Glass vs acrylic

I was wondering if anyone here has ever fronted their framed prints with acrylic instead of glass. I would think the acrylic would scratch, discolor with age, and possibly get hazy/cloudy eventually.

Thanks!

Pam

I often frame with acrylic, especially if it's something I am shipping. It's lighter, and won't break like glass. High-quality acrylic should age just fine.

Pam, you're correct about acrylic scratching easily. However, discoloring is not an issue with framing grade acrylic. I have a framing business and rarely use acrylic due to the scratching and static issues.

Acrylic does have some advatages. Number one is it won't break and damage art like glass.
This is good for some commercial installations, pieces that are shipped, or kids rooms. It also weighs less than glass which may be important in framing large pieces. Regular framing acrylic also has more UV protection than regular glass.

I use acrylic for all my framing, mostly because I envisioned doing a lot of shipping. You can get scratch-resistant acrylic for not too much more than the regular UV-protecting stuff. Aaron Brothers sells (for not bad, but not the cheapest prices) pretty much every type of glass and acrylic available, from non-UV stuff through Museum glass and acrylic.

BTW, acrylic is also clearer than the cheaper glass. You have to go up a grade of glass to get clear, not blue-green glass.

I worked at a gallery doing framing last year and learned a lot about the options here... there are two main types of plexi/acrylic - UV or non-UV. The acrylic with UV protection is nearly as expensive as "good glass" - but not great glass. If you are making prints of your work using pigmented or dye inks, you probably will want to have at least a basic level of UV protection.

For me, the main choice of plexi vs. glass has to do with cutting reflections.... I REALLY like TruVue AR (Anti-Reflective) glass, and there is no equivalent in plexi. I would never recommend using cheap glass.

But like others have mentioned, when shipping/transporting a piece a lot is a major consideration, plexi is definitely the way to go. It's lighter and safer than glass BUT WILL SCRATCH much more easily than glass. (Good glass is highly scratch resistant.)

And for ANY piece over 40 inches in either dimension DON'T USE GLASS. Large pieces of glass can bow and possibly break under its own weight.

For cleaning, de-staticizing and removing scratches from plexi I highly recommend a spray cleanr called Brillianize. The stuff is simply amazing.

Thanks everyone. I didn't realize there were so many different types of acrylic available. The shipping factor makes total sense.

Pam

Pam,

Under the TruVue Acrylite brand, you can get the following:
FF-3 - Standard acrylic
FF P-99 - Standard non-glare
OP-3 - 98% UV-blocking
OP-3 P-99 - non-glare, uv-blocking
AR-OP-3 - Scratch-resistant UV-blocking
Optium - scratch-resistant, sputter-coated (no glare, but clear - go to an Aaron Bros store to see for yourself...)
Optium Museum - scratch-resistant, sputter-coated, UV-blocking

There are probably some combinations I didn't list. Optium Museum is the highest grade material, and costs an arm and a leg. Aaron Brothers sells it for $220 for an 18x24" frame (!); if you have a wholesale license, you can get it for around $600 per 41x71" sheet.

BTW, Nat's right - you can't get TruVue AR glass in Acrylic. It's kind of a compromise to traditional non-glare glass; about half the frosting of regular non-glare, enough to cut down the glare but shows the image a bit more clearly than regular non-glare.

Nat mentioned a product for cleaning plexi. I've never used that, but I have used a product called Novus Plastic Polish. You can probably get it a number of places, but I get it, and other supplies, HERE. I've had really good results with it.

I'm gonna print this out and hang on to it...thanks much everyone

Pam