About borders.

When setting up a new print, consider what you want for a border around your image. The border width is subjective according to your tastes and aesthetics, as there is no standard rule of thumb. Normally, the border contains the artist's signature and the edition number of the print. Occasionally, artists add the title of the image or an embossing mark inside their border. 

Borders can vary depending on the final paper size of your print. For example, smaller prints sometimes use smaller borders in order to keep the dimensions proportional. Some people like very wide borders, especially on larger prints. Generally speaking, 1" is a good border for a range of mid-sized prints. If the background of your image is not heavy with dark colors, then we can do borderless printing, which is called full-bleed. If your image is very dark, we recommend adding some kind of border as handling space, which will protect your print through production and ensure pristine edges for your customer. An 1/8” border appears as full-bleed after framing, but gives us the production handling space and ensures the edge of the art isn’t hidden in framing. When prints are full-bleed or have an 1/8" border, they are usually signed with a contrasting color (like white) inside the actual print image.

Even though canvases show the art all the way to the edge of the piece, they need a border to be wrapped around wooden stretcher bars. Standard stretcher bars are around 1" thick, so we add a 2" border to canvases to make them easy to stretch. Larger canvases (or for your aesthetics) would require a thicker stretcher bar, so 3" is another option. The border on a canvas can be white, black, or be another color from your artwork. We can also mirror the edge of your artwork so it looks like the painting wraps around the sides. Some artists sign their canvases on the back since the border is not seen on the final piece.