This guide is intended to summarise the many types of mounts available and try and provide some useful guidance as to what mounts may look best with certain subject matters and/or colours.

Mountboards are available in namely three options: Standard, Conservation and Museum

'STANDARD' MOUNTBOARD

These boards are at the budget end of the market and aren’t recommended to be used with anything of value – they are typically not acid free and should only be used for the following artworks:

Open End Reproductions
Posters
Decorative Art
Photography
General Presentation

Standard boards have a number of different colours and cores available, whether it be Whitecore, Coloured Core or Black Core and come in a number of thicknesses:

1.25mm (1250 micron)
1.4mm (1400 micron)
1.5mm (1500 micron)
2.0mm (2000 micron)

The 1.4mm thick board is the commonest, most varied size.

Standard Boards are available with:

• Speckled and textured finishes
• Metallic Surfaces
• Linen Face
• Black Cores

Standard boards are used in the framing industry, but most framers choose to use Conservation boards as the cost difference is marginal and there’s no harm in using Conservation boards with the applications referred to above.

'CONSERVATION' MOUNTBOARD

These boards are acid free and should be used for the following artworks:

Fine Art Prints
Limited Editions
Valuable documents
Photography

As I’ve said above, these boards are now favoured by framers as a day to day board and come in a variety of colours and textures.

Typical Thickness of Conservation Mountboards:

1.35mm (1350 micron)
1.4mm (1400 micron)
2.0mm (2000 micron)
3.2mm (3200 micron)

Conservation Boards are available with:

• Parchment surface papers
• Lightly speckled surface papers

'MUSEUM' MOUNTBOARD

These are the top of the range and have a high price tag associated to them. Typical applications are thus:

Valuable works of original art
Rare and antique documents
Fine Art Prints
Valuable Photographs

The innards of Museum boards are 100% Cotton and aren’t available in the variety of colours that you would see in Standard and Conservation boards – typical colours you can expect to see are pale, white and cream.

Typical thickness are:

1.5mm (1500 micron)
3.0mm (3000 micron)

1. Single Mount.

A PH neutral card surround, which usually overlaps the front of your artwork to provide visual space around your image, and to keep the image from touching the glaze.

Usage
For photos, prints, posters, certificates, watercolours and all other works on paper or cloth.

Key Points
A wide range of mount colours is available but pale and neutral colours are most popular as strong and dark colours can be too dominant. You may choose shades or colours to suit the picture or your decor, but remember that colours are accentuated by puttting them alongside a contrasting colour.

2. Double Mount.

A second mount in the same or a complementary colour can sometimes help to give even more depth to your picture. This effect is achieved by having a small amount of inner mount showing immediately next to the image. As a general rule, the outer mount is a lighter colour than the inner one.

Usage
Used for the same types of artworks as single mounts, but the extra thickness make it suitable for works with shallow relief e.g. needleworks & oils on paper.

Key Points
Dark & stronger colours are great as a small (5mm) inner mount where they would be too much on their own. A light colour inside a dark colour can work very well on darker images with 10 -15mm of inner.