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Printing onto canvas

mcmadhatter

mcmadhatter

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 6, 2005
338
2
Bath, UK
Has anyone got any of experience of getting their images printed on to canvas professionally? I have an EOS 350D and a photo I want printing. What is the maximum size it would look good at, (conventional wisdom would suggest 12 inches) but I was hoping for bigger, would interpolation increase this a bit?
 
mcmadhatter said:
Has anyone got any of experience of getting their images printed on to canvas professionally? I have an EOS 350D and a photo I want printing. What is the maximum size it would look good at, (conventional wisdom would suggest 12 inches) but I was hoping for bigger, would interpolation increase this a bit?
Click to expand...

Yes 12 inches is about the largest size of you want to stay around 300 pixels per inch. But fewer pixels per inch does not look bad if the viewing didtance is farther away. If you will be standing back 3 or 4 feet to view the print you could go lower to maybe 200 per inch and then you could make an 18 inch print. Yes interpolation helps but it does this by in effect blurring the image. It can't add details that the camera did not capture. It "fixes the pixelation by effectivly blending the edges of the pixels.

Do you realy want the file printed to canvas? I prefer real photographs to fake paintings but as far as printing goes ink jet printers don't care what they spray their ink onto. But I think you get better color using glossey paper or a semigloss or even if you don't want the reflections Canvas is even more of a mat surface then mat, kind of an "ultra-mat"
 
mcmadhatter said:
Has anyone got any of experience of getting their images printed on to canvas professionally? I have an EOS 350D and a photo I want printing. What is the maximum size it would look good at, (conventional wisdom would suggest 12 inches) but I was hoping for bigger, would interpolation increase this a bit?
Click to expand...

Interpolation would increase the size and it will still look good. There are some that shun interpolation and only change the dpi, but to each to his own.
 
i use a large format printer at work and have printed onto Canvas many times, assuming the people you use have appropriate (RIP) software do not worry about the print quality it will be fine, using the RIP to interpolate the image you can get away with a 7mb file upto A0 with no real loss in quality
 
I've had good experiences actually printing to photo paper at 150-200 DPI. But can canvas even support 300DPI to begin with? I mean, it's not exactly smooth. What exactly is deposited on the canvas? Ink that dyes it (penetrates) or some kind of paint that sits on top of it? I've never printed to canvas before, but I somehow doubt that resolution is quite as critical as it is on photo or poster paper...
 
i used http://www.qualitycanvasphotos.com/

they are fairly cheap. i liked their quality, you can use adobe 1998 color profile. they do not frame.

i converted my pics in photoshop to look like a painting therefore i can't really say about resolution. but i printed 30x20inch. the file was 3072x2048 pixel and I can't see pixelation at all (even close up).
 
If you go to 200 dpi you could stand 4" away and still not really notice. The untrained eye wouldn't notice. Many people who own cameras ranging from $100 point and shoots to $5000 d2x's (yeah those people exist) wouldn't even know a 200 dpi print on canvas from a 300 dpi print.

I have a 200 dpi 16x20 here and it's great. Blacks are blacks, whites are white. At 300 dpi I get 20x30 using a 6 mp camera.
 
Abstract said:
How?
Click to expand...

Yes, I think this is a mistake, Jessica. A 6MP should be 3000x2000, which will give you 100DPI at that size. The largest 300DPI you can get is 8x10 (unless you mean 20cm x 30cm? that would be fairly close to 300DPI...).

But I agree with everything else you said. I am very happy with my prints at substantially below 300DPI. And again I think Canvas is even more forgiving than paper.....
 
mkrishnan said:
And again I think Canvas is even more forgiving than paper.....
Click to expand...

Agreed. I think the ink from the printer would simply "spread" a bit if printing on canvas, which will mask all other factors that normally hinder print quality on photo paper, so I don't think DPI is nearly as important on canvas. I think you'd get away with printing at 150 DPI or 200 DPI without there being a substantial difference, although that's more of a guess than anything else.
 
carletonmusic said:
how do you all display prints on canvas? Do you mount them on wooden frames?
Click to expand...

I am going to get photobox.com to do it (as they will give me a discount) :)
and they come stretched over a frame.

Think I might go for something around the 20" mark

Thanks for the advice everyone
 
Abstract said:
Agreed. I think the ink from the printer would simply "spread" a bit if printing on canvas, which will mask all other factors that normally hinder print quality on photo paper, so I don't think DPI is nearly as important on canvas. I think you'd get away with printing at 150 DPI or 200 DPI without there being a substantial difference, although that's more of a guess than anything else.
Click to expand...


i think abstract is right. to me it looks exactly like that. if i get enough time i try to post a comparison of my file and print. i just have to take a macro of the print.

but with ~$20 per print i would recommend to do a small test print of a crop first and decide if you like the colors and quality anyway before ordering a big framed print.
 
andiwm2003 said:
i used http://www.qualitycanvasphotos.com/

they are fairly cheap. i liked their quality, you can use adobe 1998 color profile. they do not frame.

i converted my pics in photoshop to look like a painting therefore i can't really say about resolution. but i printed 30x20inch. the file was 3072x2048 pixel and I can't see pixelation at all (even close up).
Click to expand...

wow! those prices are not bad at all.
i was expecting a lot more... although i
have not shopped around yet, but
these seem very reasonable.

thanks
 
my color pencils and crayons.

Hi friends, I am a new painter and I’m not used to coloring with paints. I usually just used my color pencils and crayons. Do you have to be really good at drawing and painting to be an interior designer? I mean like, do you have to able to sketch someone and the result is the exact same as the real person? I need the answers. Thank you all for answer me.
 
mkrishnan said:
And again I think Canvas is even more forgiving than paper.....
Click to expand...

I used to do a lot of printing on canvas on an HP Designjet 5000 large format and it handled low res really well. Some of the crap people used to bring in to be printed at sizes larger than A0...

Luckily canvas is nicely textured, which combined with the fact that you don't generally look at them close up, means that you can usually happily get away with really low res for the general public, and quite low res for those that actually notice these things.
 
I've printed plenty of 24x30, 20x24, 16x20 on canvas using my equipment listed below. They come out great.
Canvas is amazing for certain images. People love to get their family portraits printed on canvas (and they pay a substantial premium for it). Beach photos sell the most canvas.
I don't like canvas for anything with significant amounts of white or black though. I think traditional photo papers (I like luster or e-surface) have better detail in that situation.
You should be able to go at least 16x20 and be happy with it if you don't look to close IMO. (I sold a 30x40 to a family shot with a 10D printed on canvas by a lab).
 
Larger prints are usually made with inkjets. Common models have a resolution of 720 or 1440 dpi, but that's not the same as the 300 dpi you get with digiprints -- you effectively get something like 100~150 dpi and thus your picture may have a lower resolution. Second thing is that viewing distance increases with print size, few people actually pixel-peep.
 
Canvas prints look great, imho. They are often stretched over a wooden frame, giving a nice taught surface (if done well) and then hung as is. The printer may also offer a clear protective laquer to be applied, which protects the print from any minor wear a tear (ie if the print is placed in a hallway and people pass by every day, possibly brushing the print as they pass. The laquer allows the surface to be wiped with a mildly damp cloth to clean the print). The quality of the canvas itself varies too, so worth asking around and looking at sampls yourself if you are really critical. Most high street photo places offer canvas prints these days.

As the print is made on canvas (which has a surface texture) you can get away with a lot lower resolution than with photo paper. I have printed as low as 150dpi, 20x30 with no problems. A print that size you are not going to want to stand much closer than a few feet!
 
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