Prints, albums, wall art: the photo product glossary

Float frame, Dibond, laminating, satin, face mounting… As soon as you start selling printed products, you run into a whole technical vocabulary. Knowing it changes everything: you recommend the right product with confidence, you give your work its proper value, and you never lose your footing when a client asks a question.

This glossary covers everything a photographer sells: prints, albums, wall art, the small products that build your average order, and the lab vocabulary you will meet with your very first order. Keep it to hand, or send it to a colleague who is just starting out.

1. Surface finishes

These finishes apply to prints and to wall art alike. It is usually the first choice to make, and the most visible one.

Gloss. A highly reflective surface, saturated colours and deep blacks. Makes images look punchy, but throws back reflections and shows fingerprints. Avoid it facing a window or a spotlight.

Matt. No reflections at all, a soft and elegant result, ideal in very bright rooms. In exchange, contrast and saturation look slightly muted.

Satin (also lustre or semi-gloss). The compromise between gloss and matt, and the most versatile finish. Few reflections, good colour rendition. It is the default choice for many photographers, to the point that some offer nothing else: it suits almost any image and never puts anyone in difficulty.

Metallic. A pearlescent paper that gives a spectacular sense of depth and shine. Superb on certain images (landscapes, backlighting, very graphic work), but keep it for those: it is not a catch-all. Premium positioning.

Pearl. Close to metallic, with a more restrained shimmer. A light sheen that flatters portraits.

Texture (or grain). The relief of the surface, whether it comes from the paper itself (fine art, cotton, canvas) or from a film applied on top (textured laminate). It is the only criterion in this chapter that cannot be seen in a photograph: it has to be felt. It is also the one that closes the most sales, because a client holding the product has already started buying it.

2. Prints

A print is the photograph put on paper. Behind that simple word sit very different processes and papers.

C-type print (chromogenic, Lambda). Developed on genuine light-sensitive paper by a chemical process, exactly as in the film era, but exposed from your digital file. A classic, faithful result with very good longevity. The standard of professional labs.

Inkjet print (giclée). Printed with pigment inks sprayed onto the paper. Opens up a wide range of papers, fine art stocks in particular. The word “giclée” is generally reserved for high-end art printing.

Enlargement. In lab language, a large-format print, as opposed to the small sizes sold in batches. Many catalogues split the two lines: prints on one side, enlargements on the other, sometimes on different papers and different processes. Do not be surprised if your big size is not in the same section.

RC paper (resin-coated). The everyday photographic paper, covered with a thin resin layer that makes it resilient. Available in gloss, satin or matt. Good value, mid range.

Fine art paper. High-end papers, often textured and acid-free, with a deep matt rendering. Their grain calls to mind drawing or watercolour paper, which is in fact the first thing clients say when they touch it, and an excellent trigger for a sale. Premium positioning.

Baryta paper. A fine art paper carrying a baryta layer that gives very deep blacks and a look close to prestige darkroom printing. A great classic of art photography.

Cotton rag paper. 100% cotton, acid-free, extremely long-lasting and textured to the touch. The most refined of the fine art papers.

Paper weight (gsm). The weight of the paper, which reflects its thickness. The higher it is, the thicker, stiffer and more substantial the paper feels. A concrete argument to put into your client's hands.

Borders and full bleed. A print can be produced full bleed (the image runs to the edge of the sheet) or with borders (a white band frames the image). Borders leave room for a signature, protect the image during handling and make framing easier. Specify it when ordering, otherwise the lab applies its default.

Size and aspect ratio. The proportions of the print (2:3 straight from the sensor, for instance, or cropped ratios such as a square). Check it early, because cropping can change the composition.

Mounting (to board). Bonding the print to a rigid substrate (foam board, Dibond, Forex) to stiffen it, protect it and allow it to be displayed without a frame. More on this in the wall art section. It is also the cheapest way to turn a print into a wall object, which makes it a sound answer to smaller budgets.

Signed print, limited edition, certificate of authenticity. The way to sell a photograph as a numbered, signed work of art. Adds perceived value and justifies premium positioning.

3. Albums

The album is the emotional product above all others: it tells a story. Be careful not to confuse it with an ordinary consumer photo book.

Album vs photo book. The photo book is a consumer item, with thin pages printed like a magazine. The professional album is a high-end object, carefully made, with thick or lay-flat pages. They are not the same products and they do not carry the same value. The test that settles it: put the two side by side in front of a client. The one they could order themselves online stops being a selling point on the spot.

Lay-flat album. A binding that lets the spread open completely flat, with no break and nothing lost in the centre. Ideal for panoramic images running across two pages. A genuine premium argument.

