Printing your pictures on canvas has never been as popular as it is today. When you hear references to canvas photo prints or a print on canvas it usually refers to printing directly on specially formulated canvas with large format inkjet printers. Companies like Epson, HP and even Canon who make these large format inkjet printers used by photo labs around the country even brand their own canvas for just this purpose. In the photography world it has even become a mainstream option. Portrait studios and wedding photographers will often display their best work on canvas because of the elegance and artistic flair it gives while artists use the technology to easily create reproductions of their work.

Here at EZ Canvas we describe any canvas prints we produce as an “Canvas Print” which for us simply refers to an image printed on canvas using both industry standard printing technology and canvas preferred by the many photo labs and fine art printers. We call them "EZ Canvases" because we have been able to not only streamline the process of printing for our customers on canvas without sacrificing quality, but make it easy for you to order.

We use Epson brand archival inks (Ultra Chrome) and apply a water-based coating as protection. The canvas itself is a poly-cotton blend with an oxford weaves thus maintaining it tautness and resistance to humidity better than a 100% cotton canvas would.

The canvas is then mounted on kiln dried pine stretcher bars with the staples securing the canvas to the back of the print just like an artist's canvas. The end results are beautiful canvas textured photos on a ready to hang display.

A Little History

The process of photos on canvas is not exactly new but has changed. Originally, canvas photo prints involved mounting a thin top layer from an actual photo print to a canvas panel. While this process was not bad it did have some inherent problems for both the lab and the final display. The process was not only more expensive and time consuming but many times the overall final results had something to be desired. As professional labs began to adopt inkjet technology printing on the canvas directly became the preferred option. This both simplified the process and gave the canvas photo a more natural look.

Interestingly, people in the art community were already using this method since the 1980s and had coined the term giclee (zhee-clay) to describe the same sort of inkjet process when reproducing their work. There were still many obstacles to overcome such due to limitations of this technology but fortunately it improved dramatically and began to find a place with professional photographers as inkjet technology improved and started to rival the quality of classical photo processing.

Two of the biggest improvement steps were the invention of pigmented inks and the production of specially primed archival grade canvas. This brought tons of professional photographers into the market and allowed many to confidently offer prints on canvas to their customers. Today it is not uncommon to see portrait photographers advertising this service.