What are Canvas Prints?

If we turn back the pages of time and go around 15-20 years back, canvas prints technology didn't even exist. That was an era where people used to have a 6"x4" sized picture frame, usually made by their local photographer.

Well, time moved and somewhere in the 1990's, we noticed advent of the technology, which allowed us to print digitally through a PC.

But wait!!

To understand Custom Canvas Prints and the glorious saga of them attaining fame, let's have a deeper sneak.

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What is Canvas Made of?

In simple language, a canvas is a plain—woven fabric, which due to its highly durable quality was primarily used for making marquees, backpacks, tents, sails and other items which required durability. However, with the growing popularity and demand of print photos on canvas, the same fabric was used to create stock and personalized photo canvas prints.

The narration above matches precisely with the traditional canvases which were made from hemp. However, with time, fabrics like cotton and linen are usually used to create canvases.

According to a report released by InfoTrends, Canvas prints covers 12% market of the total online printing industry in the United States. The same report also shares that printed canvas is expected to reach 860 million for a 5-year CAGR of 11.6% by 2018.

The report undoubtedly gives a glorious sneak into the future of canvas prints. But we believe, that despite its popularity and the invincible space that it has made in the hearts of people around, there are users who are still unaware of the minute details linked with the gorgeous canvas prints. Let us have descriptive look at these.

Canvas for Paintings

It was somewhere in the 14th century that canvas became a common medium for painting using oil paints. This was the time when they replaced the traditional wooden panels and started their journey from Italy.

Talking about their durability and reliability, you can still find one of the oldest canvas oil painting in Berlin (French Madonna with angels).

Printing Methods

Till now we learned about the evolution of canvas prints and their journey till date. Believing that things till now made things clear, let us now learn the way canvas prints are printed.

With the introduction of new technologies, the modus operandi has changed. Turning back the pages of time, canvas prints were done through offset printing. However, the launch of HP Design jet z6100 and the use of latex inks changed the printing quality impeccably. The mentioned two are used vastly to deliver museum-quality canvas prints to buyers.

Raw Materials

FABRIC

Basically two types of fabrics are used for photo canvas printing. First is Cotton and second is Polyester. While the former is considered as the best fabric for canvas printing, polyester is considered as a cheaper option. It has been noticed that photo canvases printed on Polyester have a shorter life span when compared to cotton. On the contrary canvas prints on cotton fabric lasts longer as the ink penetrates deep into cloth, providing amore exact representation of color when compared to polyester.

Wooden panel/stretcher bars

This is required to frame the canvas print. The procedure is called gallery wrapping, in which the photo canvas print is stretched around a simple wooden frame and then stapled or glued at the back side. Apart from this users can also opt Varnish printing, which makes your photo canvas print UV resistant or can also try other frames.

Your advanced camera produces pictures in a shading space we bolster – commonly sRGB. On the off chance that you incline toward, you can likewise transfer pictures in Adobe RGB or some other mainstream RGB Color Profile. Kindly don't transfer pictures in the CMYK shading space.

Ink

There are many kinds of inks which are used for canvas printing. The list includes Dye/pigment-based aqueous inks, solvent inks, indigo, Latex, UV Curable, and toner ink. However, among these the most preferred ink is Latex Inks. Experts claim and it has been proven that using latex inks for photo canvas printing not only make it look alive but also add to its life.

Technology

Printer

There are two kinds of printers used for canvas printing, namely; HP Designjet z6100 and Epson Ultra Chrome 11880.

How photo canvas prints are constructed

Once your photo canvas gets print ready, it is stretched around a wooden panel/stretcher bars, which are usually made from pine. The wrapped canvases are stretched and underpinned/glued for added strength.

The only thing which needs to be cautiously kept in mind is that the underpinning has to be done religiously with entire focus. This is why it is preferred that the task is assigned to only the experts who have sufficient experience in doing this.

Some precautions to keep in mind

Ok, before we sign off, we would like to share with you some precautions you need to keep in order to ensure the long life of your canvas prints. They are:

Keep them away from direct light.
Keep them away from moisture. A damp canvas can lead to distortion.
Give gentle dusting to your canvas prints. We advise using a linen cloth for the same.
Place them upright. And never keep anything on them.