A technical dictionary of printmaking, André Béguin.

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frame
  1. Frames for prints are made of wood, plastic, metal, plaster, etc. and are used to frame the image. [ conservation of prints].
  2. In typography the frame is made up of the various rules around an image or a text. In drawing the frame is much the same thing as in typography except that it is made with a pencil. In the past many prints had a frame printed around the image area.
  3. In silkscreen terminology the frame is a wood or metal structure on which the screen is stretched and fixed. The frame is above the printing table and is fixed to it in such a way that it can be easily flipped up and down. A counterweight is fixed to the frame to increase the ease with which it is moved. The frame is the most important part of the silkscreen printing ensemble and because of this must be prepared with much care. The solidity and stability of the frame are all important insofar as concerns the tension of the screen which, in turn, conditions the printing success. A good frame must stay perfectly flat, which means that metal frames are to be preferred over wooden ones.
    The wooden frame in use are, quite simply, those used for framing pictures but their joints must be well made to keep them from bending out of shape. Metal frames are welded. Some frames are self-stretching. On simple frames the screen is nailed, stapled, or glued. This operation can be carried out by hand or using a stretcher. The stretcher is particularly useful if the screen to be stretched is very big. The self-stretching frames are such that the screen is stretched using a screw system or a pneumatic stretcher. Metal frames with self-stretchers are useful in case of intensive use which calls for relatively frequent changes of screens. Unfortunately such frames are much more expensive.
    The sizes of the frames must be in function of the size of the print to be made. [serigraphy ].
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