What is the Professional Picture Framers Association (PPFA)?

  The Professional Picture Framers Association, or PPFA, is the international trade association for the art and framing industry. Supporting a membership of more than 3,000 custom picture framers, art galleries, manufacturers and distributors, the association provides its members in North America and overseas with the most advanced educational workshops, business programs and technical and marketing support.

  In developing the PPFA CERTIFIED PICTURE FRAMER Program, PPFA sought the expertise of industry leaders representing a wide range of educational backgrounds and proven talents in the picture framing industry. The objectives of the PPFA Certification program include:

• Raising the standards of the profession.
• Encouraging self-assessment by offering guidelines for achievement.
• Identifying individuals with acceptable knowledge of principles and practices  of the profession.
• Awarding recognition to those who have met the established criteria.
• Improving education within the industry by encouraging participation in continuing education programs.

It's about improving our knowledge and skills in the technical art of framing and preservation.

Through the PPFA CERTIFIED PICTURE FRAMER (CPF) Program, we tested our knowledge in such areas as mounting, glazing, frame cutting, preservation methods and the proper materials to be used in framing projects … and earned the framer's mark of excellence, the CPF designation. More than 3,000 individuals worldwide have achieved CPF status since the program's inception in 1986.

What is a lithograph?
Lithography is based on the principle that oil and water do not mix. Using oil-based ink or a grease crayon, an image is drawn on a flat stone or metal plate. Next, water is applied to the surface and is repelled by the areas where oil-based images have been drawn. The entire surface is then coated with an oil-based ink that adheres only to the areas drawn in oil, ink, or crayon. The image is then printed on paper. The popularity of this process grew because thousands of exact replicas could be made that were like drawings on paper, without degradation of the image.

What is a giclee?
Giclee refers to a new method of creating limited edition prints. The Giclee process begins after a transparency is produced from the original painting, or the painting is scanned directly by a high-end drum scanner. Special software programs are used to manipulate the attributes of the digitized image to achieve the artist's own desired requirements. The approved image is then output to a sophisticated device called an Iris printer (see below) while the printmaker/technician verifies the colour management elements. The word Giclee itself is French, and means spurt or squirt, however the spray is more like a mist, each droplet being the size of a red blood cell.

What is a silkscreen?
Silkscreening, which was introduced around 1907, presses ink through a fine screen onto paper. A stencil of an image is placed on a taut screen with paper underneath. Ink is then spread on top and forced through the screen onto the paper with a squeegee. Unlike photo-offset, silkscreening allows the artist to vary the colors and patterns while printing.