Getting a photo framed in Bengaluru

The frame shop on your road is where most people go, and it doesn't publish prices. A good one has corner samples of its frames on the wall, cuts glass at the back, and can show you a finished job. Ask the price for your size with the print, and hold it against ₹1,100 for a 12x18.

Doing it yourself, print to the frame's size. Store frames come in centimetres and prints in inches. An A4 print fits an A4 (21x30 cm) frame, but an 8x12 inch print is 5 mm too long for it. A 12x18 inch print is 30x46 cm, so it won't go into a 30x40 cm frame. At one furniture store that frame is ₹599 on sale until 11 November (₹799 regular), and a 50x70 cm one is ₹1,490.

A canvas costs less than a frame at big sizes: ₹1,002 for 12x16 and ₹2,981 for 24x36, each with an online offer code for one piece (₹1,669 and ₹4,969 without). Question 3 says which photos suit canvas.

16x20 isn't on any list we read. By area, between the studio's 12x18 and 16x24, it comes to about ₹1,000 for the frame alone and about ₹1,500 with glass and the print, our estimate. Ask for 16x24 too, since a shop may round up to a stock size.

A stock frame at a print shop, 12x18

₹1,250

A frame made to order

Ask for the price

A stock frame in a few styles

Your pick from 1,000+ mouldings

Clear acrylic front, the print, a hook

Plain, non-reflective or UV glass, or acrylic

Same day before 4:30 pm

A mount board and acid-free backing

Delivery and fitting at home

Ask for the quote in writing, one line each:

• The moulding: wood, synthetic or metal, and how wide
• The glass: plain, non-reflective or UV-filtering
• The mount, and whether the board is acid-free
• The backing, and whether the back is sealed
• How it hangs, delivery and fitting
• The date it's ready

Then you can drop a part to bring the price down, and compare two framers line by line.

A 24x36 canvas

₹2,981 with a code

A 24x36 framed print

₹3,800

No glass, so no glare

Glass keeps off dust and fingers

Light, on a wooden bar

Heavier, needs a drill

The picture wraps round the sides

The whole picture shows on the front

₹4,969 without the code. About a week

At a Bengaluru studio, you collect it

On a canvas, the edge of the photo goes round the side. If a face or a head is near the edge, it ends up folded round the bar. Ask for a preview before it prints.

Rolled canvas is cheap, ₹679 with the code for 24x36, but it comes in a tube and still needs stretching or a frame.

An acrylic print is the photo behind, or printed on, a thick clear sheet. It looks glossy and catches light the way glass does. We found no Bengaluru price for one at a stated size.

For a gift, there's also a small framed piece with a message. These are from The Artsy Co., a Bengaluru gift maker on mytribe:

A quote frame in a white frame

Ask for the price

A printed piece in a gold-finish frame

Ask for the price

Other gift frames on mytribe: Arch, a hamper and gift store in Basavanagudi, has posted an A4 acrylic photo frame at ₹499 (February 2024) and a photo of yours as a jigsaw in a frame at ₹650 (January 2025). Those are old posts, so ask today's price. Casper Photography sells a 3D newborn frame with the baby's photo and birth details, 8.5x12 inches, at ₹1,800 on its own site (₹2,000 regular, read 30 September 2026).

Want it drawn or painted instead? Our guide to portraits from a photo covers that.

Plain glass doesn't stop fading. Clear glass only cuts the shortest UV, and even UV-filtering glass and acrylic don't stop all of it. So a signed jersey or a photo on a sunny wall fades either way, only slower behind UV-filtering glass.

Paintings on canvas usually go without glass, as framers do it. Oil and acrylic paint is tough enough, and glass over it can trap damp. Watercolours and drawings on paper go behind glass with a mount.

Anti-glare glass cuts the shine from a window or a tube light but can make the picture look slightly dull. Look at a sample beside plain glass before you pay for it.

No price for UV or museum glass appears on any Indian framer's page we read, so ask for it as its own line on the quote.

