Golden Ratio Picture Frame Calculator

PhiMatrix user quote: "The feature to utilize Phi for matting is also very useful for photographers like me. It has happened several times that customers, looking in a gallery at a matted and mounted impress said: "The layout of this print has something special, just I don't know what." "That'due south Phi, the natural balance, that's pleasing your eyes," I answered each time. Cees M., The Netherlands

So, which of the matted images below do you find most highly-seasoned?

If you selected the middle sized border, your sense of aesthetics chose the matte that reflects a golden proportion. The ratio of the expanse of the matte to the area of the painting is phi, 1.618, with a border width of 25 pixels.

By contrast, the border width of the matte on the summit is 12 pixels, resulting in a matte/image area of 1.3, which seems a flake small.

The border width of the matte on the bottom is 59 pixels, resulting in a matte/image area of 2.6 or phi squared. This is another culling to using the golden ratio. Some may like information technology, merely some may feel information technology tends to dwarf the painting a bit.

Employ PhiMatrix to create the ideal matte size in ii like shooting fish in a barrel steps

You lot can create an optimal matte size that is in golden ratio proportion to the area of your photo or paradigm in two steps:

Drag and resize the PhiMatrix grid to outline your image:
Select the following menu options on the Control Window: "View," then "Border Size," and so "Gilded Matte out from Grid."

The the resulting matte area will be as close as was possible to 1.618 times the area of the original image.

To have more command or you may also want to practice the following steps:

Select Advanced Mode – Expand the Command Window to the Avant-garde Fashion (use the upper left icon with up/downwardly arrow)
Set Attribute Ratio – Set the Attribute ratio to the finished frame size you will be filling, eastward.g. Photo five×7 in the case higher up. (Employ "Variable" if it'due south a non-standard aspect ratio.)
Set Orientation – Ready the Orientation to Landscape or Portrait to match your image.
Overlay the filigree – Position and size the grid over the image to be displayed inside the matte.
Select Border – Go to the View menu, select Edge Size so choose Golden Matte out from Grid to get the perfect Phi matte for your frame. (If y'all want to starting time with the outside Border dimensions, you tin likewise size the Border first and and so select Golden Matte in from Border.)
Fix Transparency – Set the transparency to nix to hide the grid lines and the use the File Salvage Paradigm or Copy Image pick to capture your completed piece of work. Yous can also go out the border showing if you want it to outline the painting within the matte.

Applying the Golden Matte to a concrete frame

If you want to apply this to an actual concrete frame, set the dimensions of PhiMatrix to represent the dimensions of the frame, eastward.1000. make the Edge 850 x thou for an viii.five×10 frame. Applying the Gilt Matte selection will display the dimensions of the image and border (in the Advanced mode) that y'all can apply to your actual frame and matte. For case, an 8.5×10 frame volition require a matte border of .98 inches (showing a border size of 98 pixels) to provide a matte to epitome surface area of one.618. The interior area for the moving-picture show would then be 6.54 10 viii.04.

Of course the aforementioned technique can be used to create an ideally sized border around the content of a brochure or any other graphic pattern content.

For photos and prints, it's common to include a white border around the photo, which raises the question as to whether it should exist consider to be part of the image or part of the matte. At that place's a fleck of artistic license and so in applying the calculation, as the edge may be considered to be part of the matte or part of the prototype, depending on how y'all view the overall moving picture. In that case, information technology's best to base the decision on the relative tones and colors of the photo versus the matte. With a calorie-free-colored photograph and a nighttime matte, the white border of the photo would visually appear to exist part of the photo and it's best to use the photo plus the border to summate the matte size. With a nighttime-colored photograph and a low-cal matte, the white border would visually announced to be part of the matte. In that case, it's all-time to utilize but the photo size to calculate the overall size of the matte and trim accordingly to reveal the white edge. If both the photo and matte are the aforementioned relative shade, the exterior of the edge itself is what creates the visual rectangle from which the golden matte calculation should be calculated.