How Do Companies Turn Your Prints Into Canvas Art?

Saturday, September 14th

How Do Companies Turn Your Prints into Canvas Art?

Have you ever found yourself going through old photos - maybe they were from a vacation a few years ago, or from a business trip to a location you've never been to before - and thinking "hey, this would make a great picture!"

Some photographs capture the kind of moments that cannot easily be painted on canvas by a skilled artist. But now there is a way to turn those photos into larger pieces of art that can be hung on your walls or displayed virtually anywhere you desire. It's called photo to canvas printing, and it's a service which is growing in popularity.

So how does it work?

First of all, in order to get a good canvas reproduction, the photo presented for conversion must be high resolution. As part of the process of creating a canvas print, the photograph will need to be scanned into a computer. Therefore, having a photo at the highest-available resolution is best. Anything below 350 dpi will not reproduce well on canvas. In other words, digital cameras which have lower than an eight megapixel rating will not produce the kind of digital prints ideal for turning into canvas art. Even with higher resolutions, the down side to canvas printing is that it is not perfect, and it will never be the same quality of the photo from which it was reproduced.

Once a high-resolution photo is selected, there are some printer requirements if you expect the canvas reproduction to turn out well. Printing on canvas requires special eight to 12 color inkjet printers containing UV-resistant ink. You want to use UV-resistant ink because if the canvas will be hung on a wall, it most likely will at some point be exposed to sunlight, which can cause it to fade. UV-resistant ink helps to slow the fading process.

Customers will then be asked to select a size of canvas on which they wish to have the print transferred. Some companies offer canvas reproductions at sizes as small as 4x6, while others will only make them as small as an 8x10. The largest size generally available is 40x60; for sizes higher than that, canvas printers will need to do what is known as "block printing," which will divide the canvas into three or more reproductions of the same photo.

There also is another option when it comes to how the canvas will be finalized. Most companies offer rolled canvas prints or framed canvas prints. Rolled prints are those which have not been placed beneath a frame. Framed prints are those which have been stretched out and anchored to a wooden frame. It's probably common sense to know that a framed canvas print will cost more than its rolled counterpart. How much customers can expect to pay for those frames depends on the size of the canvas, as well as the material being used in the frame.

There are many companies which offer photo to canvas printing services. Printers which can handle this kind of artwork also are sold for individual consumer usage. You should never try to create this kind of artwork on a regular printer for two reasons: one, the paper used for canvas prints is extremely thick, and it will likely become jammed in your printer and two, regular printer ink is not UV-resistant, which will allow the reproduction to fade quickly.