email me for a copy but you'll have to have excel for it to work

info@thegildersstudio.co.uk

excel as posted

I think open office will open a xls, will try it tomorrow, the good thing about open office is it is free.

I think if you want to make it internationally acceptable you need to make it matric as well as imperial.

Graysalchemy wrote:I think if you want to make it internationally acceptable you need to make it matric as well as imperial.

Imperial doesn't work in excel.

Anyway it's a pants method of measuring frames.
I only use it when talking to elderly customers 60+ after quoting them in guineas, doffin me cap at the same time.

I never use imperial except when cutting mounts for a publisher I work for but then I usually convergence to metric even though I can cut in either.

Graysalchemy wrote:I never use imperial except when cutting mounts for a publisher I work for but then I usually convergence to metric even though I can cut in either.

Yes gentlemen of our age tend to swing both ways.

My dad used to say '24 inch and 3mm' when measuring jobs up. He saw the inaccuracies of imperial and tried to embrace metric but could never give up imperial

I can't get my head around this concept. How can an app 'see' what you are framing? Mat (mount) borders are dictated by the nature of the image itself not so much the size. There are a myriad of other factors that an app cannot conceive. Colour of the mat, texture, the frame......etc. Where the picture will hang.
An app cannot make aesthetic judgements.

yeah it works with open office

prospero wrote:I can't get my head around this concept. How can an app 'see' what you are framing? Mat (mount) borders are dictated by the nature of the image itself not so much the size. There are a myriad of other factors that an app cannot conceive. Colour of the mat, texture, the frame......etc. Where the picture will hang.
An app cannot make aesthetic judgements.

It's just another tool, just like ya morso or mount cutter, your there to make choices this just makes sure you calculate accurately. What's to get 'your head around'?

gesso wrote

"It's just another tool, just like ya morso or mount cutter, your there to make choices this just makes sure you calculate accurately. What's to get 'your head around'?"

The difference is you can work out the mount size (I say mount as you find a mat just inside the door to wipe you're feet on) on a piece of paper and pencil and calculator, a tool is something you can hold in your hand, put down and lose , you can only cut moulding with a few tools, but not a pencil, or a tablet or mobile phone or computer

By the time I have found my tablet/mobile , switch it on , started the program , input the figures, and so on....... I can write on a bit of paper/card, cut the blank, cut the mount, move on to next job

sorry but in the example shown, 5mm more on the bottom border is a waste of time

Steve N wrote: sorry but in the example shown, 5mm more on the bottom border is a waste of time

In the example given the dimensions were quite small so 5mm is right . I guess your an half inch kind of guy....figures.

Oxford English Dictionary.....
1.1A thing used to help perform a job:
computers are an essential tool
the ability to write clearly is a tool of the trade


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