What it does
Once you have chosen a frame, a 3D and AR button appears beside the other views. Press it and the flat preview becomes a model of your frame, built from your own choices: your size, your moulding, your mount and your picture. Change any of them and the model changes with you.
- Turn it round. Drag with a mouse or a finger to see the frame from any angle, including the sides and the back.
- See the real shape of the moulding. Where we hold a profile drawing for a frame, the model takes its shape from that drawing, so a scooped or stepped moulding looks scooped or stepped.
- See it at its true size. The model is made to the millimetre from the size you entered.
- Put it on your wall. On a phone or tablet, tap View on your wall and the frame appears in your room through the camera, at its real size, for you to walk up to.
The back matters too
We are often asked what the back of a frame looks like and how the picture is held in. The model shows it: the bare wood of the moulding, the MDF backing board sitting inside it, and the tabs that hold the board in place. In a deep frame the board sits well down inside; in a shallow one it is nearly level with the wood. That is worked out from the frame's rebate and what you have chosen to put in it.
Every kind of frame, shown the way it works
Different frames hold their contents in different ways, and that is hard to explain in words. The 3D view shows each one as it really goes together.
Canvas floater frames
A floater frame stands round a stretched canvas without covering its edges. The model shows the shadow gap between the canvas and the frame, and how far the canvas sits below the front. If you have told us the depth of your canvas, that is the depth we draw.
Canvas picture frames
Here the canvas goes into the frame from behind. Turn the model over and you see it as you would on your table: the canvas folded and stapled over its stretcher bars, sitting inside the frame or standing a little proud of it, depending on how deep your canvas is.
Box frames
A box frame has a spacer round the inside that holds the glazing away from the backing board, leaving room for a medal, a shirt or a keepsake. Choose a deeper spacer and you can see the box get deeper, in the spacer colour you picked.
St Ives frames: float or traditional
St Ives frames can be fitted two ways, and it is the choice people most often ask us about. The model follows the fitting style you pick, so you can switch between them and see the difference.
Inset frames
An inset frame has a slim edge round a canvas board, with nothing overlapping the painting. From behind, the model shows the frame in its own colour and the back of your board set well in.
On your wall, with a phone or tablet
The view we are most pleased with is the one we cannot show you properly here. Open the page on an iPhone, an iPad or an Android phone, tap View on your wall, point the camera at the wall and the frame is there, at the size it will arrive. Stand back to see how it sits over the fireplace, or step in close to look at the corner.
How we hope it helps
- Choosing with more confidence. Seeing the depth and shape of a moulding, not just its face, should make it easier to pick between two frames that look alike in a flat picture.
- Getting the size right. Seeing the frame on your own wall at its real size is the best check there is that you have ordered the right one.
- Understanding how it goes together. Which way the canvas goes in, what holds the board, how deep a spacer you need, what "float" means: the model shows what we have until now had to describe.
- Fewer surprises when it arrives. The frame you unpack should be the frame you turned round on screen.
Where to find it
The 3D and AR button is in our picture frame, print and frame and multi aperture designers, and on the pages for picture frames, canvas picture frames, canvas floater frames, box frames, St Ives frames and inset frames. It appears once a frame is chosen. Aluminium frames are not included yet.
It is new, and we would like to know how you get on with it. If something does not look as you expect, please tell us.
The pictures in this post were made with the 3D view itself, using a sample picture in place of a customer's artwork.