1. Which products are included
2. Examples of our nomenclature/product numbers
3. Minimums if they exist
4. Forms in which the product is available
5. Recommended category within the program.
6. Additional info that should be considered in the pricing of the product

• The 5 Neutral Linens also offered in acid-free versions have the suffix AF immediately following their product numbers ( 342AF,416AF, 430AF, 520AF and 521AF).
• 3 Fabrics offered in two width include the letter W after the wider version (411W, 1181W, 1182W)
• 3 Fabrics that are usually available in both a "darker" and "lighter" version include the letter D when referring to the "darker" version 
• 1 Fabric that was offered in both a "whiter" and a "yellower" version includes the letter Y if you are referring to the yellower version

• The Cost Per United Inch 
• The Cost Per Yard
• The Cost Per Square Inch
• The Cost Per Vertical Inch 

We also provide the bolt width of each of our fabrics and identify if the fabric has a a linear grain (yes/no) because both of these may have an impact on how you use the fabric.

There is a 1/2 yard minimum order for any of our Fabrics. 

The price we list is only the price for the fabric itself.  If this price is being converted into the cost of a fabric-covered mat, other costs, such as the cost of the substrate, adhesive, labor, and shipping should also be included in this calculation.

Though none of the most widely used  Framing POS Programs still do this, if you are working with an "older" program, make sure that the program has separate calculation routines for Mats cut from "pre-covered" sheets of Mat Board (like those offered by Crescent or Bainbridge for example) vs custom-wrapped mats where the mat is cut and then covered with a fabric.  Though most shops will find both products to be useful in certain situations,  programs that do not distinguish between the very different sets of parameters associated with these two products and try to use the same calculator for both can seriously misrepresent the cost and pricing of these products.

Our latest update of this info was sent out on approx. Oct 10, 2011

Pricing for Custom Wrapped 4-Ply and 8-Ply Mats

This is the cost of a 4-ply or 8-ply ph neutral mat board cut to the size you specify and wrapped by us with the fabric of your choice.  The cost is presented in terms of "Cost Per Outside United Inch". 

To distinguish between Fabric Yardage and a Custom-Wrapped Mat in our product IDs, to refer to the latter we add a hyphen followed by either "M4" or "M8" AFTER the fabric number, as in 521-M4.  M4 refers to a 4-ply Mat and M8 is for 8-ply mats.  The product ID "521-M8"  refers to an 8-ply ph neutral mat custom-wrapped with our fabric #521.

Our last update of this information was sent out on Oct 10, 2011

Pricing for All of Our Basswood and Ultralight LDF Liners

This category includes all of our nearly 100 stock Liner shapes and lists their pricing Raw, Primed or Covered with each of our 270 Fabrics.  Though we provide pricing columns for the Chop, Length, and Continuous-Covered versions of all of these combinations, to our knowledge only Lifesaver and FrameReady allow you to calculate pricing using anything but the Chop cost.  

These two companies also let you work with Continuous-Covered versions of our Liners.

There is a minimum purchase requirement of 4 ft on our Chop Liners and 5 ft on our Continuous-Covered Liners.

We create our Liner ID numbers by combining the Liner profile, a hyphen, and then the Fabric number, as in A-521.  Our identification of the many different Liner shapes has been somewhat haphazard to tell the truth.  We began using single letters of the alphabet but soon ran out of them and moved to two letters, and eventually even had some three letter profiles.  Then, when we began to introduce profiles that had no rabbets, we thought we should try to distinguish them from our more "traditional" liners, so we began to give these new profiles IDs that were numbers, as in profile 72.

Most of our Liner profiles are available in both a Basswood version aqnd an Ultralight LDF version. Though these versions may vary from each other by as much as 1/8" in any dimension (our profile drawings give the details of these dimensions) we use the same core profile ID for both versions only adding the letters LDF when we refer to the Ultralight LDF version of the profile.  For example, our 2" French bevel Liner is called "Z" in its Basswood form, or "LDFZ" when made from LDF stock. 

Special services such as "End-Wrapping" (where the fabric is wrapped into the miter of the chop) or "Float-Wrapping" (where the fabric is wrapped over the back edge of the Liner to make this edge look cleaner) are offered for small additional cost that is usually less than $4.00 per frame.  There is also a discount of between 10% and 20% given when Chops are ordered as "Net Chops".  If you tell us that you are ordering your chop as a "Net Chop" it means you have added an inch or two to your size and will be re-cutting the chop you receive from us.

