Woman carrying red clay pots

For a long time I have been cutting my own mats for prints.  Some folks believe you should just use white mats for everything – after all, isn’t that what Ansel Adams did for his?  But actually your work will look much better in a good double mat.  But how do you figure out what combination will look good?  Well, I used to use the corner method – laying corners made from different matboards on the actual print.  Somehow it never really tells you what the whole package will look like.

I developed a means of visualizing almost exactly what a given combination of mats will look like with my print using Photoshop. You can use any version of Photoshop you happen to have.  I use CS4, but CS3 or any of the previous versions will do fine.  Note that even if you have someone else cut your mats or you order them precut, you can still visualize them with your print using this method and then use that information when ordering.

Here’s a summary of the procedure:

Matboards

First you will need to take sample pieces of all the mats you normally use, and obtain images of them with reasonably accurate colors.  This can be done on a flatbed scanner, or you can photograph them.  Be sure to use the same light source for them and light them evenly if you photograph them.  Color correcting by using a color card and correcting in Camera Raw or Lightroom would give more accurate colors.  Pull all the images you have of those into Photoshop and create one file with all the colors visible in strips. See the sample image I provided http://www.allindaphoto.com/Bay-Photo-Store/Blog-Images-Visualizing-Blog/11213138_RAgqt#786309483_KL3e6.  You want to label each of the colors with the name and number as in the file provided so you can reference that later.  I use Crescent Ragmat matboards, so the colors are those.  If you want to use my file, that’s fine – click on the link above. You can even add other colors later if you want.  Store the file as a jpeg.  It doesn’t matter about resolution – you just need that file to sample the colors.  I recommend limiting yourself to just the mat colors you think you will use most of the time, for simplicity.

Next you create a template of the mat system you intend to use.  This will consist of the top mat and the (smaller) bottom mat. (Other mats can be added the same way.) The colors of the mats don’t matter at this stage because they will be easily changed later by referencing the colors in your Matboards document.  Then you modify your print file to conform to the parameters of the template (8 bits, resolution, and flatten if there are layers), and move it to the center.  Don’t forget to close your print file without saving after you move it into the template.  The last step is to try out the colors in the Matboards document on the layers representing the top and bottom mats of the template until you arrive at the combination that looks right to you.  The actual color accuracy isn’t really that important – it will be close enough for this purpose.

Now you are probably saying to yourself: “This is too complicated. Why would I want to do that?” Well it’s really not that complicated or time consuming once you do it a couple of times, and the results are really worth it. Without something like this I tended to rely on only a few matboard combinations and didn’t utilize all the possibilities I had available.

Procedure for Making The Template:

Top Mat.

Photoshop dialog for new file to create a Top Mat

Say you want to make a 12×16 inch double mat for a 7×10½ inch print that you have printed about ¼ inch larger in each dimension so that it will fit inside a mat with a 7×10½ cutout. The top mat is simply a document that is 16 inches high and 12 inches wide. In Photoshop, go to file/new and create a file with 16 inches height and 12 inches width. Set the resolution to 72 ppi, bit depth to 8 bits, and profile to whatever you use for printing. The color can be whatever the background is set for at the moment because you will change it later.  Leave the file open in Photoshop.

Bottom Mat.

Photoshop dialog for new file to create a Bottom Mat

You need to calculate the dimensions for the bottom mat, assuming a ¼ inch reveal (The reveal is the part of the bottom mat that will show between the print and the top mat).  The Width is equal to the nominal width of the print (7 inches) plus double the reveal (¼”x2=½”).  Therefore, the Width is 7½”.  The Height is equal to the nominal height of the print (10½ inches) plus double the reveal, which totals 11 inches.  Create another new document that is 7½” wide by 11 inches high.  Make sure that the resolution, bit depth, and profile are the same as before.  Note that these are not the dimensions of the actual piece of matboard used to cut the bottom mat, but the dimensions that will show in the final matboard system.  Actually, those dimensions are the size of the cutout in the Top mat.

Mat Template

With both of the documents open in Photoshop, choose the Move tool (press the V key) then hold the shift key and slide the smaller document on top of the larger one by grabbing it with your mouse, holding down the left mouse button. That will place the smaller document (bottom mat) in the center of the larger one (top mat).

