Large canvas prints are a popular format for printing your photos.
That's especially true the last few years as various online printers have cropped up offering giant prints for comparatively little money.
The problem with many large canvas prints, though, is that they simply aren't made well. As with most things in photography, you get what you pay for!
When you're on the hunt for a large canvas print, you need to consider a variety of factors when determining if the print you get in the mail will actually meet your expectations.
Let's take a look at some of the criteria you should use when ordering a large canvas print.
Editor's Note: I draw on my experience working with CanvasHQ to illustrate each point below. I've used many different canvas printing companies over the years, and none hold a candle to the quality of prints provided by CanvasHQ. In fact, I have ordered dozens of prints from them over the years, and trust no one else to give me the same high-quality prints as they do.
Table of Contents
- Inspect the Quality of Materials for Large Canvas Prints
- Think About How Big is Big Enough
- Make Smart Choices With the Printing Options
- Image Quality Must Be On Point for Large Canvas Prints
Inspect the Quality of Materials for Large Canvas Prints
Not all canvas is made alike. Not all inks are made alike, for that matter.
In fact, all the components needed to make a large canvas print can vary from one printer to the next, which impacts the quality of the prints they make.
Though "cotton canvas" might sound perfectly fine, is it as good as archival certified canvas? The answer is no...
What's more, where some canvas printers use water-based inks that fade over time and don't stand up to moisture, other companies use commercial-grade inks that are long-lasting, UV-resistant, and moisture-resistant.
Behind the canvas, you want a frame that's square and true and keeps the canvas nice and tight to prevent waffling.
Again, some online canvas printers take the easy route and stretch their canvases on frames made of rough lumber, which is often not straight or true.
Other printers take the time to handcraft their frames from high-quality kiln-dried wood to ensure the frame is square with no bowing.
It takes just a few moments to read about the "ingredients" a canvas printing company uses, and these are the sorts of things you want to know before you plunk down your hard-earned cash on a large canvas print!
If you've ever wondered how a large canvas print is made, check out the video above to see the CanvasHQ team in action!
Think About How Big is Big Enough
Don't just order a large canvas print willy-nilly. You need to put some thought into just how big the print should be.
There are a variety of factors at play in this decision.
First and foremost is your budget - the larger the print, the more expensive it will be.
While you might love to have a 60x40 canvas in your dining room, you might only have a 40x20 budget.
Secondly, consider how big is big enough for the space in which you wish to hang the print.
Again, you might think that that 60x40 canvas would look great on your dining room wall, only to find that when you hang it up there, it simply overtakes the room.
Large canvas prints (and all prints, for that matter) need a little room to breathe - negative space around them that helps it stand out.
An easy way to determine how big is big enough is to take painter's tape and box out a possible print size. It's easy to adjust the size of the taped box to ensure there's enough room above and below it and on each side. Once you have the size locked down, measure it and use that as your guideline for getting your large canvas print.
Make Smart Choices With the Printing Options
Getting a great-looking canvas print requires more than just selecting a photo and choosing an appropriate size.
Instead, there are customization options that allow you to fine-tune how the print looks.
For example, companies like CanvasHQ let you choose a number of customization options for large canvas prints:
- Frame depth - The thicker the frame depth, the more drama the print will have. For example, a two-inch frame will have more visual impact than a .75-inch frame. Likewise, deeper frames are needed if the print will hang on a heavily textured wall, like one covered with stone.
- Border color - A white border gives a canvas print the appearance of floating on the wall while an image wrap border extends the print around the sides of the frame. There are other options as well, including a mirrored border and just about any color under the rainbow.
- Canvas finish - If glare is a concern, a matte finish is ideal. If you want your print to have the look of an oil painting, a semi-gloss finish is more appropriate. There are other choices, too, including glossy, vintage, and iridescent.
In each case, the choices you make can greatly influence the look and feel of the final print.
Fortunately, when you order prints from outfits like CanvasHQ, they help walk you through the process and can make recommendations for things like the canvas finish so that you get a print with maximum visual appeal.
Image Quality Must Be On Point for Large Canvas Prints
Of course, the photo you supply to the canvas printing company must be a high enough quality to be able to print in large format.
All canvas printers will tell you the minimum resolution allowed and what size of print you can get at a given resolution.
Some companies, like CanvasHQ, have sophisticated software that increases the resolution of images, so in many cases, your image only needs to be 60 DPI to get a large print.
Nevertheless, the image must be sharp, clear, and edited beforehand, that way the printer has the best possible image to work with to get you your large canvas print.
These tips aren't rocket science by any means, yet many canvas print customers neglect to think about them.
By following these tips, though, you'll find that the prints you get in the mail are of a much better quality and will last for generations!
This blog post about "Large Canvas Prints" was first published on our website here https://www.photographytalk.com/large-canvas-prints
