Do you cut your own mats or order precut mats?

[Hugh Sakols]

Do you folks cut your own mats or order pre-cut matts?

[Kirk Gittings]

Since none of my prints are exactly the same dimensions, I cut my own mats.

[Eric Biggerstaff]

Cut my own, not a difficult thing to do and much less expensive than either buying precut or having someone do it for you. Like Kirk, my print dimensions are not always the same as the print size is based on the image.

[paulr]

i cut them, and hate every minute of it.

first thing i'll do when i'm a mack daddy with a gold tooth is hire someone to take over.

[Henry Ambrose]

I cut them. I don't find it that hard and its cheaper than buying. And the very best reason has already been taken - photos want to be a different size and shape. If I was matting ten of the same I might have those cut on a machine.

[Ralph Barker]

I'm cheap and lazy. I make all my prints standard sizes and buy standard-size precut mats. That way, I also avoid having to make or buy custom frame sizes. I tried cutting my own once, but wiped out any savings with the first mistake.

[Alan Davenport]

I bought an Alto's mat cutter a couple years ago and have had no trouble since. I chose a small assortment of mat boards and laid in a few of each. Now all I gotta do is choose and cut, no more trips to the craft store to find just the right mat for a photo (which they never seemed to have anyway. The "just right" one, I mean.)

My photography is done primarily for my own edification, so gaining control over another facet of the creative process has been a boon for me. YMMV.

[Frank Petronio]

I used to cut for Light Impressions (Slight Depressions) in my youth. Now I make friends with a framer and give him a list to cut when he is slow. He is much more accurate than me. I usually have to wreck a few before I get them perfect, so the DIY savings is wasted, especially on the big stuff.

[David A. Goldfarb]

I cut my own with a Dexter mat cutter, a T-square and a C-clamp. I guess if I were to stick to contact printing and always composing for the format, I could order precut mats, but I don't.

[CXC]

I used to, till I found framesbymail.com, who will cut any size, with window, down to 1/8". For the quantities I need they are plenty cheap.