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Canvas Prints – Professional Decoration For Your Office

Thursday, November 5th
in Canvas Prints
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The next time that you are in a large lobby for a corporation, the entrance for a smaller business, your local doctor’s office, or any other business, take a look around at their wall hangings. Do they have paintings? Photos? Posters? Which ones do you think give a better impression of professionalism and success? You will find that those offices that have canvas prints or canvas paintings will give off a feeling of success and professionalism when you are in their offices almost instantly. Of course, there are always those offices that have the motivational posters, pictures of employees or families, or even just those prints of other famous paintings, which all give off a feeling of a corporate office. And, then, there are those that simply offer those blank walls or stagnant hangings that just don’t convey anything to you.

Think of how each of these different wall decorations make you feel. Is there really a way to combine business and pleasure that will allow your clients and customers to feel both at ease in your offices yet still see you as a professional? Of course there is, and the easy answer is canvas prints. Canvas prints are a wonderful way to provide beautiful artistic view to your clients and visitors, yet still show them that you are a true professional that takes pride in your offices and your work.

The best part of it all is that canvas prints are extremely affordable. You can also get a canvas prints of even an ordinary picture. Simply send the photo you would like made into a canvas print and a specialized artist will transfer it over and swathe it around a strong wooden frame to create a beautiful work that is instantly ready to hang and enjoy. It will stand up to sunlight, humidity, and everything else that an office can throw at it. And, a simple 8X10 canvas print can only cost you $25. Even the larger prints can be less than $100 – which can easily save you a lot of money from purchasing those motivational posters that everyone has in their offices.

So get creative with your offices! Don’t keep those old, tired framed pictures stuck on your walls any longer. Turn those trophies and awards that your company and employees have won into a work of art with a canvas print of the employees involved hanging right beside them. Take that photo of your ribbon cutting ceremony and turn it into a beautiful canvas print to hang and enjoy. Any photo of your business or business accomplishment that you are proud of should be preserved in a canvas print so that your customers continue to enjoy it for decades.

Keep that great enthusiasm going in your office and with your clients. Simply bringing new life to those old tired photos that are hanging on your walls will instantly brighten up spirits in your offices and show everyone that you take pride in your work, your business, and your employees.

ZaZa Gallery can easily help you turn those photos into a beautiful way to provide a new life to your offices. We can turn those photos into beautiful museum quality canvas prints that will give you years of wonderful compliments and memories.

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How to Get Your Photos Printed on Canvas

Wednesday, November 4th
in Canvas Prints
by

If you enjoy photo albums, portraits, scrap books, posters, and wall art, then it’s a natural transition for you to the world of canvas printing. Canvas prints can be so many things, from a long-lasting display of a precious memory to a classic personal or family portrait to a beautiful art-deco wall piece. Because of canvas’ versatility and unique appearance more and more people are flocking to online purveyors of museum-grade canvas prints, but how exactly does one go about the process of having their photos made into canvas prints?

Canvas prints begin their life first as digital images. Digital images are usually just taken with digital cameras, be they disposable, point ‘n’ shoot, or professional SLRs. However, you can take a printed photograph and turn it into a digital image by making a high resolution scan of it, so that even your older more treasured photographs can be turned into wonderful canvas print displays.

If you’re going to make a scan of a printed photograph you have to make sure that the inside of the scanner as well as the photo are dirt and dust free. Some touching up can be done with a computer later but excess dust, dirt, and hair can ruin an image. Make sure that you’re scanning at a high PPI (Pixels Per Inch). The higher you can push the resolution, the better. Most canvas printers agree that 150 PPI at 4”x6” is a good resolution that they can work with, but a 300 PPI or greater image is ideal, especially for very large prints. The larger print you want, the higher resolution, or PPI, your digital image needs to be. For example the 300 PPI @ 4”x6” would not be enough if you wanted a 36”x48” print, but it would be crystal clear at 16”x24” and near clear at 24”x36”. However, there are things that professional canvas printers can do to improve the appearance of images that aren’t super high resolution. With our current process ZaZa Gallery can make a 300 PPI @ 4”x6” appear crystal clear even as a 24”x36” print.
I know that is a lot of technical jargon to deal with, so walk away with this: the higher the resolution, the better, especially if you’re going big.

Similar rules apply to digital photos obtained from a camera. As a general rule, a digital camera needs to be able to shoot at around 5 megapixels if you’re going to glean quality larger format prints from it, on canvas or otherwise. It’s hard to describe how exactly the megapixel rating of a digital camera relates to the resolution of the images it produces, so skip the math and go with the old faithful rule: the larger the better.

Now, just because your digital camera has “5 megapixels” (or higher) printed on the side of it doesn’t mean it’s always going to shoot at that level. Most, if not all, digital cameras will optionally shoot at a compressed resolution. If you’re shooting for the purpose of possibly having images enlarged for any reason then you need to make sure that your camera is always shooting and saving images at the highest quality JPEG or RAW file.

The nice thing about having quality digital images to work with prior to printing is that you can make any edits, improvements, or modifications that you need. Removing red eye, blemishes, or tweaking color balance is very basic, but you can also convert the image to black and white or sepia tone, or even make it look as if it was painted instead of being a photograph. If you don’t have the technical skill to do these things yourself most canvas printers offer varying levels of “touch up” and modification, usually for a cost but not always. ZaZa Gallery offers basic retouching with every canvas print sold, which includes color rebalancing and sharpening.

That’s basically the long and short of getting your photographs printed onto canvas. Once you have a high res image selected you choose a print professional, preferably one that you’ve done some research on and who’s going to take good care of your wants and needs. Select your size and styling plus any modifications and then place your order – easy as that!