Template for a 12x16 print mat system after combining Top and Bottom Mat layer

Color Overlay in Blending options for Top Mat in Template

Color Overlay and Bevel and Emboss in Blending options for Bottom Mat in Template

Next you need to set up your layers to allow changing the colors to match your mat colors. There are 2 layers in the template now, Background (Top Mat) and layer 1 (Bottom Mat). In the layers palate, double-click the top mat layer and click on OK in the dialog, to change it to Layer 0. Then right click in that layer and choose “blend options” from the drop down list. A dialog will open. Choose “Color Overlay”.

Then click on the Bottom mat layer (1) and repeat the procedure above. For the bottom mat, you can actually simulate the bevel of the mat by clicking on Bevel and Emboss in the blend options.  Leave this document open.

Adding the Print Image
For the example shown here the print dimensions are 7×10½ inches. The actual print should be slightly larger than that to fit properly inside the mat cutout. Also, the print file is probably in 16 bit mode and the resolution is not 72 ppi.  To add the print to the template the parameters have to match.

Image open, reduction of resolution in Image Size dialog before inserting file into template

First, open the print file, go to “Image/Image Size”, check the “Resample Image” box, and then change the resolution to 72 ppi.  Make sure your print size is still 7×10.5″ or slightly over.  If not, change one of the dimensions to the correct one. Constrain proportions should be checked. Click OK, flatten the file and in Image/Mode change the bit depth to 8 bits.  Leave the profile the same – whatever you use as your working profile.

Double Mat Template with print inserted and top and bottom mat layers with blending options set

Arrange this image and the template on the screen. Choose the Move tool (Ctrl-V) and shift-move the image on top of the template. It should fit inside the outer dimensions of the bottom mat. If not, then either you sized the print too large or something else. If it’s close to the right size, make a marquee selection of it, type Ctrl-T to enter transform mode, and adjust the size of the print so the “reveal” spacing looks right. Choose enter when it looks OK.  Very Important: close your print file without saving so you won’t be changing your actual print file.

Layout of system used for visualizing double mat colors, mat color file open, and color overlay dialog ready to set mat color

Making the Mat Color Selections

You are now ready to determine the best mat color combination for your print. Open the Matboards document in Photoshop and position it to the left of your monitor. Starting with either layer 0 or layer 1, right-click the layer to open the blending options dialog. Double-click Color Overlay and then click on the small colored rectangle to the right of the Blend Mode line. That will open up a color selection dialog. You change the color of the layer by clicking with the mouse on a color in the Matboards document. After deciding on a mat color, close all the dialogs by clicking OK in them. Change the colors of the top and bottom mats using this process until you have reached the best combination. This is subjective, but after a little practice it will get easier and there will be little doubt when you reach the best look for your print.

When you have reached the final combination, you can save it if desired so you can refer to it later. If you just want it to show the way the file looks, flatten the layers and save as a jpeg to save file space. Otherwise, save the PSD file.

Final mat selection shown in visualization file, containing a print, with layers palate shown

Saving the Template

After you have finished with one print, you can trash the print layer and add another image of the same size. When you have determined all the mat combinations for prints that size you can delete the print layer to reduce file size, and save the file with both layers as a PSD or Tiff. Label it something like “7x10_5 on 12×16.PSD” and store it in a folder such as “Templates” so you can easily retrieve it.

Making Another Template

If the print you want to work on next is in landscape format, simply rotate the template. If you need to make another template for a different size print and frame you can start from scratch, and repeat all the above steps, just changing the sizes accordingly, or you can resize the one you made first to whatever you need and name it accordingly. Resizing the whole template outer dimensions can be done from Image/Canvas Size. The bottom mat can be then resized by using the transform tools

A Few Examples of Matted Prints from the Allindaphoto.com Website

Matboard combinations designed to suit specific prints are available by clicking on the links below.

Here you can find lots of useful information about selecting mats for prints:

http://www.allindaphoto.com/For-Website-Use/Matted-Prints/9517488_jDzfH#639426485_oRBxU

In the Fine Art Store you can find several larger images available as matted prints:

http://www.allindaphoto.com/Fine-Art-Store