How to lay out Matt for muliti photo's

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drosskennedy

Grumbler in Training
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May 31, 2008
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La Pine,Or.
Is there a free program online to lay out muliti. photos ? I have 6, 4x5 photos that I want to put into a Matt. I have found programs for 1 photo. Thanks for looking
 
Before we had a computerized mat cutter, I would lay these out in the following way.

I would cut pieces of scrap matboard in the sizes and numbers of the eventual openings.

Then I would lay them out on the back of the blank matboard to get a pleasing look.

Then I would use a T-square to lay out the openings, and cut as usual.

The only thing is that you have to cut all the bottoms, then all the tops then all the left sides then all the left sides. If you don't sure as God made little green apples, you will cut the last one with a reverse bevel and have to cut the whole thing over again. Don't ask me how I know. The good thing is that the screwed-up mat makes a good template for tracing...
 
EllenAtHowards said:
The only thing is that you have to cut all the bottoms, then all the tops then all the left sides then all the left sides. If you don't sure as God made little green apples, you will cut the last one with a reverse bevel and have to cut the whole thing over again. Don't ask me how I know. The good thing is that the screwed-up mat makes a good template for tracing...
Click to expand...

And that is exactly how this kind of mistake is made :) The only reason I don't have experience with this is that I got a CMC before I started getting too many complicated jobs like this...
 
EllenAtHowards said:
Before we had a computerized mat cutter, I would lay these out in the following way.

I would cut pieces of scrap matboard in the sizes and numbers of the eventual openings.

Then I would lay them out on the back of the blank matboard to get a pleasing look.

Then I would use a T-square to lay out the openings, and cut as usual.

The only thing is that you have to cut all the bottoms, then all the tops then all the left sides then all the left sides. If you don't sure as God made little green apples, you will cut the last one with a reverse bevel and have to cut the whole thing over again. Don't ask me how I know. The good thing is that the screwed-up mat makes a good template for tracing...
Click to expand...

How well I know about not cutting all the tops, bottoms, sides, etc. Learned the hard way unfortunately.
 
EllenAtHowards said:
If you don't sure as God made little green apples, you will cut the last one with a reverse bevel and have to cut the whole thing over again. Don't ask me how I know. The good thing is that the screwed-up mat makes a good template for tracing...
Click to expand...

Yup, been there, done that!!!!:faintthud:
 
EllenAtHowards said:
.......
Then I would use a T-square to lay out the openings, and cut as usual.

The only thing is that you have to cut all the bottoms, then all the tops then all the left sides then all the left sides. If you don't sure as God made little green apples, you will cut the last one with a reverse bevel and have to cut the whole thing over again. Don't ask me how I know. The good thing is that the screwed-up mat makes a good template for tracing...
Click to expand...

What I try to do, so I don't cut the wrong way, is when I am laying out the openings on the back with the T-square, I put a big X in each window that is being cut.

This way, I have an additional visual cue. I would place the cutting bar under the "X" so I had less of a chance to get a reverse bevel; another way of looking at it with the X, is if I see he X next to blade, I know I am wrong!
 
Bob Hendrixson had a great reminder for this kind of job - always be sure that your opening is under the bar. No more reversed bevels!
 
Framar said:
Bob Hendrixson had a great reminder for this kind of job - always be sure that your opening is under the bar. No more reversed bevels!
Click to expand...

Likey, Likey, where's the Likey button. :thumbsup:

I occasionally mess this up cutting multiple opening mats. I'm going to put a post-it with this on it taped to the mat cutter to keep me honest.
 
Check your PM's I just sent you some info on free Multiple Window Program and how to get one
 
Here's another trick for doing this by hand:

Count out the number of openings as you go along doing each side. That way if you have 13 openings and have only cut 12 cuts, you will know you missed one.
 
For Manual Multiple Window MAT CUTTING

I use the Wizard MD MatDesigner (demo version) to lay out the Mat Design,
then I Print the “Print Mat Dimensions” text file that lists each window size and distance
from edge of mat (includes distance from left, right, bottom & top of mat). Then I use
a pencil and T-Square to draw the design on back of Mat, that way I can see if I have
any mistakes in distance or spacing. After putting an X in each window I cut the mat
making sure the X in each window is under the Bar that way I am sure the bevel will be in the
correct direction.
 
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