mat board...who has the best prices?

[Dana Davis]

Well, I have about had it with Light Impressions (who I used to LOVE!). I NEED some Westminster 4 ply Bright White museum board 32by40 and it seems back ordered into eternity through LImp. Is this a house name brand with Light Impressions? Everything I have done over the past 20 years is matted with this great board and now I am stuck with shows coming up!! Help!

 

[mike c]

Last time I ordered from Light Impressions had a long wait to receive goods.
Mike

 

[Jon Shiu]

I've used bright white rag board from printfile.com and rising white museum board from Daniel Smith and found them both compatible with LI Westminster Bright White. Most places will send you a small sample so that you can check the color, surface, thickness etc.

Jon

 

[fdi]

Well, I have about had it with Light Impressions (who I used to LOVE!). I NEED some Westminster 4 ply Bright White museum board 32by40 and it seems back ordered into eternity through LImp. Is this a house name brand with Light Impressions? Everything I have done over the past 20 years is matted with this great board and now I am stuck with shows coming up!! Help!

My Company currently only has Rag board from Bainbridge in a couple colors of 8-ply mat board but we are in the process of adding 4-Ply rag mat board and a lot of colors, including some new shades of white.

Cheers,
Mark

 

[Jim Fitzgerald]

I use FDI and love the quality and service. Love the cut to size 8 ply. Makes my life easy.

Jim

 

[mike c]

fdi,let us know when you will selling the 4 ply Bainbridge rag,can you order 6 ply by any chance?

Mike

 

[fdi]

fdi,let us know when you will selling the 4 ply Bainbridge rag,can you order 6 ply by any chance?

Mike

Will do Mike. I am not aware of Bainbridge offering a 6-ply in their Alpharag mat board line, but just everyone else's 8-Ply matboard looks like a 6-Ply mat compared to Alpharag.

Cheers,
Mark

 

[mike c]

Well OK Mark,I'll get a order started up here soon ,have to Finnish up what I started a while back.

Mike

 

[Michael A. Smith]

We are Lodima Archival Materials and are sponsors of APUG and I am surprised how few orders we get from APUG members and that we are not even mentioned in a thread like this.

We have no minimums and no custom sizes--all sizes are custom to us. No extra charge for say 15.5 x 19.5 as opposed to 16 x 20. All board is absolute highest quality AlphaRag ArtCare. We also have AlphaMat, but do not recommend it. We have 7 colors of white, Pure White, White, Pearl White, Antique White, Natural White, Ivory, Cream, and, although it is not on our web site, we have black. We have boards in 2-ply, 4-ply, and 8-ply, and even 1-ply for the ultimate in interleaving.

And because of our low overhead I believe we have the lowest prices to be found anywhere. Our service is prompt and our packing is exemplary. Since we are photographers ourselves, and very demanding ones at that, we take the greatest care. And also, because we are photographers we can, and do, make recommendations regarding mat board sizes, overmat sizes, dimensions of borders, etc.

We have a computerized mat cutter for boards up to 40 x 60. And our charge for cutting overmats is very reasonable--only $1 for a window cut for large enough quantities.

Of course we have Archival ArtCare Foam Core, too--3/16-inch or 1/8 inch. We do not recommend ever mounting onto foam core. We use the foam core as the backing in frames--never use those spring clips that are provided in the hardware package.

We also have Nielsen frames--at great prices--any profile, any color. You must inquire about that as frames are also not on our web site. Making photographs takes a lot of time, as does publishing our Lodima Press books, so getting everything on the web site is the weak spot. One of these days . . .

Take a look and compare. I think you will be most pleased with what you see. Dead Link Removed

Thank you.
Michael A. Smith

 

[chrisf]

I buy all my board from Lodima Archival Materials. They have great service, material and I'm supporting some great people.

chris

 

[bill schwab]

I have switched over to Documounts in Portland, OR for all of my matt board needs. They came as a suggestion from David J. Eisenlord after seeing some of his beautiful prints mounted with 8-ply board. As any of you know that have tried to cut 8-ply, you can have more waste than success cutting them by hand. Even with 4-ply, there was some waste. Now all boards come cut exactly to my specifications with perfect corners. Their packaging is impeccable and their turn around time very good. And their website is extremely easy to use. You choose all of your sizing requirements right online, place your order and perfect Alpharag matts show up at the doorstep. No set-up fees. No emailing back and forth or calls needed. And for custom, pre-cut matts, I believe their prices are competitive if not less expensive than any I've seen out there. I highly recommend them and have no affiliation whatsoever.

www.documounts.com

 

[Michael A. Smith]

Since I am always interested in what others are doing in the mat board world, I checked out, on Bill Schwab's recommendation Documounts to see what their prices were and how easy it was to navigate their web site.

It took me quite a while to find prices and what I found surprised me. Photographers are usually pretty tight about what they will spend on film, paper, mat board--the materials they use, but think nothing of spending way too much money on cameras and lenses. So I was surprised at the extremely high prices of the mat board from Documounts and wondered

Here is a comparison between Documents and our Lodima Archival Materials for the same AlphaRag mat board--4-ply
Documounts Lodima
16x20 1-3 11.34 3.84
16x20 4-7 9.41 3.84
16x20 8-15 7.12 3.84 to 10, after 3.59

Now for 8-ply
16x20

 

[Michael A. Smith]

Whoops, I do not know how that got sent. I will continue

8 ply Documounts Lodima
16x20 1-3 27.56 8.37
16x20 4-7 21.63 8.37
16x20 8-15 16.64 8.37 to 10, after 7.84

And so on, thoughout all of the sizes and prices.