Rigid pages. Thick, sturdy pages, often mounted onto board. They feel substantial and they last. The argument writes itself in family photography: children will handle this album, and they will handle it for years. The opposite of thinner, flexible pages.

Gutter. The central zone of the spread, at the binding. On an album that does not lie flat, never place a face or an important element there, because the fold will swallow it.

Bleed. The part of the image deliberately running past the edge, which will be cut away at trimming to avoid any white sliver. A term you mostly need on the layout side.

Leaf, page, spread. A classic source of misunderstanding when ordering: an album described as “20 pages” at one lab may mean 20 leaves, and therefore 40 printed pages, or 20 pages, and therefore 10 spreads. Always check how your supplier counts, or your selling price and your layout start from a false premise.

Template and layout software. The template is the exact gauge (dimensions, bleed, gutter) supplied by the lab to prepare your spreads. Some photographers lay out in dedicated software and export finished spreads, others work straight in the lab's online tool. The quality of that tool matters more than you would think: that is where your hours go, not at the printer.

Cover. The first thing anyone sees and touches. Common options: leather, leatherette, linen or cloth, velvet, wood, acrylic, or a photo cover (with the image printed on it, sometimes through an aperture known as a cameo). This is where catalogues offer the widest choice, several dozen materials at some labs, and therefore where you can let the client choose.

Debossing, engraving, foil stamping, spot UV. The ways of personalising a cover: a name, a date or a logo pressed into the surface (debossing), engraved, applied in gold or silver foil (foil stamping), or laid down as gloss varnish on a matt ground (spot UV, not to be confused with the protective varnish used on canvas, further down). A small detail with a large personalisation effect, and an excellent way to move a client up to a better album.

Presentation box. A case that holds the album and lifts the moment you hand it over. It turns an album into a gift and raises perceived value. Some photographers include one with every album as a matter of course: it is also what protects the object through its life in a family home.

Slipcase. A sleeve the album slides into, for protection. An alternative or a complement to the presentation box.

Folio box. An elegant box holding loose prints, and sometimes a USB stick with the files. An alternative to the album for clients who want presentable prints, and an excellent way to show off a fine art paper the client can handle sheet by sheet.

Parent album (duplicate). Copies, usually in a smaller size, of the main album, made for grandparents or the wider family. An add-on sale that is almost automatic.

4. Wall art

This is the category with the densest vocabulary, and often the most profitable. It separates into the substrate (what the image is printed on) and the finish or framing (how it is presented).

Wall art substrates

Framed print. The great classic: a paper print, usually with a mount, in a frame and behind glass. Warm and timeless.

Canvas. An image printed on canvas, stretched or bonded onto a wooden support. Warm, painterly, no glass, light. Two reservations worth knowing: the texture of the canvas softens sharpness a little, and it is a divisive product. Some photographers make it a bestseller, others refuse to offer it at all. Look at one in the flesh before deciding.

Stretcher bars. The wooden frame the canvas is mounted on. Its depth sets the thickness of the piece (slim, or deep gallery style). More importantly, two very different constructions hide behind the same word: canvas stretched (fixed around the edges of the bars, hollow behind) and canvas bonded across the full surface of a solid panel. The first can slacken over the years and gather dust behind; the second stays perfectly flat. Ask your lab every time, because it does not show in a catalogue photograph.

Dibond (aluminium composite). A rigid, light panel made of two thin aluminium skins around a plastic core. The print is bonded to it, or the image is printed straight onto it. Modern, flat, crisp, frameless. In high demand today, and workable from small budgets (a mounted print) up to premium (with a float frame).

Laminated panel. A print bonded to a rigid panel and covered with a finishing film, often textured, which protects the image and gives it its character. No glass, no frame required, finished bevelled edges, very good durability, and long guarantees from some manufacturers. Three arguments that land every time in a viewing session: it does not hold fingerprints, it wipes clean with a dry cloth, and it has a texture you feel the moment you pick it up. It has become the flagship wall product of many high-end studios. Premium positioning.

Acrylic face mount (Diasec). The print is bonded to the back of a sheet of clear acrylic. Gives spectacular depth, gloss and colour brilliance. The top of the wall art range. “Diasec” refers to the patented mounting process. Not to be confused with direct printing onto acrylic, which is shallower and cheaper.

Acrylic (Perspex, Plexiglas, PMMA). The clear material, glass-like but shatterproof and lighter, used for the face mount above, for direct printing, or as a protective sheet instead of glass.

