Everything worth knowing before a sheet of paper arrives in a tube. If your question is not here, write to info@museartis.com.
What you are buying
What exactly am I buying?
A giclée print of a historical work, made to order. Twelve pigment inks on 200 gsm FSC-certified enhanced matte paper, 0.26 mm thick, acid-free. Unframed, with a generous white border. Every product page names the collection the original is held in and its inventory number.
Why does a print cost more than a poster of the same work?
Different process, different product. We explain it in full on Poster or Giclée?
Is the size you state the picture or the sheet?
The sheet. Every product page gives both measurements, because they are not the same. The image sits inside a white border.
Is the white border a mat?
It is printed, not a physical card mat. There is no board in the package. The sheet is ready to frame, or to mat if you prefer.
The sheet has chipped corners and uneven edges. Is that a fault?
No — and on some sheets it is the most interesting thing in the frame. Where the original is a leaf from a bound album, as Anna Atkins's cyanotypes are, the corners have been knocked in a hundred and seventy years of the book being opened, and the coating has broken away in places to show the bare paper underneath. The blue runs unevenly to the very edge because every sheet was sensitised by hand with a brush and cut by hand, so not one of them is quite square. We print the digitisation as the library made it — the object as it is today, not as it left the maker's hands. A photogram has no drawn line to correct back to, so mending an edge would restore nothing; it would invent. The affected product pages say in millimetres what is missing and where. Patina is not damage to the picture. It is the evidence that the picture is old, and it is the difference between the reproduction of a thing and a clean blue rectangle.
Size, resolution and the source
What sizes do you offer?
It depends on the work. Upright sheets: 27 × 35, 30 × 30, 30 × 40, 40 × 50, 50 × 50, 50 × 70, 70 × 70 and 70 × 100 cm. The same formats turned landscape: 40 × 30, 50 × 40, 70 × 50, 80 × 60 and 100 × 70 cm. Most works come in two sizes, one at the original's own scale and one enlarged or reduced; some come in only one. A size exists only if the source file carries it at full resolution.
What do the sizes cost?
Price follows the sheet, not the motif. Every print of the same sheet size costs the same, whatever it shows and however much work went into preparing it.
CHF 49 — 27 × 35, 30 × 30, 30 × 40, 40 × 30
CHF 59 — 40 × 50, 50 × 40, 50 × 50
CHF 89 — 50 × 70, 70 × 50
CHF 109 — 70 × 70, 80 × 60
CHF 129 — 70 × 100, 100 × 70
Note: Prices above are listed in Swiss francs (CHF). Customers in the United States pay in US dollars (USD) at checkout.
Shipping is free to the United States and Switzerland, with no minimum order.
Why is this work not available in a larger size?
Because the picture is not there. Every size we sell is calculated backwards from the digitisation: pixels across the printed area, divided by 300, multiplied by 2.54 — that is the widest honest image in centimetres, and the sheet is chosen around it. Where the best available scan runs out, the size stops. It is the most common request we get, and usually the answer is no.
What does 300 dpi mean, and why does it matter?
Dots per inch is not a property of a file; it is a relationship between a file and a size. The same 3,000-pixel image is 300 dpi printed 25 cm wide and 150 dpi printed 50 cm wide. 300 dpi at the final print size is what our printing partner specifies, and it is roughly the finest detail matte fine art paper can resolve before ink spread erases the difference.
Couldn't you just enlarge the file?
We could, and it would pass every automatic check. Software enlargement raises the pixel count without adding any information — it averages the pixels that were already there. The preflight badge turns green because it measures the file, not what is in the file. On paper the result is soft and faintly plastic. We do not do it. Nothing in this shop is upscaled.
What do “Original size, 1:1”, “Enlarged” and “Reduced” mean?
1:1 means the printed image is the same size as the original object in the museum — a woodblock print reproduced at the dimensions Hokusai printed it. Enlarged means exactly what it says, and the product page gives the factor: 1.4×, 1.7×, 2.0×. Reduced appears where the original is larger than any sheet we can print and roll — every painting in the catalogue is a reduction, and the factor is named there too. All are printed from the same file to the same standard. The scale is a decision about your wall, not a compromise in quality.
How far will you enlarge a work?
There is a ceiling as well as a floor, and the ceiling is a fact about the work rather than the file: 1.8× for line-based works — woodcut, engraving, Japanese woodblock — and 2.1× for photographs and photograms. Enlarging a woodcut enlarges the line the artist cut into the block; past a point the line, rather than the picture, becomes what you are looking at. A cyanotype photogram has no cut line, so it carries further.
Sometimes the file would allow more than the work should take. The Art Institute's scan of Hokusai's Great Wave is large enough for a 100 × 70 cm sheet at a true 300 dpi. That would be 2.24× the size Hokusai printed it. We do not make it.
What if the original is bigger than your largest sheet?
Then there is no 1:1 size and the print is a reduction, which we say on the product page. Audubon's American Flamingo is the case in the catalogue: the double elephant folio is 65 × 97 cm, larger than anything we can print and roll into a tube, so both sizes are marked 0.62× and 0.86×. Resolution has nothing to do with it — that scan would carry far more. The limit is the tube.
