How to mat a print in an archival safe manner

There are different ways to mat a print of course, you could use the adhesive spray for mounting prints for one thing, but I prefer something less definite.

It is important to keep in mind that although some glues say they are repositionable, it is often only so for a little bit. Plus it is a good idea to use a roller of some sort for that because you are likely to end up with bubbles (not cool!). I prefer the hinge method. You can use double sided tape which makes it a tiny bit easier I suppose, but it is not necessary. I found this video on youtube about how to mat prints, and it is really one of the most informative, to the point and precise how-to videos I have ever seen on this subject.

The tape the guy mentions in the video is a little bit difficult to find, I had to Google it and you can find it online in some artstores. It is quite expensive though. Another tape that is good to use is the Lineco brand tapes which you can find in most well-stocked artstores and of course online. It is more affordable, but still archival and pretty easy to work with. I won't go into more detail on that right now because I have a tape I recently got which I'm going to write a review on so you can read more about that then.

I am hoping to eventually be able to add at least mat services to my shops. It can be a little bit tricky to position the artwork under the mat sometimes because many mats say the opening is for example 8x10, but then it is really just a little bit below those measurements. Not a big deal in most cases, but if you have some artwork where the important details fairly close to the edge you might have to work with it some.

Enough of the typing for now, here is the video:

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