Art prints as Christmas gifts: how we print and frame them in Glasgow

The best Christmas present we make in the studio every year is a print. Not because of what it costs, but because it is the one gift that is still on the wall in June. Someone's photograph of a grandparent, a child's drawing at A2, an old map of Glasgow from the gallery in an oak frame. This is how we print and frame them, what each option costs inclusive of VAT, and how late you can leave it. Everything except canvas is done in-house on Washington Street. The full range is on our framed prints page.

The two papers, and how to choose

We print on two papers on the Epson SureColor P9000, the 44-inch printer that handles everything from A3 to A0. The first is photo satin at 260gsm. It has a soft sheen, deep blacks and saturated colour, and it is the right paper for photographs, for bold graphic and typographic prints and for anything with a lot of contrast. A3 is £25, A2 is £45 and A1 is £75.

The second is a fine-art matt cotton rag at 310gsm. It is heavier, completely matt, with a slight texture, and it is what galleries use for editioned prints. It suits paintings, watercolours, pencil and ink drawings, vintage posters and the older artworks in our gallery, where the paper texture is part of the image. Colours sit in the paper rather than on it, so nothing glares under a lamp. A3 is £35, A2 is £60 and A1 is £100.

If you are unsure, the rule of thumb is: a photograph goes on satin, a picture goes on cotton rag. If it is for someone who will hang it opposite a window, cotton rag, because it does not reflect.

Sizes, honestly

A3 is 297 by 420mm, about the size of two sheets of office paper side by side. It is the size for a desk, a hallway or a bookshelf, and it is the safest gift because it fits any room. A2 is 420 by 594mm and is the size most people mean when they say "a big print"; it holds a wall on its own above a sofa or a bed. A1 is 594 by 841mm and is a statement, so only go there if you know the wall. We can print larger, up to A0, on the same papers; prices for those are on the posters and prints page.

One thing to check before you pick a size is the file. A phone photograph prints well at A3 and usually at A2; at A1 it depends on the phone and the light. Send us the original file, not a screenshot or a WhatsApp forward, and we will tell you the largest size it will look good at before we print anything. Gallery artworks are already prepared at each size.

Framing: black or oak, glass front

A framed print is the finished gift. We frame in-house in a plain black or a natural oak moulding with a glass front, print included, at £65 for A3, £95 for A2 and £165 for A1. Black suits photographs and modern graphic work; oak suits cotton rag prints, botanical and vintage artwork and anything going into a room with wood in it. Both are simple, square-edged frames that do not compete with the picture.

Framed and unframed prints are 3 working days, and you can collect the same week from Washington Street in Glasgow or Cadzow Street in Hamilton, by arrangement. Unframed prints are rolled in a tube or supplied flat for A3. We never mount or laminate customer-supplied prints, so if you have a print from elsewhere that needs a frame, that is one for a framer rather than us.

Canvas, and the earlier date

A canvas print, stretched on 38mm bars so it hangs without a frame, is £49 at A3, £69 at A2 and £99 at A1. Canvas is the one gift print we outsource, because stretching needs a workshop we do not have. That means two things. It takes 4 to 5 working days at the quietest time of year, and it has a hard cut-off of Friday 11 December at 12 noon for Christmas. Canvas suits photographs with a lot of colour and paintings with a painterly surface; it does not suit fine line work or text, which go soft on the weave. There is a fuller comparison in our canvas versus photo print post.

What to print: your photo, or one of 1,600-plus artworks

Half the gift prints we make are personal: a wedding photograph, a dog, a view from a holiday, a child's painting scanned and printed at A2 for a grandparent. The other half come from the gallery, which has more than 1,600 artworks: vintage maps and travel posters, botanical plates, Japanese woodblock prints, Scottish landscapes, old advertising and a lot more. Every artwork is prepared for print at A3, A2 and A1 on either paper, so you pick the image, the paper, the size and whether it is framed, and we do the rest.

For a gift, the ones that land best are the ones with a connection: a map of the street they grew up on, a poster for a place they have been, a plant they keep. Spend ten minutes in the gallery with the person in mind rather than picking the first nice thing.

Two prints are cheaper than one, twice

Any two prints are £5 off each. That makes a pair of A3 satin prints £40 rather than £50, and it is the sensible way to buy gifts for two people, or a print for the gift and the same one for your own wall. Over Black Friday, 27 to 30 November, the £5 off every poster and print from two applies across the board.

How late you can leave it

Canvas: order by Friday 11 December at 12 noon. Framed and unframed prints we post: order by Friday 18 December at 1pm, and they go out on Monday 21 December by Royal Mail Tracked 24. Prints you collect: order by Wednesday 23 December at 12 noon, subject to press time, and phone first. Delivery is free across Central Scotland on orders over £50, which covers most framed prints, and a same-day courier is £5 in the city centre and £15 elsewhere in Glasgow. We are closed from Thursday 24 December to Monday 4 January and reopen on Tuesday 5 January 2027 at 9am. If a print has to be in your hands sooner than 3 working days, phone 0141 345 5841 for same-day or next-day and we confirm the timeline and the price on the call. The full deadlines post has every date in one place, and the Christmas printing hub has the rest of the seasonal range.