Coloring Mat Bevels

I am curious if, and if how, you color the bevels on your mats for prints? I favor doing it with a color that is "sympathetic"* colors that enhance the colors within a print. What I am talking about is coloring the slanted portion of a mat board so that its color enhances the colors within a print rather than just having a dull white. My concern is bleediing onto the print or the colored (in my case typically black) mat board and even coloring of the bevel.

Any feedback or direction would be appreciated.

thanks,

Sean


* I want a better word, but that is the closest I can find in my vocabulary.

Just Say No to colored mats & colored borders. Galleries & museums never use them, because they aren't archival. It's best to stick to plain white acid free mats, for example Westminster or Exeter from Light Impressions.

I would offer a 2nd opinion. If you are in the market where archival matting is important, then most definately I wouldn't color the bevel.

Thats not my market, instead my market is whatever the customer wants and most of them dont' even begin to understand what Archival means (only that is costs more).

I would still stay away from the coloring of the bevel if for no other reason that it very well might bleed into the print or fade uneven depending on the light the print is displayed in.

If you are looking for a different look, consider a black core mat, You can get many different colors (on the outside) and the core (bevel) is black. IMO it makes for a most striking look.

I also believe you can get black core in archival but again the cost is about 3x per mat.

Paul C.

Kirk and Paul,

Thank you for the feedback.

My goal here is enhancing percieved saturation via the usage of a surrounding similar tone on the mat bevel without oversaturating the actual image so detail is retained.

I am somewhat un-fond of white mats as they sap saturation from images and I would prefer not to have to oversaturate a print to compensate. I rather like black mats for how they separate the brightness/luminosity of an image from its surroundings.

But I am also new to doing larger prints so my tastes my change (likely will).

Paul Caldwell said:

I would offer a 2nd opinion. If you are in the market where archival matting is important, then most definately I wouldn't color the bevel.

Click to expand...

That is not my target at this time. Nor are limited editions. This is always subject to change.

Paul Caldwell said:

I would still stay away from the coloring of the bevel if for no other reason that it very well might bleed into the print or fade uneven depending on the light the print is displayed in.

Click to expand...

These issues are why I am asking for techniques and it seems no one is doing it.

Paul Caldwell said:

If you are looking for a different look, consider a black core mat, You can get many different colors (on the outside) and the core (bevel) is black. IMO it makes for a most striking look.

Click to expand...

I may try a black or dark grey outer mat with a chosen tone with black core for an inner mat which may achieve the same effect. But I have a few hundred mats to cut before I will feel confident at avoiding overcuts and double mats involve twice as much room for error and yes, I am practicing but have yet to get the usage of the stops down to a precise measure as I am using a used C&H 30" mat cutter and while it cuts straight, it appears the production stops may be useless.

Paul Caldwell said:

I also believe you can get black core in archival but again the cost is about 3x per mat.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the thoughts. For the time being I have come into a used collection of mat board that should last a year or two at least. It is a mixture of acid free mat, acid free rag, and some random otherness (textures and other gaudy things that will likely become expensive backing). It is all over 12 years old so archival character from storage should clearly show already and I would prefer not to throw too much money at the problem until I can ascertain if it is worthwhile.

enjoy,

Sean

On Black Core

One other thing, Black core is about 2x more dense than normal mat. Thus it will dull a blade very fast. I basically use a new blade on my larger cuts 29" x 40 after 4 cuts.

Paul C.

I didn't even know you could color bevels. I normally single mat with LI "duo" which is a 6 ply mat, 2 white (on one site), 4 black (other side). This provides a thicker black border than 4 ply black core.

If I (rarely) want to bring out a particular color, I'll double mat and use the color on the inner mat, typically with a more subdued (lighter, less sat) on the outer mat.

I tried the "theoretically" ideal mid-grey mat on a number of images and didn't like it although I use this as a default in online galleries.

- DL

I second the notion of a double mat with your complimentary color of choice. I can't imagine that you would ever be able to achieve a solid, even tone of color by painting or using markers on the bevel cut of the mat. That uneveness would become distracting and take away from the strength of your image IMHO.

One suggestion to keep things archival if you really need to color the bevel....I would buy a bottle of MIS pigment black ink say ebony or PK and paint the mat with it. If your printing with pigment inks then your bevel painting's life should match that of the print if you are using an archival mat board.

____________________________

David