I could not find any prices for custom-cut overmats on the Documount site, but then, I could not spend a lot of time trying to find them. Their pre-cut mats for 8x10 and for 11x14 are quite reasonable--low in fact, but I do not know anyone who would use a pre-cut mat. All of our mats are custom cut. We use 13x15 as a convenience size for 8x10, not 11x14, which is too small, and our mats leave some space around the mounted print. (13x15 is the same price from us as 11x14) It appears that Documount does not allow for that, near as I could tell.

So, those of you with deep pockets, use Documounts. I am sure their service is excellent. But if you are like most photographers and want to save 50% or significantly more (!) then do try Lodima Archival Materials.

Additionally, since we are photographers ourselves, we can, and do, make recommendations as to mat board sizes. We are photographers. Lodima Archival Materials came into being first of all to serve our own needs, and then we figured that we could be of service to the greater photographic community. So, come to our web site and take a look, Dead Link Removed.

And we are sponsors of APUG and could use your support.

Michael A. Smith

 

[Vaughn]

I cut my own 8-ply (8x10 holes in a 16x20 board -- not big) -- Logan cutter, one of the inexpensive ones, but I use to use just a straight edge. Judging from the prices for custom cutting 8-ply, I will continue to do my own! I can mess up a lot of mats and still be ahead -- and I rarely mess up a mat, knock on wood...usually just on a rush job with the last piece of mat board I have on hand. :eek:

But I do not find cutting the 8-ply too difficult once I get started and get my system calibrated for the thicker board. Doing multiple passes has really helped me to prevent mis-cuts and bad corners.

I have emailed Lodima Archival Materials to see if I can get a sample of their 8-ply boards. I have always used Light Impressions' Natural White 8-ply rag, but would like to find another source of a similar type of white.

Vaughn

 

[Jon Shiu]

Price comparison: the documounts price includes the window cut. So, a comparison would be
16x20 alpharag w/window cut:
documounts=$11.34
lodima=13.84 (3.84 +5+5)

Jon

 

[fdi]

At Frame Destination, we are in the process of adding 4-Ply Alpharag and our price for 16x20 with window cut will be $10.64 at qty one with volume discounts starting at qty 4. Our price for a blank 16x20 (no window) will be $8.47. Frame Destination is an APUG sponsor and we ship from Dallas, TX. We already have 8-Ply Alpharag on our website but only in a couple colors. We will be adding 4-Ply with many colors and adding lots of colors to our 8-Ply selection.

Our prices are better than Documounts for precuts and currently Documounts prices are better for blanks but we are lowering our blank prices when we add the 4-ply mats. Another thing to watch out for with Documounts is that custom sizes are just marked up to next standard size so your price for pano can be double or triple companies that do not do that.

It looks like Lodima probably has better prices than us for blanks. So in general if you go with us for precuts and Lodima for blanks you will be getting a better price and in both cases using an Apug sponsor.

Lodima apparently has pro photographers...myself, I am amateur photographer and founded Frame Destination due to the lack of frames available for 3:2 aspect ratio prints.

Cheers,
Mark

Price comparison: the documounts price includes the window cut. So, a comparison would be
16x20 alpharag w/window cut:
documounts=$11.34
lodima=13.84 (3.84 +5+5)

Jon

 

[bill schwab]

...and in both cases using an Apug sponsor.

All apologies to APUG sponsors as I wasn't trying to undermine you. I too am an APUG sponsor, but I also know there are other sources out there and do, on occasion, use them for the things I need. I would think that supporting anyone that supplies our small community is a good thing and I simply wanted to alert people to another tried and true source.

As for confusion and difficulty with the site I recommended, I don't get that at all. I don't see how it could be much more simple. So it goes...

 

[fdi]

All apologies to APUG sponsors as I wasn't trying to undermine you.

No worries from me Bill. I was just trying to help add data since that is where the thread was going. In my case (as owner of Frame Destination), I view all my competitors as extensions of my own company to help customers that we are not ideally suited to help. In other words, as far as I am concerned I have no competition. Documounts is another good company and I have not heard anything bad about them. No company can be everything to everyone.

Cheers,
Mark

 

[jd callow]

No worries from me Bill. I was just trying to help add data since that is where the thread was going. In my case (as owner of Frame Destination), I view all my competitors as extensions of my own company to help customers that we are not ideally suited to help. In other words, as far as I am concerned I have no competition. Documounts is another good company and I have not heard anything bad about them. No company can be everything to everyone.

Cheers,
Mark

Excellent attitude and one that can only be beneficial in the long run. Good on ya Mark.\.

 

[Michael A. Smith]

All companies cannot be all things to all people. We sell some things less expensively than others and no doubt others sell some things less expensively than we do. And they provide things we do not provide.

Regarding our "set-up" charge that Jon Shiu mentioned a few posts back: That $5 charge for overmats windows is only charged once for a lifetime for each size. That other vendors sell 25-sheet packs indicates that most folks make a considerable number of prints in each size. Amortizing that size over the number of mat boards once will need in a lifetime it adds almost nothing to the cost of our overmats.

Michael A. Smith
Lodima Archival Materials