The Making of Canvas Prints

Just a photograph of the street.

This page describes a bit about the canvas print printing process.

This top picture is of a street with a surveyer's mark. I generally can get things on the street that I photograph centered... but when I miss, well, that's what image editing software is for. (I use GIMP.)

No. 11 State Street.

This three foot square canvas print is slightly not what it appears to be - that is, it is not a normal "print". First, I centered the image and resized it a bit smaller. Then I named it - the 11th in a series I amusingly called "State Street". (A variation on my "Art Street" and "Wall Street" series.)

No. 11 State Street being made.

Adjusting for the printer meant first centering it, then "enlarging" it - oddly by cropping it smaller in the editing software.

No. 11 State Street as a Canvas Print.

A canvas print has a wide "bleed" - the amount of the image that gets "lost" when printed, as prints are printed slightly oversized before trimming. For canvas prints this bleed is wrapped around the frame.

The left image is a screenshot of the printer's website; it show two things, the bleed wrap; and a warning icon that the image is of too low a resolution for my wanted size - 3' square. There is a reason for my purposefully using too low a resolution.

These prints are large and are not meant to be examined up close like and oil painting might be. No, they are meant to be seen from across the room. The result is, oddly enough, the print is more in focus the further away you are.

That is why my canvas prints have uniqueness.