What Is A Canvas Print?

A canvas print is the result of an image printed onto canvas using inkjet printing, offset printing or dye sublimation technique. The result is often stretched, or gallery-wrapped, onto a frame and displayed. Canvas print is a way to display an art piece or photograph. The canvas print material is generally cotton or plastic based poly canvas, often used for the reproduction of photographic images.

 

Printing techniques

• Inkjet printing is a type of computer printing that recreates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper and plastic substrates. Most of the canvas prints are made this way.
• Offset printing is a printing technique in which the inked image is transferred (or “offset”) from a plate to a rubber blanket, then to the printing surface.
• Dye-sublimation printing is a technique which uses heat to transfer dye onto materials such as a plastic, card, paper, or fabric. Traditionally, the advantage of dye-sublimation printing has been the fact that it is a continuous-tone technology, where each dot can be any color. In contrast, inkjet printers can vary the location and size of ink droplets, a process called dithering, but each drop of ink is limited to the colors of the inks installed.

 

What is canvas print made of?

Most of the canvas prints that you buy for your home use cotton, polyester or polycotton. Polyester prints are more vivid and cotton prints are longer-lasting.

• Cotton canvas is a plain-woven fabric made out of cotton and, to a lesser extent, linen.
• Polyester canvas is an impeccably durable material,made from the synthetic fabric.
• Polycotton is a fabric made from a mixture of cotton and polyester fibre.

 

Gallery wrap

Gallery wrap is a method of stretching an artist’s canvas so that the canvas wraps around the sides of the stretcher bar or strainer bars and is secured to the back of the wooden frame. This is the most used method in modern days.
A good gallery wrap consists of the following qualities:

• Tight Stretch: Good gallery wraps are stretched tightly over the stretcher bars to maintain a flat, unaltered image. On canvases that are not tightly stretched, waves or bumpy areas, especially on areas around the stretcher bars, can be seen and felt.
• Hand Stretched: Hand stretched canvases are the best option because this reduces the possibility of over-stretching. Machines may over stretch the image, causing rips or breaks in the ink of the image. Hand stretched canvases also allow for humans to align the image in a more visually appealing way, being sure not to cut off any parts of the main image which a machine would not be able to detect.
• Clean Staples: On the back of the canvas, good gallery wraps are stapled cleanly and securely.
• Clean Folds: Good gallery wraps have clean folds on the edges. You can see the nice folds on the corners that show they are hand stretched, but no extra pieces of canvas are sticking out or causing extra lumps under the image.
• Solid Wood Stretcher Bars: Good quality wraps should have a good foundations. Solid wood stretcher bars provide a good base for stretching and keep the canvas from bowing or bending over time.

 

Canvas print layouts

• Single Canvas
• Split Canvas (multi panel single photo)
• Collage Canvas (multi panel different photos)

 

Sources used for this post: Wikipedia