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Photos on Canvas Make Superb Gifts

Monday, November 2nd
in Canvas Prints
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When most people are looking to give a photograph as a gift, or to hang prominently in their homes, they’re typically used to first having their photos blown up and printed on photo paper, and then framing it themselves or having it framed at a shop. This is the same process that people have been using for decades to store and display precious memories, and while it can look very classic and beautiful sometimes its nice to go for something completely different. One way to accomplish this with photographs is to get a gallery wrapped canvas print.

Having a photo printed on canvas is comparable in price to traditional photo framing, but can be cheaper depending on what you do with it. Because of the way canvas is gallery wrapped and sealed it doesn’t actually require a frame or glass to be considered a finished work, or to be preserved for generations to come. If you choose to leave the canvas print without a frame, then the vast majority of the time you will find that they are much more affordable than classic framing. However, if you’re particularly enamored with the framed look go right ahead, it will usually cost about the same as a photo paper print. Remember though, a gallery wrapped photo on canvas will still last decades longer than a traditional print whether it’s behind glass or not.

In addition to all that, though, canvas has a unique texture that gives your photos a rich and artistic look when they’re printed onto it. Incidentally, the process is quite simple. Unlike typical photo prints that are made from negatives, you don’t actually develop a photo onto canvas. Instead, you digitize the image (if it is not already in digital form) and print it onto the canvas using a very high quality printer. Because of the digital form, or digital conversion of the image, you can make any adjustments to the original photograph to ensure that what gets printed on the canvas is exactly what you want.

Part of this process involves picking a canvas printing specialist that will use the highest quality products. This helps to ensure not only the quality, but also the durability of your canvas photo. Firstly, you have to choose a printer that knows how to optimize images for canvas – working out color saturation and minor exposure touch-ups that may be needed (at your request). Once that’s done, the photo is printed onto the canvas, which has to be museum-quality rated – not some junk that is going to crack at the corners when it is being stretched, or shortly after. The ink used to print it should be archival, and very high quality. This is the primary factor in determining how long your image will last before there is any sign of fading. After the ink is set, the whole canvas is sealed with a special protective sealer, making it moisture or water resistant, UV resistant, and generally protected from environmental factors.

The last step in making a photo on canvas is wrapping it, and this is the part that truly sets it apart from traditional prints. When a canvas print is gallery wrapped, the image is used to wrap around the sides of the canvas stretcher bar. This gives the canvas a very unique look, as if the photograph became 3D and was popping off of the wall. However, this does trim inches off of the front-facing part of your photograph, which many people do not want. In this case, an attentive photo to canvas producer can instead use a mirror wrap. Mirror wrapped canvas prints take the very edges of the original image and mirror them to create extra inches around the photo that still blend with the print. This extra printed area is what is used to wrap around the edges of the canvas. While not as convincing as a gallery wrap, it preserves the original front-facing photo while still allowing the canvas to show its unique facets.

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Posters vs. Canvas Prints – Why Canvas is Better

Thursday, October 29th
in Canvas Prints
by

When it comes to poster art and larger photos that collectors display all over their homes and offices, it’s sometimes hard to imagine that these are all printed on paper. Canvas is a much better way to offer beautiful works of art in larger forms and have them last for over a hundred years without wear and tear, unlike paper. Many artists don’t like this, especially since it cuts down on their profit margin and how they can do their art work, but that doesn’t matter much to those true collectors that really want something unique that they can keep for a very long time.

You might be thinking, why does it matter if a large poster is printed on canvas or paper? It actually matters a lot. Think about how long a poster printed on paper will last, a few years? Maybe a decade if it’s kept under glass and framed? Now, consider how long canvas prints will last – over a hundred years, right? So you can easily see that makes a huge difference right away. Of course, the costs that go into making them are completely different as well, and the cost of canvas prints would not override the costs of poster art. Posters will always be cheaper, but if they don’t last but a fraction of canvas prints, it might not be the way to go.

If you consider how canvas prints are created, you will see why the costs are different. Canvas prints are stretched on a solid frame that can be hung just the way they are. Posters have to be matted, framed, and kept under glass. Since the frame that a canvas print is stretched on is extremely sturdy, it’s easy to see why they will last for over a hundred years, while a framed print will not last nearly as long.

Of course, if you just think about the different inks that are used to print both posters and canvas, you will see another immediate difference. Posters are printed with lower quality inks since they aren’t made to last nearly as long. On the other hand, canvas prints are created with archival inks that are made specifically for the purpose of lasting well over a hundred years. The inks are UV resistant, water resistant, and will not fade or break down like the inks that are in posters.

But it’s also the process that goes into protecting the finished product that makes a huge difference as well. Canvas prints are coated with a special sealer that helps to make sure the ink and canvas won’t have any weak spots or cracks when it’s stretched onto the frame. It’s also made to be water resistant, as we mentioned earlier, and you can basically run water over the canvas and nothing will happen – we all know what happens if you were to try that with a poster. This sealer also helps to protect the canvas against dirt, dust, smog, and other environmental concerns, unlike a poster.

However, there is one major difference in the art work quality that is on posters and canvas prints. For anything that has a lot of small details and needs sharper images to keep these details smooth, posters are the way to go. Canvas prints will hold a more rich color longer, but they also do soften lines a bit when they are printed and stretched. But, canvas also does something that posters do not do – they have a texture to them. This means that there are tiny little areas on the canvas that will absorb light, shadows, and offer a different view and depth to the photo from every different angle. Posters will not do this.

For anyone considering having a poster project turned into a canvas print project, consider ZaZa Gallery and our museum-grade works. You will not be sorry that you did, and you’ll automatically know that you are getting something that will last for generations.

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