Convenient way to hang many prints

albada · Jul 30, 2022

I'd like a way to conveniently attach and remove many prints in multiple sizes for viewing at home. Attach after I print them, and eventually remove to make more space. The door and side of my refrigerator are out of space. I'm thinking of buying a large magnetic whiteboard. This display-problem makes me wonder:
How do you display prints in your home?

Mark Overton

Don_ih · Jul 30, 2022

By "display", do you include "leaving piles of prints all over the place"?

Alan Edward Klein · Jul 30, 2022

I make slide shows on video and keep them on a memory card attached to my 4K TV. Then when guests are over, I quietly switch on the TV and surreptitiously start the video slide show to impress them with my photography. Another advantage of this kind of surprise is they usually don't visit again for a year or more.

Pieter12 · Jul 30, 2022

I have a dozen or two prints framed in my house. I haven't changed anything in ages. I keep most prints in archival boxes or portfolio cases. some matted, some loose. I might get up the energy to swap out or add some new prints, but some are just too big to hang in the space I have available. Refrigerators are for magnets and shopping lists, white boards and cork boards trivialize the work. A picture rail would be a way to easily display and change out prints, but I would want them framed or at least matted.

Alan9940 · Jul 30, 2022

Years ago, I bought a picture rail hanging system from IKEA that has moveable hooks for hanging any size print. The number of prints that can be displayed at any one time depends, of course, on size and orientation. IKEA doesn't sell this system any longer, but I'm sure you could find something similar in cyber-land.

albada · Jul 30, 2022

Pieter12 said:
[...] white boards and cork boards trivialize the work. [...]

Given the quality of my work, such boards won't trivialize it any more than it already is.

Don Heisz said:
By "display", do you include "leaving piles of prints all over the place"?

You got me there! Piles of prints are eating all previously-unused space on the tables in my darkroom.

Mark Overton

Don_ih · Jul 30, 2022

albada said:
Piles of prints are eating all previously-unused space on the tables in my darkroom.

I have a 5-foot-tall filing cabinet.

gone · Jul 30, 2022

Don Heisz said:
I have a 5-foot-tall filing cabinet.

That's a great idea. That way I could stop displaying my prints under the bed and start displaying them inside the filing cabinet. They don't seem to like the light.

eli griggs · Jul 31, 2022

Consider taking a two by one inch Red Oak board, about six feet in length and router the long edges for looks and tack it to the ceiling/wall area.

If you use more than one board for a longer wall, make 45° cuts in the meeting ends of each board, so to make an over and under lap, it'll look better.

Buy some brass, frameless "L" shaped holder, with their built in threads and space these evenly alone the board(s) to a bit over half the width/profile of the paper sizes you'll be displaying.

Hang nice ribbons from the "L" brackets and use super magnets behind the ribbon and use it's counter part on the surface to hold flat or matted prints vertically down the length from near celling hight, to where you want to end the displace.

The ribbons will work best as hangers if you get a small, clothes rivet kit from Walmart or a fabric store.

This will give a cleaner appearance at the hanger position, slipped over the L brackets and if used on the bottom end, a clean hanging point for small weights to keep the photos from flying about.

Oval black or painted river stones would make nice, simple weights and you've now made a display for a few dollars that can be taken down without major injury to the walls.

buildbot · Jul 31, 2022

I use these poster hangers: https://posterhanger.com/products/posterhanger-by-jorgen-moller

Don_ih · Jul 31, 2022

momus said:
That's a great idea. That way I could stop displaying my prints under the bed and start displaying them inside the filing cabinet. They don't seem to like the light.

Well, for displaying them, I use frames that I get at thrift shops (although some are in frames I made). I have about 100 or so photos in frames throughout the house. I sometimes have 25 or so photos stuck on the fridge or freezer (those are never final prints, though - normally prints I would otherwise throw away).

The filing cabinet is to deal with the stacks of prints laying around everywhere. Prints are in photo paper boxes in the filing cabinet.Well, prints are also in paper boxes in a regular cabinet. And they're still laying around in stacks....

guangong · Jul 31, 2022

Don Heisz said:
By "display", do you include "leaving piles of prints all over the place"?

That’s the solution for me and most of my friends.

Sirius Glass · Jul 31, 2022

Stacks of photographs provide some of its own chronological history.

