For as long as we have been cutting mounts, our designer has offered two shapes of opening: the rectangle and the oval. Most pictures look right in one of those, but some deserve something a little different. A wedding portrait under an arch, a baby photo in a heart, a team photo in the shape of a shirt.
So we have added them. You can now choose from 25 aperture shapes and 9 decorative corner styles when you design a mount, and see the result straight away in the preview.
Where to find them
Open our picture frame designer and go to the Mount step. Under the border sizes, tick More options (shapes, title boxes and corners) and two new choices appear:
- Aperture Shape. Opens a picture menu of every shape. Click one and the preview redraws with your picture inside it.
- Corners. Shown when the shape is a rectangle. Leave it on Straight for ordinary square corners, or pick a decorative style.
The title box option sits in the same row, so you can still add a space for a printed caption below your picture.
The shapes
Here is the full range, each shown in a single ivory mount:
- Arches and curved tops. Arch, Bowed Top, Bell Top, Arch with a Rounded Base, and Bowed or Bell Top & Bottom. Traditional and elegant, and a natural fit for portraits, wedding photos and anything with a church or garden setting.
- Ovals. The classic Oval, plus the Notched Oval for something a little more decorative.
- Geometric. Hexagon, Octagon, Diamond and Triangle, and three Concave styles with inward-curving sides. These work well with modern prints, graphic art and bold colours.
- Fans. Fan, Tapered Fan and Scalloped Fan, which widen towards the top.
- Hearts and stars. Heart, Rounded Heart and Star. These keep their proportions whatever size you choose, and sit centred in the opening.
- Shirts. T-Shirt, Vest and V-Neck Shirt, for team photos, sports memories and children's first kits.
Decorative corners
If you prefer a rectangle, the corners are where you can add some character. There are two kinds.
- Shaped corners: Cut, Stepped, Stepped Cut, Cut & Notch and Rounded Notch. Each corner of the opening is cut to the same small detail, which suits a single mount.
- Double mount corners: Stepped Offset, Cut & Step, Stepped Out and Double Line Tab. These are designed for double mounts, so the inner mount shows through in a pattern at each corner.
Shapes with a double mount
Every shape works with a double mount too. The top mount is cut so that the inner mount shows as an even border all the way round the shape, the same width along a sloping side or a curve as along a straight edge. Choose the inner mount colour and the width of that border in the designer just as you would for a rectangle.
How they are cut
We cut every mount on a computer-controlled mount cutter, with the same clean bevelled edge as our standard mounts. The shapes and corners in the designer come from the cutter's own templates, so the preview you see on screen is drawn from the same outline that is cut.
A few tips
- Mind the edges of your picture. A shaped opening covers more of the picture than a rectangle of the same size. Use the preview to check that nothing important, such as a face or a signature, is hidden behind a curve or a corner.
- Exact size or to take. As with any mount, leave Exact Size unticked and we cut the opening slightly smaller than your picture, so the mount overlaps it and holds it in place.
- Keep it simple with busy pictures. A detailed photo or painting can look crowded inside a very decorative opening. A gentle arch or a simple corner often looks better than a star.
- Use colour. Shapes and corners really stand out with a double mount in a contrasting colour.
What it costs
The rectangle and the oval stay at the standard mount price. Any other shape, or a decorative corner, adds 20% to the price of the mount (both mounts if you choose a double mount). The frame, glazing and backing are priced as normal, and the designer shows your total as you go.
Get started
Shaped mounts and decorative corners are in our picture frame designer now. You will also find them when you order a mount on its own, and on our frame pages that offer a mount. Try a few shapes in the preview with your own picture, and if you would like advice on which suits it best, please get in touch.
The pictures in this post were drawn from the mount cutter's templates, using a sample picture in place of a customer's artwork.