We provide Pricing for Liners WITH Rabbets in a separate table from the Pricing for Liners WITHOUT Rabbets because of the difference in the way these two products tend to be used.  In most programs Liners WITH Rabbets are usually treated much the same way as frame mouldings in that they are usually ordered using their BASE measurements plus an allowance, because they are intended to fit around a piece of art.  Liners WITHOUT Rabbets tend to be used more the way a Mat would be used with an image.  Most often they will either sit on top of an image or a certain distance from the image and therefore are usually ordered by an "exact sight size" rather than a "base size plus allowance".  It is important to keep this in mind when doing calculations involving these two different types of "Liners".  

To allow for a more accurate calculation of cost we provide the base dimensions of our Liners in the information provided to software vendors.  This information is meant to be used for PRICING purposes only and not to shortcut the proper ORDERING process.  We take no responsibility for any consequences associated with ordering Frames to go around our Liners before you can verify the outside size of your Liner yourself.  

Pricing for Raphael's New "Panel Liners"

We believe this new product represents the wave of the future when it comes to enhancing the space between the Art and the Frame.  They allow for many things to be done that have never been available in the past, such as multiple opening "Liners", "Liners" in almost any width, "Liners" in almost any shape.  They also allow us to create "Mats" that are far beyond the 40" X 60" size limit of commonly available Mat Board, "Mats" with different bevel angles or even radiused edges, and  "Mats" with greater depths than what is provided by the 4-ply or 8-ply thickness of regular mat board.  There are no seams in either the Fabric or in the Panel itself so even when they are much larger than the typical Mat or Liner they are much stronger. 

The best way to imagine what can be done in one of our Panels is to think what you could do if your computerized Mat Cutter could cut boards that were up to 3/4" thick.  Also, instead of just being able to put a bevel or a straight cut on the edge of the mat, we can offer you several different bevel angles or a scoop or a radius on the edge of your mat.  Last but not least we can do all of this in sizes up to 48" X 96".  Anything that your mat machine can make, we can now make for you in a Panel. 

Probably the best news for those reading this section is that this product is also easy to price.  In a Panel with a single opening, regardless of the type of bevel or width of the borders, its price is determined simply by its Outside United Inches.  

Our product numbers for Panel Liners follow slightly different rules than for our Liners or Covered Mats.  For a Panel that is 3/8" thick and covered with our Black linen fabric #375 the entry code would be   "375-P3"  Below is how we came up with this number.

 We offer Panels in the following thickness:  1/8", 2/8" (1/4), 3/8", 4/8" (1/2), 5/8", and 6/8" (3/4)

 so the number following the P can be  1,2,3,4,5 or 6.  Once you have an outside size for the Panel and know how to create the Panel item numbers you can easily look up any Panel's core price.

Just as in the pricing of a Mat there are often surcharges for such things as additional openings or v-grooves, our Panel Liners may have small add-ons  additional openings after the first one ($5.00), the addition of an inlay ($0.30 per OUI), or special wrapping of the fabric around the outside of the Panel ($0.50 per ft)  but these charges do not apply in the vast majority of all Panels.  On the other hand there are additional discounts available for 5-9 Panels of the same size and design (5%) or 10 or more of the same size and design (10%).

Pricing for Stretcher Bars

Three important notes to mention regarding this group of products:

1. All of our "Stretcher Bars" are technically Strainer Bars in that their size cannot be adjusted after they have been joined.  If you are looking for true "adjustable stretcher bars" we would recommend our friends at Foster Planing for this product.
2. When ordered as Chops, the dimensions given on Stretcher Bars are virtually always assumed to be the measurements at the OUTSIDE edge of the profile, as opposed to the standard point of measurement in Liners with Rabbets, which is the inside base size plus a "fitting" allowance.
3. We also provide pricing for Chopped and Joined Stretcher Bars in our p
   ricing data, though not all software vendors choose to include it in their programs.