Pieter12 · Jul 31, 2022

If you have a large enough area to devote to your prints, you could attach a thin sheet of metal, then paint it or cover with fabric. Use small, strong magnets to "pin" up your prints. Some of those magnets are even made to look like push pin heads.

jtk · Aug 10, 2022

I try not to keep prints that I don't love. But I do keep them, sometimes, because I'm unsure. Or sometimes they tell me to go to hell. Similar to relationships with women.

jtk · Aug 11, 2022

Regart ding frames...I simply don't like them. For years I've used the simplest black plastic/glass but I keep thinking about getting some kind of chopper (like frame shops use) to make my own out of unfinished wood molding. Bevel saw setups don't cut as cleanly as choppers.

Can somebody recommend a simple/inexpensive chopper?

Sirius Glass · Aug 11, 2022

jtk said:
Regart ding frames...I simply don't like them. For years I've used the simplest black plastic/glass but I keep thinking about getting some kind of chopper (like frame shops use) to make my own out of unfinished wood molding. Bevel saw setups don't cut as cleanly as choppers.

Can somebody recommend a simple/inexpensive chopper?

When you find a chopper, make sure that it is repeatedly precise and accurate. If the cut is off then the frames will be off.

jtk · Aug 11, 2022

Sirius Glass said:
When you find a chopper, make sure that it is repeatedly precise and accurate. If the cut is off then the frames will be off.

Sirius, sounds right...but how does somebody "make sure" about that precision? Can you recommend a particular brand/type of chopper?

The fine examples I've seen were very big/heavy and foot operated.

Sirius Glass · Aug 11, 2022

jtk said:
Sirius, sounds right...but how does somebody "make sure" about that precision? Can you recommend a particular brand/type of chopper?

The fine examples I've seen were very big/heavy and foot operated.

Ask to see samples of the frames that were made and check them with a T-Square.

Don_ih · Aug 12, 2022

jtk said:
but how does somebody "make sure" about that precision

They're heavy machines, extremely rigid, built to cut one angle, essentially. They should have some ability for minor adjustment but, being made for commercial use, they should retain their adjustment through a great deal of use.

Always easy to check the accuracy of such cuts. Use the machine to cut 4 equal-length pieces with 45 degree angles at all ends and put them together. If all corners close fully, the machine is accurate.

That said, for non-commercial use, such a machine is a boat anchor. Get a mitre box and back saw.

jtk said:
Bevel saw setups don't cut as cleanly as choppers.

More teeth on the blade makes for a cleaner cut.

jtk · Aug 12, 2022

Sirius Glass said:
Ask to see samples of the frames that were made and check them with a T-Square.

yes, thanks. It'd be nice to find something new from you know where.

jtk · Aug 12, 2022

Don Heisz said:
They're heavy machines, extremely rigid, built to cut one angle, essentially. They should have some ability for minor adjustment but, being made for commercial use, they should retain their adjustment through a great deal of use.

Always easy to check the accuracy of such cuts. Use the machine to cut 4 equal-length pieces with 45 degree angles at all ends and put them together. If all corners close fully, the machine is accurate.

That said, for non-commercial use, such a machine is a boat anchor. Get a mitre box and back saw.

More teeth on the blade makes for a cleaner cut.

Yes...thanks....the choppers I've seen were serious boat anchors. Friend used his to chop spines off old art books he found in garage sales, then chopped frame materials, framed the chopped pages and sold them profitably (good salesman with good sense of design). Came across an ancient Durer in one of those garage sales, had it appraised by big museum expert, used that appraisal as provenance, used the provenance to sell the print for a few thousand, used that money to start his online print collector marketing webpage, used all of that to buy the small house that became a gallery...all about 30 years ago... he's still in business thanks to that chopper (and his brilliance as a print marketer).

I don't have that kind of expertise/interest but I was amazed at the perfection of those chops. Maybe I should ask small frame shops if they're going to survive post-covid. We converted garage into ceramics studio (with huge kiln) and could still fit a big chopper if one was found swimming upstream.

I'll look again at my Xacto mitre blade...maybe a fresh one with new aluminum mitre (Xacto did sell them years ago) would do the job if I was more fastidious...maybe Xacto has my answer.

Convenient way to hang many prints

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