Metal print (sublimation, ChromaLuxe). The image is sublimated straight into an aluminium sheet. Intense colours, a very contemporary look, resistant to water and scratches.

Wood. Printed directly onto a wooden panel, with the grain showing through. Warm and decorative, popular in lifestyle and nature work.

Forex (foamed PVC). A light, inexpensive plastic panel. Entry level, more often used for samples and simple décor than as a premium product.

Direct printing vs mounting. The distinction that explains half the price differences in this chapter. With direct printing, inks are laid onto the substrate itself (wood, Dibond, acrylic): fewer steps, lower cost, and a result that depends heavily on the material. With mounting, a genuine photographic print is made first and then bonded to the substrate: image quality is that of a print, and this is what high-end labs do. Two pieces both sold as “Dibond” may therefore have almost nothing in common.

Finishes and framing

Frame and moulding. The framing itself. Comes in different materials (wood, aluminium), colours and widths. It changes the look and the price of a piece completely.

Mount (window mount, “mat” in American English). The bevelled board placed between the image and the frame. It sets the image off by giving it room to breathe, and holds it away from the glass for protection. Because it overlaps the edges slightly, the visible aperture is a little smaller than the print. Lab catalogues often use the American term “mat” or “matted print”.

Float frame (tray frame). A frame in which the work appears to float, separated from the frame by a slim gap (the reveal), with nothing overlapping the image. A contemporary gallery look, most often on canvas or Dibond, and usually without glass. A highly sought-after premium finish.

Protective glass. Standard, anti-reflective, or museum glass (anti-reflective and UV-filtering, top of the range). Museum glass is a genuine premium argument for preserving the work. Conversely, some frames are built without glass: the print is then directly exposed, which gives a very immediate result and shows off the texture of the paper, but leaves the image open to fingers and rubbing. A deliberate choice, better suited to exhibition than to a family living room.

Laminating. A protective film (matt, satin, gloss or textured) applied to the print or the panel. It guards against UV, scratches, humidity and fingerprints. All but essential on canvas and on glass-free mounted pieces. Pushed as far as a genuine textured finish, it becomes the product in its own right described above.

Protective varnish. A liquid protective coat, often applied to canvas, as an alternative or a complement to laminating. Nothing to do with the decorative spot UV used on album covers.

Hanging system. The fitting on the back of the piece (hanger, rail, recessed subframe) that makes it ready to hang. A detail that reassures the client and justifies how finished the product feels.

Custom sizes. Being able to order a piece to the centimetre rather than from the catalogue's standard sizes. It is a formidable selling point in a viewing session: when a client explains they have 83 centimetres of wall between a door and a window, being able to answer “then we make it exactly 83” ends the discussion. Check availability and any surcharge with your supplier.

No-hanging products. Desk frames, easels, and display boxes holding a mounted print that can be swapped at will. Their point is not aesthetic, it is commercial: they answer the objection “I do not want holes in my walls”, which comes up far more often than you would expect. If everything in your wall range needs a fixing, that client leaves empty-handed.

5. Small products and add-on sales

These are the products catalogues forget and that quietly lift your average order, usually at the end of a viewing once the big decisions are made.

Trifold (triple folder, triplex). A board folder opening into three panels and presenting two or three prints. Small format, careful finish (velvet, leather, linen), instant gift appeal. One of the best grandparent products on the market. “Triplex” is the trade name some labs give this type of folder.

Accordion (concertina, leporello). A mini album folded like a concertina that unrolls in one piece. It stands up, sits on a shelf, invites handling. Very photogenic, ideal as an end-of-session gift or alongside a main album.

Mini album. A reduced version of an album, often sold in twos or threes for the family. See also the parent album, above.

Presentation folder. The simple holder you hand a few prints over in. It costs little and it changes the perception of the handover entirely: prints in a folder carrying your studio name are no longer prints, they are a product.

Stationery. Birth announcements, thank-you cards, greetings cards, bookmarks. Seasonal, easy to sell in volume, and above all: every card your client posts is one of your photographs travelling with your name on it.

6. Lab and production vocabulary

These do not get sold, but they decide the quality of what you sell. They are also the words you will meet in catalogues and in conversations with your supplier.

Colour and files

ICC profile and soft proofing. The colour management that makes sure what you see on screen matches what comes off the press. Every lab and every paper has its own profile. And what really separates a professional lab from a consumer service is not only colour accuracy: it is consistency, getting exactly the same result from one order to the next, six months later, on the same paper.

Monitor calibration. Setting up your screen so it shows accurate colour. Essential once you sell printed work: an uncalibrated screen lies to you about colour, and you will be the one paying for the reprints.