Pricing for our Fillets

to be available approx. 10/15/2011 

to be available approx. 10/15/2011

Pricing for our Spacers, Wedges, and Shadow Box Sides

to be available approx. 10/15/2011

Pricing for our Custom Bulletin Boards and Fabfoto Displays

to be available approx. 10/20/2011

Important Comments Regarding POS Programs

Why Should You Consider Buying One of These Programs?

These days we estimate that somewhere around 70% of the customers we hear from are using some form of POS program to assist them in the pricing or ordering of the products they sell.  While we have at times been critical of the logic employed by some programs in generating suggested pricing, framing software is an incredible value, even if it is used only to keep up with the current cost and availability of the vast variety of products being sold these days.  For a cost of around $500 per year in most cases (including annual software updates) a shop can receive notice of price changes by their vendors, find out when items are no longer available, and have a means of generating work orders and invoices for most of the products they sell.  The two most important qualities you should look for in POS Software are these:

1. How well does the program reflect the way things are actually done within your shop. See what we have to say about Pricing Custom Mats below for an example of what we mean about program's reflecting reality.  
2. Is the software company still working to make their program better.  Companies like LifeSaver and FrameReady continue to put forth a great deal of effort to improve the capabilities of their programs, while one of the Industry's first programs, FullCalc, these days exists just to collect annual update fees from its customers and vendors. Some of the programs now offer the ability to create and forward orders to your vendors, the ability to sell preset packages of art and framing, and of course the ability to create previews of what the framing will look like. 

For those who have yet to incorporate POS Software into their business there is a fine article produced by  Michael Labbe available on the Grumble that offers a great overview of the variety of programs available and the features included in each.  Mr. Labbe is an Industry resource we should all appreciate.  His helpful comments and "how-to-tips" for most of the major programs can be found on The Grumble.   

The True Cost of A Good Program = What You Pay For the Software + The Value of the Time You Must Invest in Understanding How It Works 

To make the most of your investment in one of these programs, you must take the time to become familiar with their workings.  Framing Software will do many things right out of the box using default settings provided by the software developers but only a fool would assume these settings to be valid for all shops or for all products.  Buying a program without also taking the time to become familiar with how it works is more than a waste of your money, it can be suicidal.  This is not some shortcut that allows you to buy a well run business for under $500, it is a tool that can assist you to the extent you are willing to provide it with the guidance it needs with regard to your specific situation.  It is really not much different from a new employee in many ways.  Until you have taken the time to provide the employee with guidance about how you would like to see things done in your shop, you will often find them to be more costly than the sum of their wages and benefits.  Hopefully, even before you purchased a program you have taken the time to evaluate your cost of doing the more common tasks, and identified what it costs to keep your doors open.  These numbers will vary widely from store to store as will the cost of doing many of the common tasks.  At the risk of speaking the obvious, these costs, as you know them to be in your business, need to be reflected in the settings of the software.  In the best of the programs there are several places that require this sort of fine tuning before the software will price your product the way it needs to be priced for YOU and YOUR BUSINESS.  If you don’t take the time to do this basic adjustment and to investigate how the numbers are developed then you will become a victim of your own ignorance.  Pricing is not a one size fits all sort of activity.  Some particular products are also not well handled by some software and their pricing routine may not match up with how the product is created within your shop.  Again the better programs are more transparent in their explanation of the logic behind the routine and also provide more opportunities for you to make adjustments.  Below I offer a single self-serving example of how the “default setup” provided for handling “Mats” in some programs may not accurately represent all types of mats any better than the other default settings should be expected to suit all shops.

Pricing Custom-Wrapped Mats - Are These Assumptions Correct?

Behind calculations of any products entered in the “Mat” category of most software programs is a presumption that you must purchase either a full 32X40 or 40X60 sheet of the board as a starting point for every mat you wish to sell.  In the case of the pre-covered fabric mat boards sold by manufacturers such as Crescent or Bainbridge this is a correct assumption.  In the case of this type of mat board one could actually make the case that there is an even higher “minimum purchase requirement” for those who would be having to order such boards, since it really is not possible to order one sheet of mat board and have it shipped to you, but lets not go too far off track here.  Also behind the default calculation here is an assumption that you will not be able to use (sell) any dropout or remnant of the sheet for some other job.  In the case of many pre-covered fabric boards this assumption is again fairly accurate since it is really not possible or practical to cover over a fabric-covered board with another fabric.  So unless you happen to have another order for that exact chocolate suede board in a size small enough to make use of this piece and have this take place fairly soon (before its fragile surface gets blemished) then presumption is also likely to be valid. 