A photo pressed against glass is the one that goes spotty. Damp settles on the inside of the glass and passes into the paper. Conservation bodies ask for a mount because it keeps a gap.

Ask for acid-free board for the mount and the backing. Cheap card can yellow a photo or a child's painting over a few years.

Seal the back, with tape across the join between the backing board and the frame, to keep out dust. Nothing should be taped to the photo itself.

It needn't cost much more. One person in Arekere asked us for an A3 vintage print framed with standard glass, a spacer so the paper never touches the glass and no tape on the print, with pickup and drop, all for up to ₹2,000. A3 is close to 12x18, which is ₹1,100 to ₹1,250 framed at the places in question 1, so a budget like that leaves room for the spacer.

Cheap wooden and MDF frames can swell in the damp or get termites. If the back of an old frame crumbles, have it reframed before the picture is damaged.

How big each size looks over a 6 ft sofa

Bare wall12x1820x3024x36Three 12x18

₹3,800

Half the sofa's width. The big frame for a hall. It needs a drill and a wall plug.

A Vijayanagar studio

Get options like this: 24x36 (How big each size looks over a 6 ft sofa)

Tell us your wall's width and we'll say which size fits.

Ask about my wall

Check your photo's size on the phone. The photo's details show its size in pixels. One online seller asks for 3,000 pixels on the short side for prints of 36 inches and up. A 12-megapixel phone photo is about 4,000 by 3,000, so it just meets that.

A phone photo is a different shape from most prints. Most phones shoot 4:3, and a 12x18 is 2:3, so a strip gets cut off the top or bottom. Ask the shop to show you the crop before it prints.

Colours come out darker on paper than on a bright phone screen. For a gift, get one small print first.

AI upscaling can make a small photo look a little sharper. Ask for a proof before you pay for a big print.

An old faded photo can be scanned and touched up, and the copy framed. The original then stays in a drawer, out of the light.

A certificate and a medal

Any frame shop. A 21x30 cm store frame is ₹119

A 1,000-piece puzzle

About ₹2,000 to ₹3,800 at a shop, our estimate

Laminating isn't against the law. The trouble comes when you need the original attested or apostilled: the lamination covers its security features, so collection centres often refuse it. If yours is already laminated, leave it. If it's ever refused, you can peel the lamination off carefully, or ask your university for a fresh copy.

A jersey is pinned or sewn to a backing board, folded so the signature shows. Ask which, and whether you can take it out later. A shop that pins it flat into a photo frame will crease the signature.

Puzzle sizes differ by brand, so measure yours with a tape before you buy anything. If it's already glued and the glue went cloudy, show it to the framer before you try anything more.

A Tanjore or an old oil painting with a frame that has termites needs reframing soon. Ask the framer to check the back and the board as well as the frame.

The print shop's cut-off is 4:30 pm. Order after that and it comes the next day by 1 pm.

A studio or the frame shop near you may do it while you wait or by the next day. Their pages don't say, so ring first.

From an online seller outside the city, allow a week: 1 to 3 working days to make it, then 2 to 4 days to Bengaluru, and 4 to 7 days to a smaller town such as Hubli.

For a death ceremony, it's normal to ask for it fast and plain. Send the clearest photo you have, the one from the original phone. Ask the studio to tidy the background if it's from a wedding, and to fix a hook for the garland. Keep the frame: the same one does for the yearly ceremony.

Before Diwali and in wedding season, frame shops get busy, so give a custom job an extra few days.

A gift maker's custom frame takes longer. Arch asks for half up front, sends a photo of the finished piece, and wants the rest before it ships.

A furniture store's own advice is to use mounting hardware that suits the frame's weight. Its adhesive hooks, ₹499 for two, hold up to 2 kg and need no drill.

Some frames come ready to hang. The print shop's 12x18 has a wall hook, and a canvas from the online seller comes with hanging hardware.

A custom framer may hang it for you. One on Old Madras Road lists delivery and installation, so ask its price with the quote.

A filled hole is small. If you drill, keep the plug and the screw, and fill the hole with putty when you leave. Still ask the landlord first.