Proof approval (sign-off). The final validation before printing: once the proof is approved, production starts. Useful both to protect yourself and to frame client expectations.

Resolution and dpi. The number of pixels in your file set against the print size. This is what caps the maximum size of an enlargement. Labs publish their minimum requirements: check before promising a large format to a client, especially on a tight crop.

Sharpness. How crisp the image looks once printed. It depends on the file, but also on the substrate: a smooth surface preserves it, canvas or a heavily textured paper softens it.

Ordering, receiving, presenting

Swatch pack (sample set). The set of material, paper and cover samples your supplier sells you, rarely for free. It is the best opening investment in the whole chain: first it helps you choose your products, then it becomes a sales tool. You let the client choose the material, exactly as one chooses wallpaper, and the order becomes a shared act of creation rather than a transaction.

Studio samples. The real examples you display in the studio or carry to a viewing at a client's home. They cost money, and they pay for themselves quickly: a client holding a product has stopped wondering whether to buy and started choosing which one. Have them made with your own photographs, never with the lab's catalogue images.

Production time and delivery time. Two separate things, often stacked on top of each other in the worst case. Know them precisely before giving a client a date, and especially before December, when every supplier's lead times stretch.

Packaging, damage and after-sales. Rarely advertised in catalogues, and decisive all the same. Opening a pallet of wall pieces wondering what arrived broken is not a sustainable way to work: you cannot sell a product with confidence when you dread its delivery. Look at how a supplier packs, and above all at how they react when something goes wrong. Their response to breakage is worth more than a five per cent discount.

Professional lab vs consumer service. A pro lab works exclusively for photographers: documented colour profiles, ranges the end client cannot order alone, a named contact, trade terms. That last point is what matters most commercially: if your client can buy the same object in three clicks on their own, you are no longer selling a product, you are selling a layout.

Handmade production. Assembly, cutting and binding done by hand, with page-by-page checking. It explains part of the price gap with industrial production, and it is an argument you can pass straight on to the client, all the more so if you have visited the workshop or can name the person who makes your albums.

The vocabulary of price

Markup multiplier. The multiplier you apply to your net cost price to reach your selling price. It is the basic vocabulary of selling products, and it is badly misunderstood: the multiplier does not cover the product alone, it has to absorb VAT, your fixed costs, your time spent on layout, ordering, checking and handover, and your own salary on top. Photographers trained in sales work with multipliers well above those of ordinary retail, and vary them by product. This is not an accounting detail: it decides whether your range is profitable or whether you are working at a loss without knowing it.

Margin percentage. Not to be confused with the multiplier. The margin percentage expresses how much of your selling price is margin. Your accountant will talk in margin percentages, your supplier and your colleagues in multipliers: learn to convert between the two, or you will be comparing figures that do not describe the same thing.

7. Choosing your products: what the vocabulary will not tell you

Knowing the words is not enough to build a range. Here is what comes up again and again among photographers who sell a lot of products.

Touch before you choose, and let people touch. No website, no product sheet, no glossary (this one included) replaces having the object in your hands. Photography is visual, but a printed product is sensory: the grain, the weight, the give of a cover, the edge of a panel. That is true for you when you are selecting, and true for your client when they are buying.

Order samples, go to trade shows. Professional shows remain the fastest way to compare ten suppliers in a day, ask questions and understand why a given finish exists. Failing that, order the swatch packs and a small run of test products, putting your own images on them rather than the catalogue's.

Trust your colleagues, with one reservation. Photographers already selling a product are the best possible advocates. But if everyone in the same town offers exactly the same range at different prices, nobody wins. Take inspiration, then differentiate.

Look for a partner, not a supplier. Beyond print quality, what counts over time: responsiveness, a contact who knows you, an after-sales team that does not argue, an ordering interface that does not steal your evenings. A good supplier saves you time and removes stress. That is a slice of your profitability that appears on no price list.

Choose products that match your style. A range should look like your work. Glossy black acrylic in a soft, bohemian world will mean nothing to the client, even if it is objectively the most expensive item in the catalogue. And never offer a product you do not like: it can be heard in your voice, and it does not sell.

Start small, but complete. Three products you know inside out, have on display and can price confidently beat a catalogue of twenty references you have only seen in photographs. Just make sure you cover the three big needs: a wall product, an album product, and a small gift product. Ideally, add an option for the client who will not hang anything.

In closing

You do not need to master all of this at once. Start by knowing well the handful of products you want to offer, and widen your range over time. What matters is being able to guide your client confidently towards the product that will show their photographs at their best.

Alphabetical index

Every term in the glossary, in alphabetical order.