But now think about the way a custom-wrapped fabric mat is produced.  You can purchase such mats from Raphael’s (and other companies) in two forms, neither of which really fits the parameters included under the “Mat” calculators of most software.  You can order a Custom-Wrapped Mat already cut to your size specification or you can purchase the fabric you need to cover a mat yourself.  In the case of the completed Covered Mat there is a minimum charge of 24 United Inches but that is a long ways from the assumption that you must buy at least a 32 X 40 size board.  If you are covering the Mat yourself, something every self-respecting Framer should know how to do, considering all the help we can offer you in learning to do so, then you would have to buy a minimum of a half yard of any fabric.  But beyond the half yard minimum you can order in increments of inches if you desire, again far less than the purchase of a full 32X40 or 40X60 sheet. If you plan just a little you can purchase mat board stock in sizes larger than 40X60, and even if you stick with the 40X60 sheet size as your basic mounting substrate, your dropouts are going to be far more likely to be usable for other jobs.  Shipping a half yard of fabric is a piece of cake and in the event you adopt the “Custom-Wrapped” approach as your preferred type of Mat, you will find that you can get what you need to do your jobs, ship as many as a dozen different pieces of fabric for something like $6-$7.00, and make use your “dropouts from previous jobs” in almost half of the mats you sell.  If you think about this even for a minute you will see that this approach will allow you to offer fabric mats in a far greater variety of colors and textures, and do so at a far lower cost, than what it costs to produce these mats in the limited selection of pre-covered boards.  Unfortunately, because of the way many programs are set up, especially in their default settings, this will not be so apparent.  This is just one example of why you need to become familiar with how your software generates the numbers it does.  As I said, the better programs, such as Lifesaver and FrameReady, allow you to adjust the assumptions to fit your unique situation.  Even the best written software relies on “default” settings that may be totally inappropriate for your company’s needs.  If you aren’t willing to take the time to learn the numbers behind your business, and to understand how your software comes up with the numbers it does, and to find out where and how to adjust things to reflect your own operation, then you would be better off doing without the software. 

With all that being said, we have put together the following basic information covering the use of Raphael’s products within several of the more popular POS Programs.  The extent of the information provided is purely a reflection of each company’s willingness to provide us with the answers to these questions.  If your software provider is not listed here please ask them to contact Scott Brummitt (scott@raphaels.net) so we can get their information. 

The following Software Vendors have given us the information we requested for inclusion in this section as of Sept 20, 2009:

Basic Info needed to access Raphael's Products is shown below for each of these companies.

The area below is being updated currently we hope to have it completed by the end of 2011 

Software Name:  Lifesaver Picture Framing Software  (important enhancements recently made by this vendor allow for more accurate pricing of Fabric Mats and easier entry of Fabric-Covered Liners.)      

What must be done to have access to Raphael’s Product Data within this program?

 Add Raphael's as a vendor in the moulding maintenance and mats maintenance areas.

What is the Vendor Code associated with Raphael’s and which Raphael's products are included in this program?

 To enter a Raphael's Liner in this program add the letters "RP" in front of the Raphael's Liner profile, followed by a dash (-) and then the fabric number.  For example, if you want to price the our 3/4" bevel profile  "A" covered with the natural linen #521, you would enter it as

RPA-521.   Lifesaver has recently made it much easier for you to access pricing for the different forms of a fabric-covered liner.  They have installed a new drop box next to the point where you would enter our product number that allows you to choose whether you wish to price the product as a Chop, in Length, or as a Continuos-Covered Liner.  This means you no longer have to add the suffix "-CC" when you enter the item number of a Liner.  This also is the reason why you recently saw a large number (over 10,000 items) of Liners listed as Discontinued.   

 Lifesaver has also recently upgraded their software allowing you to better distinguish the pricing of a Custom-Wrapped Mat that you order from us already cut to size and covered with fabric vs the when you purchase Fabric Yardage and use it to cover a mat yourself.    They are certainly ahead of the field when it comes to distinguishing these two different products.  For more info, they have created a number of useful webinar presentations covering details of this area of their program.  Way to go LIfeSaver!