Free tool
Edition numbering calculator
Set the edition size and proof counts below and read off the complete numbering plan. Decide the plan before the first sale; renumbering an edition after copies have sold is a provenance problem you cannot fully undo.
How edition numbering works
A run of 20 numbers 1/20 through 20/20. Artist proofs number separately as AP 1/2, AP 2/2; printer proofs as PP; hors commerce copies as HC. Proofs are outside the commercial edition but inside the total count you disclose, and buyers increasingly ask for that total.
Keep proofs honest: an edition of 20 with 15 proofs is an edition of 35 wearing a smaller number.
Decide before the first sale
The run size, proof counts, and pricing steps (many artists raise the price as the run sells) belong in writing before copy one leaves the studio. Each copy then needs its own status: available, reserved, sold, with certificates issued per numbered copy.
Tracking copies after the plan
The calculator gives you the plan; the hard part is keeping 4/20 sold in every place it appears. In edition management, the run is one record with per-copy status: the storefront reserves a copy, payment commits it, and rooms and the public site read the remaining count from the same place. See also art inventory software for the record structure.
FAQ
- How many artist proofs are normal?
- Convention is roughly 10% of the run, e.g. 2 APs on an edition of 20. More is legitimate if disclosed; undisclosed proofs are what damages trust.
- Do proofs count toward the edition size?
- No. The edition is the numbered run; proofs number separately (AP, PP, HC). The total count, run plus proofs, is what a careful buyer asks about.
- Can I change the edition size later?
- Only downward, and only before sales: you can close an edition early, but adding copies after sales misrepresents what earlier buyers bought.
- How should open editions be handled?
- State "open edition" instead of a fraction, and track copies produced. The calculator targets limited editions, where the fraction is a promise.
- How do galleries track which copies sold?
- Per-copy status on one edition record, not twenty duplicate rows: see editions and print runs. Checkout and invoices commit copies through one path.
More free tools
Track the run, not just the plan
Create the edition on free Core with the numbering from this calculator. Copies keep their status through rooms, checkout, and invoices.