What’s the main difference between Custom-Made and Ready-Made picture frames?

The  main difference between custom-made and ready-made picture frames is the price. Custom picture frames are made one at a time, usually with better-quality materials, to exactly suit and fit customer's artwork. Both labour and materials cost more so the price will be higher. Ready-made picture frames on the other hand, are produced in mass, often with common-quality materials, to approximately suit the 20 or so most common picture framing  sizes. With regard to custom frames, the framer chooses each component of acustom picture frame individually and customizes it according to the customer's instructions.

The customer has probably chosen a specific frame (moulding) which can be wood or metal, and also glazing backing, matting and even hardware. Glazing (the process of covering something with a material) can be bought in several varieties including clear glass, non-reflective and ultra-violet (UV) light reducing. The backing materials, or the materials that the artwork is backed and mounted on, maybe standard, acid free, and self-adhesive options.

For matting, there are hundreds of colours and conservation grades to choose from though several mats maybe used for a truly distinctive look. Because made to the customer’s unique specifications, custom frames are more expensive than ready-made frames and often require a week or more to make. A custom frame usually costs $100 or more. Lastly, as every custom picture frame part needs to be selected individually, the time required to make such a frame package is quite time-consuming and it can easily take up to an hour to complete the whole process. With regard to Ready-Made frames, these are bulk-produced to one of several standard sizes.

These may be the European "A" series sizes such as the ubiquitous A4 printer copy paper, or the common sizes of photography prints (e.g. 4 x 6", 8 x 10", or 16 x 20" ). As these are photo framing industry sizes. Both labour and materials are cheaper, so the price will be lower. As these are mass produced, the framer does not need to change individual framing components. For instance, the mat colour of a ready-made frame is nearly always a white.

In these frames are usually made from low-cost materials such as plastic, styrene and fibreglass. Such frames often come from low cost labour countries such as Indonesia or China. The reason they cost so much less than their custom made counterparts is because they are produced by (relatively) cheaper labour in very large runs. Therefore manufacturers take advantage of the resulting economies of scale. Ready made frames can be of excellent to very poor quality.

This will depend mostly on the materials used, the precision of the manufacturing equipment employed, and the care taken with packaging and storage. A ready-made picture frame bought at a large retail store, while inexpensive may also be of very poor quality and improperly stored. On the other hand, ready-made frames found at picture framing shops tend to be of better quality. This is probably because a picture framer's Ready-Made picture frames tend to be made with better mouldings, with the mitred corners glued, rather than dry-jointed and are likely to carry the picture framer's business details.

Most Ready-Made frames consist of the picture frame, the glazing ( either clear glass or plastic glass ) the backing, the fastening clips or flexitabs and some type of hanging device, either staked-on picture hangers or D-Ring hangers, or staple cord. Basically, these are large photo frames. All a customer has to do is to open up the back of the frame, insert his or her picture, maybe clean the glass, and hang the picture on the wall. Thank you for reading "What's the main difference between Custom-Made and Ready-Made picture frames?".