subject: What Is Canvas And How Is Canvas Used In Printing Today? [print this page] Canvas is a normal woven textile formed from cotton, linen, jute, cotton and hemp. In current terms canvas has become a familiar term used for heavy, tightly-woven fabric - polyester. Canvas is heavy and thick and is used in making tents, sails, tarpaulins, awnings, upholstery, bags, and shoe uppers,. Moreover canvas serves as a support for painting, and is the name for the mesh fabric on which needlework and needlepoint are completed. Painters usually paint on canvas. It is a greatly advantageous and versatile material with innumerable applications.
A "canvas" paper for inkjet printing has even been developed. This has allowed printers to offer new services including the printing of artist's originals onto canvas in limited version runs; supplying them with a cheaper choice to lithographic printing in large numbers. The results are excellent and now numerous artists use professional printers to supply them with limited edition prints of their work. It is a specialist market and any real artist knows color and re-production of an artist's painting is very important. So it is always wise only to use expert printers with experience and an understanding of art.
The second primary use of this new canvas material for inkjet printing is for printing photos on canvas. This has developed much more quickly as there are simply more people taking photos then painting pictures. Now you can take digital photos, put them onto your PC and go to several websites and upload your pictures. Once uploaded, you can have them printed onto canvas to make admirable photo canvas prints. The quality of the prints does vary as does the canvas material used. Naturally in any industry people jump on the band wagon that have little experience and lack the care necessary to produce good work. This means one has to seek out the more professional companies.
Whereas the majority of the production is done on the large format printing machines; there is still a human element involved. Experience, caution and an eye for color are needful. Also too is the experience in packing the canvas around the wooden frames that form the back of the print.
This is what the canvas is stretched over and the frames are often called stretcher bars. Digital printing technology is advancing all the time so those companies that constantly improve their machines assuredly produce better results especially if combined with knowledge of colour and printing.
