I have an existing e commerce site where i sell prints, offered in a range of sizes. I now want to be able to offer fixed sizes additionally. I do not want to create a whole bunch of new items just to accommodate this. How can it be handled?

here the issue is fleshed out more.... I know, it's long
I have a functioning e commerce Zen Cart website where I sell prints. Each print is offered in a range of sizes. The sizes depend on the aspect ratio, for example Product A comes in 18x36, 24x48 and 30x60 sizes. Product B comes in 18x23, 24x30, 30x38 and so on for other products. Additionally the customer has the option to purchase a mounted print (I offer mounted Option A or Option B.)

Programmers that I hired created an item detail page where each size is dynamically generated into a table with the mounting options included in the table. It works fine. The customer picks a size/ mounting option combination which takes them to the shopping cart.

What I am looking for is the ability to offer these items in fixed configurations (one size, mounted one way) in addition to the way these items are currently offered. That way I could have selected product configurations offered as “featured items” or as “specials” etc. I would prefer not to have to create new item numbers to accommodate this requirement.

I want to be sure that I am approaching this in a way that best matches Zen Cart’s functionality. I think that sensible use of Attributes and Options is the way to go but I am not sure. (I believe the current size options in our item detail pages are achieved by using code to create the list of sizes and then creating these as optional attributes, but I am not sure of this).

The current functionality can be seen in www.newportgeographic.com

Can anyone advise me on the way that Zen Cart could best be configured to handle these fixed configurations while at the same time allowing me to offer all sizes and mounting options as I now do.

Even more information…..

The shopping experience I am looking for:
a) Customer sees fixed size featured products and Specials on home page.
Customer clicks "buy now", thereby going directly to shopping cart.
Otherwise the customer clicks "more info" and gets directed to our current item-detail-page.
b) Customer clicks "Map Catalog"
• All maps appear as smallest size (fixed size) with print size & price shown.
• Probably also a drop down for one mounting option
• (descriptions are not shown)
• Customer clicks "buy now", thereby going directly to shopping cart.
• Otherwise the customer clicks "more info" and gets directed to our current item-detail-page

Key Zen Cart requirement to make this possible:
Need to be able to show maps at a fixed size (prints only or mounted prints). These can be added to featured list and/or specials pricing applied.
(The current Specials section on the site will need to become a "clearance" section)

Restrictions:
My preference is to have each item exist in Zen Cart once with different sizes and options achieved by attributes and options functionality in Zen Cart.
Also, very strong preference for modifying the current website vs. starting over with another.

Suggestion:
I think it could all be handled as follows.
Keep the existing items as they are.
Allow the Zen Cart administrator the ability to 1) create a single size version of these items, possibly by means of selecting an attribute AND 2) select a mounting option (print only, flush, float,box etc.). The mounting option may also be handled with attributes or possibly "options".
Pricing would be determined from the selection of attributes and options and the price table, (as I think our Specials section works now).