Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why I took on building a better way to frame any poster, print or photo

medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 88 posts

Re: Why I took on building a better way to frame any poster, print or photo

#21

Post by jhubball »

NSAID wrote: post #16
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #10

This looks fantastic, but I have one request: I do all of my own photo matting, and would love to have a 'power user' interface that would let me simply specify the size of the custom frame that I need. Right now, it's not obvious to me how I can simply say: "I need a frame that has a 18x18" opening," or whatever. Let me do this and I will happily spend $200 on your website today, and will probably keep doing that ev…

> "I need a frame that has a 18x18" opening," That's just the poster size that you enter in, right? https://www.levleframes.com/frames/new?height=12.0&width=12.... I punched in 12"x12" and it's showing me various frame/matte combinations that result in a 12"x12" opening.

just to clarify - 12" x 12" (dimensions of the artwork) will result in a mat opening of 11.5" x 11.5" because the mat has to overlap the print by 1/4" on each side to hold it in place. Trying to make this element as clear as possible, all of this feedback very useful.

Re: Why I took on building a better way to frame any poster, print or photo

#22

Post by gk1 »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #17
NSAID wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "I need a frame that has a 18x18" opening," That's just the poster size that you enter in, right? https://www.levleframes.com/frames/new?height=12.0&width=12.... I punched in 12"x12" and it's showing me various frame/matte combinations that result in a 12"x12" opening.

No, punching in 12x12 gives you a 13x13" frame: Customizing a frame to fit a 12.0" x 12.0" print 13 x 13 x 0.75" Black Maple frame with No mat and Standard glaze. $43.50 I'm saying that my matted print is 12x12 (or whatever), and I don't want to futz with making the numbers come out right.

Isn't that exactly what that is? The frame itself is 13x13 but the opening is 12x12.

Re: Why I took on building a better way to frame any poster, print or photo

#24

Post by jhubball »

delgaudm wrote: post #12

When I needed to change dimensions, I started over. The first step did show 0/8 but the fractions of the inch were present on the second step. Edit: Now that I've been through the process, I also found that your pricing was $14USD more for the same materials and dimensions than the first site that came up when I searched "online framing" ($46 vs $32). Its not clear from your site how you differentiate on that markup.

thanks for taking a look, I will look into the fractions change.

I'm guessing that the competitor was not using materials that were as quality or archival. I'm also trying to differentiate on the UI/UX. Most of the sites I've tried (and I've tried a lot) take dozens of steps to order the frame and have way too many options.

Re: Why I took on building a better way to frame any poster, print or photo

#25

Post by aaronbrethorst »

jhubball wrote: post #20
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #10

This looks fantastic, but I have one request: I do all of my own photo matting, and would love to have a 'power user' interface that would let me simply specify the size of the custom frame that I need. Right now, it's not obvious to me how I can simply say: "I need a frame that has a 18x18" opening," or whatever. Let me do this and I will happily spend $200 on your website today, and will probably keep doing that ev…

Great feedback. Right now you can contact me directly with that (I try to mention it in the FAQ and tool tips), but have not built the feature to directly specify. Thought it would be easiest for most customers to measure their prints/posters and supply that one set of dimensions. Would love the opportunity to frame something for you!

    Thought it would be easiest for most
    customers to measure their prints/posters
    and supply that one set of dimensions.
Sure, that's totally understandable. I'd expect, though, that a sizable chunk of people who won't bat an eye at your prices for custom frames are going to be like me. Feel free to email me at aaron@brethorsting.com if you'd like to discuss in more detail. And thanks again! I look forward to using your service!

Re: Why I took on building a better way to frame any poster, print or photo

#26

Post by crazygringo »

As someone who framed four photos (from small to 3 feet wide) a couple years ago -- I wound up using cheap $10-30 Blick frames and cropping my photos to "standard sizes", and spending $200 locally on the one that simply couldn't be cropped to a standard size.

I would definitely have been interested in online custom sizes, but with cheap materials -- plastic instead of glass, black faux wood frame. Not just for quality, but also for weight -- a glass covering over a 3-foot photo is crazy heavy.

There's definitely a big market of people who are post-college and want proper frames for non-standard-sized content, but simply want them as cheap as possible.

Re: Why I took on building a better way to frame any poster, print or photo

#28

Post by sarah2079 »

donall wrote: post #11

This has great potential. I plugged in some random numbers and the basic offering seemed to cost around $100, though, which is still significantly more than the cost of a cheap poster. Can you talk a little about the price breakdown here? Or perhaps that would reveal the secret sauce?

For perspective I had custom framing done recently for something that was about 16"x30" and it was $300. I could have paid less than 50% for a very similar frame using this site.

Even the low-quality frames from craft stores tend to cost significantly more than a cheap poster. A poster is just a big piece of printed paper.

Re: Why I took on building a better way to frame any poster, print or photo

#29

Post by ISL »

These sentences in your copy set me up to expect a framing solution that would let me frame a poster in a nice frame for ~$40: "A handful came from Fab.com, there was a Ray Lamontagne concert poster I picked up after a show, and several others I had purchased on and offline. Not one had cost over $40."

I felt let down that the minimum cost for framing 24x36 prints was then $109+.

It's a nifty idea, and the custom-framing market is at least partially ready to disrupted by a well-executed internet outfit. Good luck!

Post reply on HN