My Photography Book

Friday, March 4, 2011

canvas photos printing - a guide to choose your provider

By Jeff Hardy


Canvas photo have been for centuries an expensive, unreachable product for the vast majority of people. Oil painting portraits, family pictures and landscape required the hiring of an artist to create a long lasting prestigious memory.
The new digital era has changed this. Digital photography along with digital printing revolution have made canvas photo accessible and inexpensive product.

Nowadays, anyone can pull out a photo from digital camera or mobile phone and order a magnificent canvas print. A quick search in google produces loads of websites offering printing on canvas print. All websites offer the same basic service but differentiate in some points:
* Quality (canvas & printer type)
* Ease of use and the variety of features
* Price.

* Quality

The quality of a canvas photo is determined by 2 major factors:
Canvas fabric quality
There are many kinds of fabric. Traditional canvas that great artists used throughout history were usually made of a simple fabric (cotton or linen) coated with whitewash. These simple and cheap fabrics reflected the economic condition of the artists. The simple fact is that many famous artists could not afford anything else. This technique of creating canvas is unstable and extremely vulnerable to climate harms.

Today canvas is much more sustainable to climate harms. There are pure natural canvases, organic canvases and semi organic canvases, all characteristic with different kinds of qualities. The recommended and optimal photo on canvas printing material is the semi organic canvas which preserves best the unique look of the classical canvas, along with the flexibility and durability of a long lasting fabric. Other kinds of canvas might end after a short period of time with cracks on the coating material, or with a look that doesn't preserve the classical canvas fabric.

Printers and ink quality
Digital printing revolution began 2 decades ago. The early ink jet plotters have made a huge change in many industries such as advertising, art reproductions and more. Only in the last 10 years or so, digital printing revolution was made accessible to the mass. Printers' resolution has increased dramatically through the last years and the final word is yet to be said.
It is of high significance that your canvas photo provider will be up to date with new technologies, printing equipment and software. Cutting edge technology will ensure durable and high resolution canvas print.

High costs of ink drive many printing houses to use non original ink. All brand name printers (HP, Epson, Mimaki etc.) come with original inks that ensure accuracy of printing, true colors and durability.

There are 2 major kinds of ink that are used for canvas prints: water based called 'dye' and oil based called 'solvent'. Both are suitable for photo on canvas. Dye gives better colors and requires special varnish coating where solvent does not require varnish and considered more durable.

* Ease of use and variety of features
Most photos on canvas websites offer printing wizard. The process includes some basic steps:
Upload the file to the website - after uploading the photo is presented on screen.

Determine desired size - the more advanced website use the aspect ratio and determine the final size after inputting desired height or width only. Other websites does not allow size in all aspect ratios, and force users to cut part of the photo.

Treatment - elements such as wrapping type (gallery or regular), frame type etc.
However, along with these standard features, some websites offer users unique elements and user friendly interface that upgrades the possibilities of your canvas prints.
One of the most original and surprising feature is artistic effects. This feature can turn any photo into classical oil painting, water color, painter's knife and more. The whole experience is fun and the results are surprising. The quality is very high and the final outcome is stunning - a true work of art.

Price
Last but not least is the price - most websites offer a similar range of quotes with 10% - 15% difference. The thing that should be most important to the customer is the confidence that lower price is not on count of low quality. Quotes that are dramatically low can suggest poor quality of materials and equipment. The disappointment of a canvas photo that fades after a few months or cracks can be frustrating.

Canvas prints have become poplar as souvenirs, home decoration and great memories. The fact that people nowadays take huge amount of photos and hardly print any makes it almost requested to have large impressive prints of selected photos.

The emotional value of these prints requires great attention with the execution. Pay notice to the websites interface and make sure that you are not forced to the final result due to the provider's limitations.




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