When we started, most of our prints came on a gloss finish — bright, punchy, and what almost every print-on-demand supplier offers as the default. It looks great on a product listing. It often doesn’t look great on a wall.
A few months ago, we moved the whole catalogue over to matte paper. Same images, different finish — and the change has been bigger than we expected. Here’s what’s actually different, and why we’d recommend matte to anyone shopping for art prints today.
Glare is the silent killer of wall art
Glossy paper reflects light. That’s the whole reason it looks vibrant on a product page — bright studio lighting bounces off the print and into the camera. But once that print is hung in a real room, the same physics works against you. Any window, lamp, or overhead light becomes a hotspot on the print’s surface. You spend years walking past a piece you bought for the image, and what you actually see is a reflection of your ceiling.
Matte paper diffuses light instead of reflecting it. Wherever you hang it, the print looks like the print — not like a mirror with a print inside.
Matte feels like art, gloss feels like a poster
There’s a tactile difference too. Gloss has that slick, slightly plastic feel. Matte has a texture closer to fine-art papers used in galleries and museums. We don’t think every print needs to feel like a Tate exhibition — but for the kind of considered, design-led pieces we sell, matte just feels right in the hand.
Customers notice it the moment they unbox. The print isn’t trying to be flashy. It lets the image do the talking.
Fingerprints, scratches, and the long game
Glossy paper picks up fingerprints the instant you handle it. Matte doesn’t. That matters at three moments:
- Unboxing — you can hold the print at the edges without worrying about smudges before it even reaches the frame.
- Framing — when you mount the print yourself (or take it to a framer), there’s no anxiety about leaving marks.
- Years later — matte ages better. Less micro-scratching, less surface wear from dust.
What about the colours?
This was our biggest concern when we switched. Gloss is associated with “punchier” colour because the reflective surface adds contrast. Surely matte would feel washed out?
Honestly — no. We print with archival inks that hold their saturation regardless of finish. The colours look every bit as rich on matte. What you lose is the artificial pop that glossy adds. What you gain is the actual colour the artist intended.
If anything, our Yayoi Kusama prints — with their bold blocks of teal, gold, and crimson — look better on matte than they ever did on gloss. The colour sits in the paper rather than skating across it.
When gloss does still make sense
If you’re framing a print behind glass and hanging it in a low-light hallway, the glass is doing the reflection job anyway and gloss vs matte matters less. And if you’re a photographer printing your own work and want the maximum dynamic range possible, gloss has its place.
For wall art that lives in a real home — bedrooms with sunlight, living rooms with lamps, kitchens with bright overhead lighting — matte wins.
Try one and see
Every print on Abode Studio now ships on matte. Pair it with one of our oak, white, or black frames and you’ve got something ready to hang the day it arrives.