Framing glass - what's a good one these days?

[Drew Wiley]

From the specs, the Schott product look similar to Tru-Vue. But I don't actually have
a sample. It hasn't been locally distributed, which is a very important issue given the
fragility and expense of the commodity. One of the problems in this kind of discussion
is identifying the actual sources, since things get privately labeled for marketing
purposes. In other words, the same species of glass might get distributed under more
than one name. Schott is an actual manufacturer.

[Jon Shiu]

You can also get something called "Masterpiece" glass made by Tru-Vue from Michael's Craft store. Usually you can get a 40-50% off coupon in the paper or on-line.

Jon

[Drew Wiley]

No craft store is going to carry what we're talking about. Traditional nonglare and
optically coated glass are a whole different thing, and the latter costs about ten times
as much as the former for a given size.

[Jon Shiu]

Masterpiece glass at Michaels is manufactured by Tru-Vue with anti-reflective coating like Museum Glass.

Jon

[Henry Ambrose]

Wow good discussion.
Keep going.

I called the art supply in town this afternoon and left a message at the framing department - no response. I can't imagine a retail business that does not answer the phone - but that's the modern world.

[Oren Grad]

Just to be clear: Tru Vue has a large lineup of different types of glass, well documented on their website:

http://www.tru-vue.com/

Tru Vue AR is their antireflection coated product - their version of Denglas, which is no longer manufactured.

[Drew Wiley]

There seems to be some debate about what Masterpiece glass really is, but it apparently isn't the Truvue AR glass I referred to. It might be discounted Museum
glass from out-of-spec batches.

[lloyd]

Also consider Schott B270, no anti-reflective or uv, but optically clear with no color casts. 2mm runs about $7.50 sq' Great for neg carriers and contact printing frames too.

[Brian Ellis]

Short article by Ctein that touches on different glasses for framing.

http://theonlinephotographer.typepad...log_index.html

[Drew Wiley]

Well Brian, I checked the mini-article. I have done true hermetic sealing, even of 30x40
prints, and after a couple decades the seals have held. It's a very tricky and expensive
thing to do, and nothing a typical frame shop can offer. But like I said, none of the
glazing options per se is going to significantly improve the odds if direct sunlight or
strong halogen UV sources are involved. Yeah, maybe 5% or something. Big deal. So
with respect to color photographs, I don't see any real advantage to the tinted glass
or dye (in the case of acrylic) - it just messes with the color balance. Once I was in
a show with Rbt Motherwell. His painting sold avg 50K apiece back then, not in the
million plus like now, but the projector halogens in the gallery were so bright that they
were actually starting to melt the acrylic paint. Naturally I pulled my own prints after
a few days. The ones I have left are still vibrant, but it would have only taken a month
of so of that kind of lighting to fade them. On the other hand, thirty years of INDIRECT
sunlight bounced around the room hasn't done much at all. So you've got to take all
those accelerated aging things Wilhelm says with a grain of salt, at least until you've
got some real world display experience with a specific media, and that takes decades, not hours.