11 Things to Consider Before Buying a Canvas Print (2019)

Last Updated: February 14th, 2020

If you’ve just landed on this page, you’re probably thinking about buying a canvas print – but aren’t really sure where to start. Or, maybe you’ve tried having one printed before, but just didn’t like the result. If you’re in either of these situations – this is going to be the perfect resource for you to get a good idea of what you should consider before clicking “submit” on your print order.

Our experience with canvas prints have been more far reaching than most people.

We have a bunch of print canvases throughout our home ranging from small 5×7” prints in our office to custom sized prints taking up a larger chunk of wall space in our living room.

In addition to this, we’ve had many canvas prints created for our photography clients – including individuals, families and big corporations – so our thoughts on what makes them good is based on all this experience with them, too!

In all this time, we’ve had a lot of great results, and a few duds. We’ve really refined our process to make sure we know for certain that we’ll be getting the print we want. This process starts with getting a great image ready for printing, then working with a reputable printer to make sure the quality sticks to the end product.

Why are canvas prints so popular?

Since canvas prints evolved from just being paintings in ancient days to the modern prints we see today, it’s easy to see why they have been so consistently popular.

Today – they are probably one of the most compelling ways to show off photos.

While regular paper prints are still great and all, canvas prints have a different aesthetic, and we definitely love the texture of the canvas – it adds something extra for sure!

From what we’ve seen, canvas prints are hugely popular because they make pictures look closer to a piece of art you might expect to see in a museum. The depth of the canvas is far more interesting than flat prints.

For many people, these canvases are often printed with photos of family members – hung up throughout the house and sometimes gifted to parents and grandparents. For others, they will feature pictures of beautiful landscapes, a wedding day or other special event, and more.

Ultimately – it’s the flexibility to customize the canvas that will make it appealing to anyone from kids to grandparents!!

1. Canvas Context (Home, Office, Gift, Etc.)

The first thing you will want to consider before you purchase a canvas print is the context. Most likely – you already have a good idea on this already, but it’s important to realize how it might shape your decisions through the rest of this process.

Generally speaking, images transferred to canvas prints for personal purposes such as decorating a family room will want to be populated with photos that speak to you personally. Even a great canvas won’t have lasting power in the home if what is being printed isn’t going to be interesting for the long term.

In our little world, sometimes the canvases we have printed are for companies or paying clients (like couple’s after they’ve received their wedding photos from us!). The choice of image is not up to us – but the importance of a high quality print is very significant.

As a part of the context situation – you’ll want to specifically think about where the canvas print will end up. This will influence your choice of canvas size and even the specific images being used if you are trying to maintain a certain color vibe and aesthetic. For us – we like to keep the design of our home fairly modern with a lot of black and white tones, but like to add pops up color in our prints to liven up the space.

2. Print Canvases as Decor

No matter what your reason for having a print on canvas made, the reality is that it will be used as a decor piece in one way or another. Given this, it’s a good idea to think about the aesthetic of the print and where it will be placed in the environment.

We mentioned earlier how we often like to use prints to add a burst of color, but there are a few different approaches that are simple but can go overlooked by some people.

• Canvas prints as a pop of color.
• Canvas prints matching the color of the wall.
• Canvas prints using a complimentary color scheme.

Outside of the approach to adding color to the space, the theme is also hugely important. We’ll talk this more in just a second, but to get you started your theme can be simple (black and white, modern) or more complex (medieval, movie inspired, etc.).

You can use Adobe Kuler – a free online tool to help you create color swatches to see how all the colors in your room and image look together.

3. Meaning Behind the Image

While not every photo you convert into a canvas print has to have meaning, you’ll find your space feeling much more personal when you print things that have meaning to you. Family photos are probably the most obvious meaningful photos we have – but “meaning” can be entirely subjective, too.

We like to showcase some of our best travel photos because every time we see these shots hanging on the walls of our house – we’re taken into a world of memories. As we write this, we have a nice sized canvas print to the right of us of Multnomah Falls in Oregon – a beautiful landscape in itself, a great shot we captured, and a great memory. Finding images that bring these types of memories to you is hugely impactful to your choice of prints!

4. Image Quality

The quality of your photo will directly influence the quality of your canvas.

Fortunately, most cameras (and even many cell phones) produce high enough resolution pictures that will translate well to a canvas print. If your image file is at least 2MB in size – you will likely not have any issues. 

