How to frame a movie poster without ruining it

Most movie posters we frame are not the size the seller said they were. The listing says 27 x 40. The poster measures 27 x 41. Nobody checked, and now the frame does not fit.

We cut every frame to order in our New Jersey workshop. Unusual sizes are no problem for us. But we can only cut what you measure.

Measure it yourself, because of 27 x 41

Lay the poster flat on a clean floor and use a metal tape or a long ruler. Measure paper edge to paper edge in both directions, and record it to the eighth of an inch.

Do not round up. And do not trust the size in the listing. Posters get trimmed constantly, and a trimmed poster is no longer a standard size.

Here is the measurement that catches everybody. The modern US one sheet is 27 x 40 inches. That has been the standard since around 1985.

Before that, one sheets were 27 x 41. So a 1977 poster is a full inch taller than a 2019 poster. A store bought 27 x 40 frame will not hold it.

People buy that frame anyway. Then they trim an inch off the poster to make it fit. Do not do this. You just cut the value of the poster in half.

We cut to order, so 27 x 41 is no problem here. Pick a molding from our movie poster frames and give us the real measurement.

The other sizes that show up

Movie paper comes in more shapes than most people realize. These are the ones we cut most:

• The half sheet is 22 x 28 inches and runs landscape.
• The insert is 14 x 36 inches, a tall skinny strip.
• A lobby card is 11 x 14 inches.
• The British quad is 30 x 40 inches, landscape.
• The international one sheet is 27 x 39 inches.

The insert confuses people most, because at 14 x 36 a wide frame simply swallows it. Keep the molding under an inch on those.

Folded posters and fold lines

Posters printed before the mid 1980s were shipped folded. The studio folded them into eighths and mailed them to theaters. So fold lines on old paper are normal, and collectors expect them on original posters.

Please do not iron a poster. We hear this one every few months. Heat and steam lift the ink off the paper and leave a permanent shine.

The professional fix is linen backing. A conservator washes the poster and mounts it to rice paper over linen. The folds mostly flatten out.

Linen backing runs about $150 to $300 for a one sheet. That only makes financial sense on a valuable poster. On a $30 reprint, skip it and live with the folds.

Never dry mount a poster you care about

Dry mounting glues the poster to a board with heat. Shops still push it, because it makes the poster lie flat and look sharp. It also destroys the collector value.

A dry mounted original loses most of what a collector would pay. Spray glue and face tape cause the same damage.

Use acid free hinges on the back instead. Or float the poster inside a mat. Both are reversible, and reversible is the whole point.

UV acrylic is the one upgrade worth paying for

Poster ink fades fast. Faster than people expect. A poster across from a west window will visibly fade in about two years.

Red fades first. Look at any old poster hanging in a bar and you can see it. The reds drop out and the whole thing goes blue-green. Titles printed in red disappear completely.

UV acrylic blocks around 98% of UV light. It costs more than plain acrylic, but it is still the cheapest protection available for that poster.

Acrylic beats glass at 27 x 40

On a small frame, glass is fine. At 27 x 40 it is not.

Glass that size weighs about 8 pounds by itself. Add the frame and backing and you are hanging 15 pounds on one wall anchor. When big glass falls, it falls as blades.

Acrylic at 27 x 40 weighs about 3 pounds. It will not shatter. We recommend acrylic on every one sheet, and honestly we do not debate it.

Frame width on a poster this big

A 27 x 40 handles a wider molding than people imagine. Under an inch, the frame reads like a pencil line around all that paper. We like 1.25 to 2 inches on a one sheet.

Our frames are solid pine, cut here in the shop. Pine is light. On a poster this size, weight is the thing you are fighting.

A mat is optional

Most collectors frame a one sheet with no mat at all. Edge to edge, the way it hung in the lobby. We like that look too.

But a mat does one real job. It holds the paper off the acrylic. Paper pressed against acrylic for ten years can stick, especially in a humid room.

If you want a mat, keep it narrow, because two inches is plenty on a 27 x 40. Go wider and the frame starts taking over the wall.

Questions we hear a lot

My poster measures 27 x 41. Do I have to trim it?

No. Never trim it. A trimmed one sheet loses a big piece of its value, and collectors recognize a trimmed edge immediately. We cut frames to order, so tell us 27 x 41 and that is what we cut.

Is linen backing worth it on my folded poster?

It depends on what the poster is worth. Linen backing runs about $150 to $300. If the poster is worth $500 or more, it usually pays for itself and often raises the value. On a modern reprint, just frame it with the folds showing.

Can I skip UV acrylic if I hang it away from the window?

You can, and it beats doing nothing. But UV bounces off walls and ceilings, so no wall in a lit room is really safe. Plain acrylic blocks very little of it. The UV upgrade costs a few dollars more, and we would just take it.