Canvas prints are a great way to show your images as a wall display, and they also can provide you with extra profit by offering them to your clients as part of a complete photographic package. This business model works with all types of photography, from portraits to weddings to fine art.
You may have some questions about printing canvases for yourself or your clients, such as what are the standard canvas print sizes, how to process for printing on canvas, and other options concerning printing as a canvas wrap.
Let’s get started!
Table of Contents:
- What Is a Canvas Print?
- What Types of Photos Should Be Used for Canvas Prints?
- What Are the Standard Canvas Print Sizes?
- Should I Frame the Standard Canvas Print Sizes?
- Metallic Canvas or Gicleé?
- What Wrap Depth Should I Use?
- Who Should I Use as a Printer?
- Displaying Standard Canvas Print Sizes - What Options?
- How Should I Post-Process for Canvas Prints?
- Recommended Photography Gear
What Is a Canvas Print?
A canvas print is a photographic image printed on canvas instead of on paper as you would for a regular enlargement. Photographic canvas comes in different types and a wide range of standard canvas print sizes.
Canvas prints are stretched over a wood frame, and the printing process has a fairly large amount of bleed over for showing part of the image on the edge of the frame.
What Types of Photos Should Be Used for Canvas Prints?
Photo by ChristinLola via iStock
Canvas print enlargements in all of the standard canvas print sizes are considered a specialty printing process when compared to printing on regular photographic printing paper. This puts them in a category similar to acrylic prints and metal prints, all of which can be ordered from Artbeat Studios, one of the premier specialty printers available to photographers.
So you would probably want to use some of your better images for printing as canvas. The styles and genres of photography that work well for all of the standard canvas print sizes can include, but aren’t limited to, portraits, weddings, landscapes, still life, architectural, fine art, and others. Artbeat Studios uses two different types of canvas, making the choices also dependent on what type of canvas you want.
What Are the Standard Canvas Print Sizes?
What are the standard canvas print sizes? Mostly the sizes are the same as for other types of printing. Artbeat Studios prints canvas in sizes from 4x6” all the way to 48x96”, which is a whopping 4 by 8 feet!
They also make custom sizes. So, if you have non-standard canvas print sizes, they can probably fit your image in. At the bottom of this page is a list of all of their standard canvas print sizes, along with the prices.
Should I Frame the Standard Canvas Print Sizes?
Whether or not to frame the custom or standard canvas print sizes is an interesting thing to consider. Canvas wraps look great without frames due to the bleed over of the wrap along the edge of the wood stretchers.
Artbeat makes Float frames for most of their standard canvas print sizes. A Float frame puts about ¼” between the edge of the printed canvas and the frame itself, giving the illusion of the image floating within the frame. The frames come in either white or black.
Metallic Canvas or Gicleé?
Gicleé is a printing process that uses more colors of inks than standard printing, so the resulting images are very similar to a painting by an old master on canvas. They are excellent for all types of portraits and for any still life or architectural subject.
Artbeat also makes metallic canvas prints in all of the standard canvas print sizes. Metallic canvas has a semi-gloss look and adds a luminous appearance to any image, whether landscape photography or wedding portraits, a pearlescent look. Both types of canvas have a slight texture to them, part of the appeal of a canvas print.
What Wrap Depth Should I Use?
Two wrap stretcher depths are available from ArtBeat Studios, 1.5” and 0.75”. The deeper wrap is the most popular and looks nice sitting on a wall as is or in one of the Float frames.
Who Should I Use as a Printer?
There are several very fine specialty printers we’ve tested, Artbeat Studios makes the highest quality canvas wrap prints possible, and they do so with reasonable pricing.
They use 100-year archival poly-cotton canvas material, Epson UltraChrome® 9-color eco-solvent inks, real wood USA-grown pine stretcher bars, and they print on Epson Surecolor S80600 Printers, hand-stretch each canvas print to ensure a “drum like” tightness that won’t sag or warp over time.
Displaying Standard Canvas Print Sizes - What Options?
Displayed as part of a multi-print wall art display or as a single print, all of the standard-size canvas prints can be mounted in a wide variety of ways with just about any decor you have available.
How Should I Post-Process for Canvas Prints?
Photo by ferrerivideo via iStock
Simply post-process for what you want as far as resolution, cropping, colors, exposure values, and so on. The metallic canvas has more of a sheen to it, making it a good choice for intense colors, while the Gicleé is more traditional, perhaps with a slightly warm color balance, though you can specify any of your prints be printed in true colors.
Hopefully we’ve answered most of your questions about standard canvas print sizes and all the options open to you. Go ahead and try out one for yourself!