Which glass is suitable for your picture frame?
Picture frames show off your photos perfectly behind glass. Just glass? No, there are big differences here, because yes, depending on your personal requirements, you can choose from six different types of glass for your picture frame at HALBE RAHMEN. But which glass is the best choice for your purpose?
Selection criteria for the type of glass
Glass is not just glass. The types of glass available at HALBE RAHMEN differ enormously in the following characteristics:
- Contour sharpness: matte glasses in particular reduce the sharpness of contours.
- Colour rendition: Some glasses have a minimal green cast due to the manufacturing process and thus influence the colour rendition.
- UV protection: High-quality exhibits can be protected from fading by a high level of UV protection.
- Break resistance: In certain areas (e.g. kindergartens), picture frames with break-resistant safety glass are used, which breaks into small pieces if damaged and does not form sharp edges.
- Reflection reduction: In direct light, some glasses reflect very strongly, while others do not reflect at all. This video shows the enormous differences:
An overview of the properties of the HALBE glass types
This overview shows the most important product properties of our glass types:
- HALBE Normal glass: Normal glass is the inexpensive all-rounder. At 2.5 mm, the glass is thicker than conventional glass for picture frames.
- PLEXIGLAS® Gallery UV 100: This special Plexiglas® filters out over 99 percent of the UV rays that are harmful to your pictures. It also stands out for its light weight, high break resistance and true-to-life color reproduction. However, Plexiglas® is not suitable for working with loose pigments (e.g. charcoal, pastel chalk) because of the antistatic charge.
- HALBE White glass: White glass does not contain iron oxide and can therefore perfectly reproduce colours without a green cast. It is therefore ideal as a high-quality all-rounder.
- Toughened safety glass: This 4 mm thick safety glass protects against serious injury if damaged, as it breaks into small, usually coherent crumb-like pieces when broken. It has increased impact and shock resistance.
- Groglass Artglass: This special museum glass is fully non-reflective and reduces reflections to less than 1 percent. The white glass provides perfect color reproduction, high contour sharpness and optimal contrasts. It is available in different versions with UV protection of up to 97 percent. It even withstands conservation requirements.
- Optium Museum Acrylic®: This acrylic glass offers the same product properties as Groglass Artglass museum glass. At the same time, the material is very break-proof, scratch-resistant and resistant to chemicals or abrasion. The UV protection is 99 percent.
Which glass for which application?
But which type of glass is used for which application? There are usually several variants available
Picture frames for private areas
For the private home, the all-rounders from HALBE are usually the right choice. The HALBE normal glass is very popular as an inexpensive model. If you attach importance to perfect colour reproduction, you should alternatively opt for the HALBE white glass.
High demands on the safety of the picture frame
In public institutions as well as in kindergartens or schools, a glass with high break resistance is chosen for safety, i.e. the glasses PLEXIGLAS® Gallery UV 100, Optium Museum Acrylic® or the HALBE toughened safety glass.
Protecting exhibits from UV rays
Many of the HALBE glasses are equipped with high UV protection to protect your pictures from fading:
- PLEXIGLAS® Gallery UV 100
- Artglass AR 70, AR 92 and AR 99 Protect museum glass
- Optium Museum Acrylic®
Ideal Color Reproduction
If brilliant, unadulterated colours are important to you, make sure to use white glass when selecting your glass. In this case, all glasses except HALBE normal glass and single-pane safety glass are suitable for you.
No disturbing reflections from light and sun
Some of the HALBE glass types are highly anti-reflective and reduce reflections to less than 1 percent. This is the case with Artglass museum glass and Optium Museum Acrylic®
Use in exhibitions
In exhibitions, brilliant colour reproduction, high contrasts and contours are crucial. Therefore, we advise you to choose either Artglass AR 70 or AR 92.
Further information
You can rely on the fact that HALBE Rahmen offers glasses with properties for every application. Do you have any questions about the choice of glass? Please do not hesitate to contact us.
You can also find more information on the topic of picture glass in our knowledge section.