Packing Your Giclees for Shipping

It is important to package your giclee prints correctly in order to ensure they arrive safely and look professional. Keeping material costs down is equally as important. This blog post reviews a couple of our most common methods of packaging prints for shipping, to help you learn how to ship prints as safely as possible.

Make sure that the materials that are in direct contact with the giclee are acid free. This means using acid-free plastic sleeves and acid-free tape to seal those bags. Clearbags.com is a great resource for packaging materials to keep your giclees safe. While cardboard and packing tape are not acid-free materials, they will not damage your giclees during a 1-2 week shipping time. Just be sure to tell the person receiving your giclees to remove them from the packaging as soon as possible to prevent long-term exposure to these materials.

We recommend shipping your giclees flat when possible. We ship prints up to 20″x30″ in flat boxes. This prevents the prints from acquiring a curl from being rolled in a tube. Also it is difficult to roll a heavyweight fine art paper print that is smaller than 20″x30″ without it getting damaged or creased.

Instructions for flat prints under 30″x40″:

For flat packing, we recommend cutting 2 pieces of sturdy cardboard to the size of your box. Place your prints (which should be in an acid-free bag, sealed with acid-free tape) onto one of the cardboard pieces. Use tape to secure the bag to the cardboard. When packing your prints it is important to make sure they cannot move around in the package and get damaged.

Place the second piece of cardboard on top and secure the two pieces together with tape pinching the cardboard around all the edges. This pinching also aids in making sure that the print does not shift around in the package.

Place the cardboard sandwich in the box. It should fit snugly. If there is extra room, fill with crumpled paper or bubble wrap.

Seal all edges tightly with packing tape, and you’re ready to ship.

Instructions for flat prints 30″x40″:

For our larger prints, we use 8″ shipping tubes. This size ensures that the prints will not be rolled too tightly, and can more easily flatten back out after shipping. When rolling your prints, do not seal the end of the bag, as the print will need some room to slide forward in the bag while you are rolling it.

If your tube is larger than your print, we recommend either cutting the tube length down to the match the size of the print, or attaching the bag of the print to a sturdy sheet of paper the size of the tube. This ensures that the print will not move around in the tube during shipping.

Instructions for oversize prints (larger than 30″x40″)

For oversize prints (prints larger than 30×40), your print will be wrapped tightly around a 3″core and place inside a box with plastic ends to keep the spool from shifting inside the box.  This sounds contradictory to what we have been saying all along.  Rest assured, your prints will flatten out just fine as the larger a print is the less important that it not be curled for shipping. Be very careful with oversized paper prints as they are easy to damage when rolling or handling.

Make sure you insure the package for the total invoice amount you have been paid for the print.  This will make it easier for you to get fully reimbursed from the shipping company and replace the damaged print.

If you are printing giclee prints of any size with Old Town Editions we can assist you with packaging and shipping to your clients.  Our experienced staff can pack everything safely and securely, saving you time and money.

If you are shipping very large original art, you may want to consider using an art shipping company, such as North South Art Transfer.

Further reading selection: Transportation, Storage, and Presentation of Giclees.