The Designerby Bpro
The frame guide

From mat layout to a print-ready file

A multi-matted frame is one print behind one mat with several windows cut in it. This guide is the full lifecycle: pick a layout, drop photos into the openings, style the moulding and mat, show your client a photoreal mockup, and download a lab-exact file. Free to design — you only pay when you order. Building the book instead? See the album guide. For the working routine, the fixes and the numbers, see the playbook.

On this page

Before you start

Frames live at Frames in the header (the same account as your albums). Each frame project is one framed piece: a print at exact physical size, a mat with cut windows, and a moulding — priced live as you design, ordered through Brilliant Prints when your client says yes.

Every layout is cut at exact physical size. The sizes you'll see are in inches on the layout cards and centimetres in the workspace spec bar — both describe the same physical object.

Before your first share, set your studio name, website, brand colour and logo in Settings — they brand the review page your client opens, which should read as your studio's system, not ours.

As the shelf grows, the frames list keeps everything findable: search by title or client reference, filter by status, and sort by last edited, newest, or title. Cards carry decision chips — Approved, Wants more — with duplicate, delete and archive on hover.

Pick a layout

New frame opens the layout picker — over a hundred multi-opening layouts: pairs, trios, grids, story walls. Filter by how many photos you're framing, the shape of the finished piece, the arrangement style, and overall size.

Filter the layouts by photo count, shape, style and size. Every card leads with the finished sheet size; the Aperture line is the size of each window your photos show through.

Reading a card: the name leads with the finished sheet size (matching the Overall line), Aperture is the size of each window your photos show through, and Spacing is the mat between windows. Click a card and you're in the workspace.

Inside the workspace, Change layout swaps the arrangement without losing your photos, and Request a new layout asks us for an arrangement that isn't in the catalogue — worth using when a client wants something specific, rather than compromising on a near-miss.

Start with photos from an album — pick one of your albums in the dropdown above the layouts and its placed photos are copied into the frame's tray. No re-uploading the shoot. The same shortcut lives on every album card as Frame this.
A single photograph, any standard size. Under Single opening the one-window layouts run from 8×8 to 24×36, grouped by shape — square, 4:5, 3:4, 2:3 and wide. Each size is one card: use its Portrait / Landscape switch to turn it to suit the photo.
Which layouts sell. Trios and story walls outsell single openings because they tell a sequence rather than showing one picture. A landscape row of three reads as a narrative; a grid of five with one larger anchor opening works hard in a hallway.

Upload your photos

Drop photos anywhere on the page, or use the upload button — they land in the tray below the canvas. JPEG, PNG, WebP and TIFF are accepted, up to 200 MB each — iPhone HEIC photos are not, so set Camera → Formats to Most Compatible or export them as JPEG.

The tray works at shoot scale: filter by orientation to find portraits fast, switch tile density, and multi-select to clear outtakes. A Used badge marks photos already placed in an opening.

Fill the openings

Drag a photo from the tray into an opening — or tap the opening, then tap the photo. Drag inside an opening to reframe. To crop tighter, click the photo first — then use the zoom slider, or click the percentage badge to open the crop view. Drop a photo onto an occupied opening to swap the two.

Each opening shows its effective print resolution after your crop. Under 200 dpi we ask you to confirm; under 150 dpi the download is blocked — a framed print under glass is unforgiving.

Each opening reports its effective print resolution after your crop, listed with its dimensions. Under 200 dpi we flag it and ask you to confirm — it will still print, just slightly softer than ideal. Under 150 dpi the download is blocked: a matted print under glass gets studied up close, and there's no hiding a soft file. Zoom out, or use a larger original.

The canvas explains its own guides: the solid line is the mat cut — what shows in the finished frame. The dashed line is the print edge, and the shaded band between them tucks under the mat. Nothing is cropped away; the underlap is deliberate, so no white sliver can show at the cut.

Style your frame

The Design rail holds the physical choices — and it's ordered the way the piece is built, from the inside out: print, then mat, then frame.

The frame workspace: the spec bar reads your choices back in lab terms, the canvas shows the framed piece live, and the Design rail holds frame colour, moulding width and the mat.
ControlOptionsNotes
Frame colourTen moulding finishesBlack, Chocolate, Oak and White; Charcoal, Coconut and Rustic Brown; and the ornate profile in Black, Gold and White
Moulding width20, 30 or 40 mmNot every finish comes in every width — the rail shows only the widths that finish is actually made in
SizeCatalog size, or a percentage of itScales the whole piece. The rail reports the consequence — the lowest opening's DPI at that scale
Mat border2.5 cm by default; from 2 cm up, per edgeThe ceiling shrinks as the piece grows. Leave it blank for no external mat
Client viewToggleHides the editing guides so you see the piece exactly as your client will
Width depends on the finish. A 20 mm moulding is a different extrusion from a 40 mm one, not the same profile scaled, and the range doesn't offer every finish in every width — the ornate profile, for instance, is made in 40 mm only. Check the widths after picking the finish, not before, or you'll promise a client a profile that isn't made.
The Size selector is an upsell tool. Scaling up is a one-click way to show a client a materially bigger piece, and the rail immediately tells you whether the resolution still holds. Check the lowest-opening DPI readout before you present the larger option. A wider bottom mat edge, by a centimetre or so, reads as a gallery hang.
Know the ceiling before you quote. The largest mat board we can cut is 100 × 150 cm, and the framed piece comes out a few centimetres larger once the moulding is on. Your photos can set a lower limit still. The Size rail states the largest each piece can be made at, and sizes your photos can't carry are never offered to a client — so check it before promising a size.