One consideration you will want to have as well is the size of the print. Smaller image files can translate just fine to a smaller 8×8 canvas print, but may look pixelated if blown up to really large dimensions.

With our Canon 5D Mark III and Mark IV cameras, we produce high resolution JPEG files of 20-30MB. We’ve utilized these images to blow up to custom canvas print sizes without any noticeable loss of quality.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that you want to provide your image file at 300 DPI or greater (source).

DPI means “dots per inch” and is closely related to PPI or “pixels per inch.” Basically, setting this too low will result in a poor quality print – you want to keep it at 300+ to retain the necessary detail.

5. Subject Matter

When purchasing a canvas print, you will want to give careful consideration to the subject of your image.

Does it make sense for the space you want to put it in?

6. Composition

As photographers, the composition of our image matters a whole lot. In the context of a canvas print being used as simple wall art, this is probably a subtle thing to consider. But, the composition of the image itself can play a role into how it enriches the space.

For example – a photo that effectively utilizes leading lines to draw a persons attention will be more attention grabbing. Not to mention, it will add some extra depth to your space. The wall it hangs on is a simple 2D object, and the canvas print is 2D, but a viewer can be brought into a 3D space with the help of an image like this.

To understand more about composition, check out our 101 Digital Photography Tips!

A photo like this one would instantly add something to a space because the subject matter is interesting and composition helps draw the viewer into the shot:

7. Canvas Print Style (single image, collage, etc.)

Most people wanting to get a canvas print are probably looking to have a single image printed. And that’s totally cool!

But – there are some other considerations you may want to make before clicking the “purchase” button.

Some people choose to create an image collage in Photoshop (or any other photo editing program), then print one canvas with a bunch of pictures on it. We’ve seen clients do this with their favorite wedding and newborn photos!

Alternatively, you can have multiple canvas prints created that fit the same theme OR are actually the same image displayed across multiple prints (meant to be hung side-by-side).

A very common approach is the triptych canvas print series like below:

8. Print Quality

While we already talked about having good image quality is important, the print quality also plays a HUGE role in the look of your print.

The only way to ensure a high quality print is to use a trusted canvas printer like CanvasPop.

We use CanvasPop exclusively for printing canvases of our own work – both personally for our home & professionally for our clients. You can check out CanvasPop directly and see their special coupons & deals. We also wrote a great review of CanvasPop to showcase more of our experience with them.

9. Frame or Frameless?

Once you’ve actually received your canvas print, you face one last big consideration: to keep the print how it is, or frame it!

For all of our canvases that we’ve printed at home, we normally select a wrapped canvas. A wrapped canvas takes the image you provide an “wraps” it around the sides. This helps make it look a little more seamless. Others may choose a plain white or black border – which also looks great!

Because these natural canvas print looks are so great out of the box – we don’t find that a canvas actually requires framing.

But – if you want a frame, you want a frame. And it’ll look darn good!

The main thing to keep in mind is using a high quality floater frame – one that is suitable specifically for hanging a canvas print of the dimensions you have in mind.

We have used frames like these (choose your size on Amazon) for our professional photo printing work. A lot of times clients (both individuals and businesses) like the framed look – and these are great looking, high quality, and simple to setup frames.

You can also get pre-framed canvas prints through many online dealers. Here is CanvasPop’s selection of framed print options.

10. Proper Shipping Methods

Your canvas print should be purchased through a reputable dealer not just for quality sake, but to know they will take care of your print when shipping it to you.

Fortunately, no matter who we’ve dealt with (including CanvasPop, ZNO, White House Printing, etc.), they have always packaged our prints in a secure and damage resistant way. You should expect no trouble in this area so long as you use a trusted dealer.

In general, canvas prints take ~2 weeks+ from the initial order to receipt when using a standard printing and delivery arrangement. Often, you can expedite your order – as we’ve done on custom work we needed on a time crunch, but this usually comes at added cost.

11. The Finished Look

An amazing canvas print + the right space = perfection!

We love how printed canvases have helped us to create artwork in our home that has a personal touch. Using our own photos helps to solidify our space as, well, ours.

We’ve seen so many images from happy clients who’ve taken their wedding photos and blown them up into canvases – another great way to take those personal memories and remind yourself of them again and again.

And, if you happen to not be into capturing your own images, you can always by canvas prints from photographers and artists online using a platform like Society6. We actually just recently bought this pretty cool and surreal piece for our dining room!