BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to art production processes and, more specifically, to a system for adding images of frames to printed artwork.

2. Description of the Related Art

Individuals, businesses, institutions, such as hotels and the like, display art work in their living environments. While some of the artwork is original, much of it includes printed copies of original artwork. Frequently, such artwork is duplicated via printing on canvases or other substrates to give it an original “feel” to multiple copies. The printed artwork is then mounted and framed.

Framing artwork can be quite expensive when many copies are produced. For example, many hotels have over 500 rooms. When a hotel places four prints in each room, over 2,000 prints must be mounted and framed. The resulting cost just for the framing alone can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In the alternative, some prints are wrapped around a frame (such as a wooden frame or a stretching bar, also known as a backing frame) in what is referred to as a “stretched canvas” and/or a “gallery wrap.” In a gallery wrap, part of the print is wrapped around the sides of the frame. However, a gallery wrap does not lend itself well aesthetically to certain genres of prints. For example, many people do not want gallery wrapped prints of renaissance artwork, nature scenes and the like.

Therefore, there is a need for a process for presenting an image of framed artwork without incurring the cost of framing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The disadvantages of the prior art are overcome by the present invention which, in one aspect, is a method of generating a print, in which an image of at least one work of art is scanned, thereby generating a digital image of the artwork. An image of at least one frame molding is scanned, thereby generating a digital image of the molding. The artwork digital image is combined with the molding digital image, thereby generating a combined image of the work of art surrounded by a frame made of the molding. The combined image is printed onto a substrate.

In another aspect, the invention is a system for generating printed artwork that includes an art scanner that is configured to multi-dimensionally scan works of art, thereby generating digital artwork images thereof. A molding scanner is configured to multi-dimensionally scan moldings, thereby generating digital molding images thereof. A computer is programmed to combine at least one of the digital artwork images with at least one digital molding image, thereby generating a combined digital image that include an image of one of the works of art surrounded by an image of a frame made from one of the moldings. A printer prints in multiple dimensions the combined digital image onto a selected substrate.

These and other aspects of the invention will become apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments taken in conjunction with the following drawings. As would be obvious to one skilled in the art, many variations and modifications of the invention may be effected without departing from the spirit and scope of the novel concepts of the disclosure.

