Canvas Prints: Preparing Your Photo Before You Order

A good canvas starts with a deliberate file

Most disappointing canvas prints are not printing failures. The photograph was cropped carelessly, softened by a phone's editing, or exported at a size that could not carry the wall. A few minutes of preparation prevents almost all of it.

Start from the largest file you have

Work from the original export, not a version that has been through a messaging app or a social upload. Each re-save discards detail, and detail is what a canvas needs to stay sharp when it is stretched across a metre of wall. If you only have a smaller file, tell us the size you want and we will say honestly whether it can carry it.

Check the image at the size you want

Open the photograph and view it at full size on your screen, then step back an arm's length. Look for:

• Soft focus on the part of the image that matters most.
• Banding in skies or smooth gradients, which grows worse when enlarged.
• Noise in shadow areas, which a canvas will show as colour speckle.
• Distractions at the edge, which a wrap will pull around the side of the stretcher.

Plan the crop around the wrap

A stretched canvas continues the image around the edge, so whatever sits in the last few centimetres of the frame becomes the side of the piece. Crop with that in mind, or leave a border and choose a solid edge instead. If you are unsure, send the file with a note about the hanging position and we will crop it for you.

Colour: agree a proof, not a guess

Screens are brighter and cooler than prints, so an image that looks right on a laptop usually prints darker. Rather than adjusting the file yourself, ask for a proof. We print a small section of your actual photograph on the canvas you have chosen, so you can check colour in your own light before the full piece runs.

Then let the material do its work

We print on Epson machines with UltraChrome GS3 nine-colour solvent ink, on genuine canvas stretched by hand onto a wooden frame, in custom sizes up to 56″x96″. See what a finished piece looks like in our portfolio, and read more about choosing size, wrap and hanging before you order.

Send the file and the wall's measurements

Email the photograph, the size you have in mind and a photo of the wall — contact us here — and we will tell you what the file can support before anything is printed.

Photography by Mike Gedj.