Reading the spec bar

The bar above the canvas reads the piece back in lab terms, updating with every change:

FieldWhat it is
AperturesEvery window, at true size
Print sheetThe printed image
Mat borderThe mat border you've set, per edge
Mat boardThe cut board
Framed sizeWhat actually goes on the wall — quote from this line
Moulding widthThe profile width you picked in the rail

Framed size is the number that answers “will it fit above the sofa?”, so it's the one to say out loud in a viewing.

Price as you design

The price in the rail is live — every change to size, moulding width, mat border or opening count updates it. Click the total to see the lines.

The price updates live as you design — moulding, fine-art print, handling and mat-cutting for each opening after the first. The total already includes your studio uplift, so quote it as-is.

Mat cutting adds a flat $3.30 for each opening after the first, and the ornate profile carries a premium. The total already includes the studio uplift, so it's the number to work from — add your own margin on top as you price the finished piece for your client.

Because it's live, you can design collaboratively in a viewing session and let the client watch the number move as you widen the mat or change the moulding. Know your markup before you open the tool.

Photoreal mockups

This is the feature that closes wall-art sales. Instead of asking a client to imagine a framed print, you show them one hanging — real mat bevel, real moulding, real shadow, at true relative scale.

  1. Finish the design first
    Lock layout, crops, moulding, width, mat and scale. A mockup reflects the spec at the moment it was rendered, so re-styling afterwards means re-rendering.
  2. Choose a background
    A plain studio background is cleaner for a catalogue look; a room scene sells better, because it settles the “will it be too big?” question before it's asked.
  3. Render
    It takes about ten seconds. Right-click or long-press to save the image if you want it for a message or a social post.
  4. Build up to three options
    Render up to three versions and they become labelled Options your client flips between on the review link.
How to use the three options. Don't render three near-identical variations — that produces paralysis. Render three meaningfully different propositions: A, the modest one (catalog size, narrower moulding, standard mat); B, your actual recommendation, properly matted; and C, the aspirational one (scaled up, wider moulding, generous mat). Clients very often choose B — which is the point. One option invites a yes or no; three invite a which-one.
Re-share after every re-render. Your client sees the mockups as they were when you shared. Re-rendering does not update a link you've already sent.

Client review

When you share, you choose how long the link stays open (7–90 days) and can set an optional passcode (6 digits) your client enters before the mockup opens — tell them the code separately, not in the same email as the link.

What your client seesThe framed piece, photographed-real, on any device. If you've rendered more than one version they flip between Options, pick their favourite, and Approve — or leave a single comment if something needs a change.
Give the client up to three options — different moulding, mat or width. They pick one, approve it or leave a note, and their choice lands back in your workspace.

Their decision comes straight back to you: an Approved chip on your frames list, and the full readout — verdict, their chosen option, and any comment — in the workspace's Client feedback panel. An approval closes the review automatically — the link stays viewable but takes no more responses; a Reopen the review button in the feedback panel opens it again if your client needs another pass. You can also revoke the link outright from the share block — it stops working immediately.

Rendering a new mockup after an approval resets the decision — the client approved what they saw, so a changed design asks again.

Several pieces out for review at once? The Client links page (in the frames dashboard header) lists every review link you've shared — frames and albums together — with its status, the client's verdict, and the link ready to copy or preview. A Wants more chip is a buying signal: follow it up the same day.

Download & order

There are two ways to finish, and the buttons say which is which.

Preview the print file runs the final checks — every opening filled, resolution above the floor — and shows you the flat sheet. Download print-ready image, inside that preview, is the one that renders and downloads: an edge-to-edge JPEG at print resolution.

What you download vs what the framer cuts: the file is the edge-to-edge print — photos and printed gaps only, no mat baked in. The physical mat is cut to the same window geometry (the manifest carries it), so it overlaps each print edge cleanly.

The file contains the print only — no mat is baked in, because the real mat is cut physically and laid over the print. The window geometry travels alongside the print for the mat cutter, so the windows land exactly on your photos with the mat overlapping each print edge cleanly.

Never edit the downloaded file. The export is generated to match the window geometry exactly — cropping, resizing or re-saving it elsewhere will misalign the print against the cut mat. If something is wrong, fix it in the editor and download again.

From there, How to order this print shows the specs to carry across — frame, print sheet, framed size, mat and price — and Open Brilliant Prints takes you to the site to place it yourself.

Or skip all of that. Order & ship this frame is the other path: give us a delivery address and Brilliant Prints prints, mats, frames and ships the finished piece. It's the only button that places an order — everything else hands you a file.
Ordering more than one piece? Order several (on your Orders page) lists every album, frame and wall that's ready. Tick the ones you want, give one delivery address, check the prices, and Brilliant Prints makes them and ships them together. Or choose Each to its own address and every product ships on its own — say, straight to each client.