Paintings are the same case for a different reason. A canvas of a metre and a half will not go on a wall at home, and we do not have paper that wide, so every painting here is a reduction with the factor named.
A size I had seen has disappeared. Why?
In August 2026 we raised our own minimum from 150 to 300 dpi at final print size and re-measured the whole catalogue. Three sizes failed and were withdrawn: Dürer's Rhinoceros at 90 × 60, the Thiollier photograph at 50 × 50, and Hiroshige's Maples at Mama at 50 × 70. They are not coming back unless a better source turns up. The reasoning is set out in Why This Print Is Not Bigger.
How do you choose which museum's copy to print?
Resolution first, then condition — and condition often decides it. A woodblock print is not one object with several photographs of it; every impression is a separate pull from the blocks, kept in a different drawer and exposed to different light. Reds fade first. Our Great Wave comes from the Art Institute of Chicago rather than the Metropolitan Museum because the Chicago sheet still has its pink dawn sky and the Met's has lost it.
Can I see the file you printed from?
Yes. Every product page names the holding collection and the accession number. The institutions we use publish their digitisations openly, so you can call up the same image we worked from and compare it with what arrived.
Framing
Do you sell frames?
Not to individuals. Framed glass arrives damaged too often to be worth shipping, and you will choose better than we can. The full practical guide — the measurement to give, what to say at a framer's counter, which glazing to pick — is in The Frame We Don't Sell. For businesses we do supply framed; see Trade.
Will my print fit a frame I can buy?
In Europe, yes — the metric formats are stocked everywhere. In the United States two of our sheets are US standard sizes: 40 × 50 cm is 16 × 20 inches and 27 × 35 cm is 11 × 14 inches, both available in any framing aisle. The others are metric and are easiest handled with a European-size frame bought online, or with a cut mat in a slightly larger frame. Every product page names the nearest standard frame, and the Print + Framing Guide sets out the options.
Do I need a mat?
No. The printed white border does that job, and there is no board in the package. Add a mat only if you want the print to sit deeper or to match a wall of already-matted pictures — and then let the mat overlap the printed border by a few millimetres rather than trying to align the two edges exactly.
The inch measurements look unusual.
They are exact conversions of the metric sheet, not rounded US nominal sizes. 50 × 70 cm really is 19.7 × 27.6 in, not 20 × 28. We give the nearest standard frame separately so there is no confusion at the framer.
Delivery and packing
How is my print packed?
Rolled in a sturdy tube, interleaved with tissue. All our formats are larger than A4, and a tube protects a large sheet in transit far better than a flat parcel. The tube is recyclable.
My print arrived rolled and it curls.
It will settle. Unroll it face up on a clean flat surface, lay clean paper over it and weight the corners with books for a day or two. No heat, no ironing, and never roll it backwards to counteract the curl — that cracks the ink layer along the fold.
How long does delivery take?
Production takes two to four working days, then shipping — typically three to five working days within Switzerland, four to eight for the United States.
What does shipping cost?
Nothing. Shipping is free to the United States and Switzerland, with no minimum order.
Can I pay in my own currency?
Yes. Deliveries to Switzerland are charged in Swiss francs (CHF). For deliveries to the United States, checkout is charged in US dollars (USD). Use the country selector in the header to see the prices before you add anything to the cart.
Will I pay customs or import duty?
Not at your expense. Our printing partner works with print houses in eight countries — Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. Prints for the United States are produced in the United States and never cross a border. Prints for Switzerland are currently produced in Germany. Should Swiss Post charge you import VAT or a handling fee on delivery, send the Swiss Post or customs receipt to info@museartis.com within 30 days of delivery. We refund the amount shown on it: the import VAT and the Swiss Post handling fee.
Colour and longevity
The colours look different from my screen.
Screens emit light; paper reflects it. Historical works also carry the tone of aged paper, which we do not correct away — it is part of the original. Foxing, plate marks and worn lines are reproduced deliberately. If a print differs materially from what the product page shows, tell us and we will put it right.
How long will it last?
Pigment inks on acid-free archival paper are rated for over a hundred years indoors without significant fading. Keep it out of direct sunlight and behind glass or acrylic.
If something goes wrong
Something arrived damaged.
Send a photo to info@museartis.com within 30 days. We send a free replacement and you keep the damaged one. See the Refund Policy.
Can I return a print I simply do not want?
Yes. You may return an undamaged print within 30 days of receipt — a contractual right we grant to every customer, in the United States and in Switzerland alike. Write to us before sending anything back so we can give you the right address. Return carriage is yours unless the print was faulty.
Everything else
Can I order a work that is not in the catalogue?
Sometimes. If the work is in the public domain in every market we ship to and a high-resolution file exists with a clear licence, write to info@museartis.com. If it fails either test, we will tell you why. The two dates that decide it are explained in Two Dates That Decide.
I have found a better scan than the one you used.
Then tell us. A larger digitisation, a fresher impression, an institution we missed — we will look, and if you are right we will rebuild the product. That is how half this catalogue reached its current state.
Do you supply businesses?
Yes. See Trade.