Care

Four surfaces. Four different answers.

The right answer for one of these is the wrong answer for another. A framed Madtag print is glazed with acrylic, not glass, so the glass cleaner under your sink is the one thing that will ruin it. Here is what each surface needs, and what it will not forgive.

Metal

The one you can actually wipe.

The image sits under a fused gloss layer rather than on top of one, so what you touch is the seal and not the picture. A soft cloth, barely damp, lifts dust and fingerprints; dry it in the same pass. Nothing abrasive and no paper towel - the panel is hard, but the gloss will scuff. There is no glazing to clean because there is none, and the panel hangs clear of the wall, so the top edge collects the dust the face does not.

In the box: a hanging system and instructions.
Paper

The one surface here with no skin.

Metal is sealed and canvas is coated. A Hahnemühle sheet is neither: Photo Rag 308 is 100% cotton, German Etching 310 is mould-made alpha-cellulose, and both arrive as bare paper. Hold it by two edges with clean, dry hands - the oil in a fingerprint stays. Never wipe the printed face; a dry, soft brush is the only thing that should touch it. It ships rolled, so let it lie flat under a weight for a day before it goes to your framer, and ask them for acid-free mounting and glazing that does not rest against the surface.

In the box: the sheet, rolled in a tube. Nothing else - the framing is yours.
Framed

Acrylic, so every instinct from glass is wrong.

The glazing on a Madtag frame is acrylic, not glass, and it is the thing on this page most people get wrong. Ammonia and alcohol - between them, most household glass cleaner - will haze it permanently, and so will a paper towel. Use a dry microfibre cloth, or a barely damp one with nothing in the water, and wipe in one direction rather than in circles. The print behind it is a different sheet from the loose paper above, 200 gsm coated silk, printed and framed as one piece and sealed in, so there is nothing you need to do to the print itself.

In the box: ready to hang. From about 60x80 the hook is already fitted; smaller sizes carry a mounting kit and a fold-out stand.
Canvas

Dry, always.

There is no glazing across the face, so the weave is what takes the light and also what takes the dust. Dust it dry - a soft brush, or a cloth with nothing on it. No water, no spray and no cleaning product: canvas absorbs, and a mark left by a damp cloth does not come out. The work is stretched over a wood frame, so it answers to the room around it, and a wall that stays dry is what keeps it taut.

In the box: stretched, with a D-ring or sawtooth fitted. No heavy-duty anchor is needed at these sizes.

True of all four

Out of the sun's way.

Reflected daylight is fine. A beam that lands on the work for part of the afternoon is not, on any of the four. If the only wall you want is that wall, hang it where the beam stops short.

Not the steamy room.

Swung temperature and damp air are hard on paper and on wood alike. An interior wall, away from a heat source and out of the bathroom, suits all four surfaces without exception.

Two hands, by the edges.

Every one of these is easiest to damage in the ten seconds between the box and the wall. Take it out flat, hold it by the edges, and rest it on something soft while you find the hook.