High quality photo canvas prints are becoming ever more popular. You can find them adorning the walls of homes and offices up and down the country. However, when it comes to buying your first photo canvas, it can be difficult to know what to look for in a canvas company. Fortunately it doesn’t require an art degree to spot the best canvas companies from the rest. With a few of our pointers as to where to look, spotting the best is easy.

What quality is the frame?

The frame is what holds your canvas up. Without it, you can’t hang your canvas on your wall and your photo will just sit rolled up in a tube in the garage. It makes sense that you want a sturdy, high quality frame to keep your canvas on the wall. You want to be looking for a lightweight wood such as Kiln Dried Knot free pine, to ensure the frames will not warp with time, and frames which are about 38mm thick. This will give your photo canvas the perfect ratio of weight to strength – its light enough to sit happily on the wall, but strong enough that it’ll stay together if it’s ever knocked off.

What quality is the canvas?

To most people, a canvas is a canvas. It’s just the white thing that artists paint on, right? Wrong. If you want the highest quality canvas to make your photo as bright and vivid as possible, there are a few things to look out for. You should look for a heavyweight, bright white, textured archival grade poly-cotton blend that would give your canvas print not only longevity – but a beautiful consistent texture and incredibly wide colour gamut reproduction. Our quality canvas prints are guaranteed to last over 100 years without fading. You also want to check the weight of the canvas. Don’t settle for anything less than a heavyweight 420gsm canvas, as you don’t want the canvas to tear easily. You never know when your kids are going to start aggressively poking their fingers at their favourite bits of the photo!

What quality is the finish?

Everyone knows that time fades all things. Ultraviolet light does this too, and can really speed up that deterioration process, bleaching everything with enough time. This is why you need your photo canvas to be laminated in a satin print varnish which offers UV protection, colour enhancement and increased resistance to scuffing, abrasion and image fading. Don’t be afraid to ask the canvas company which varnish they use, as the best companies will be proud of their varnish. Here at Parrot Print Canvas we hand laminate all of our products with a varnish that has been archival certified by the Fine Art Trade Guild. Our satin print varnish affords your photo canvas over 100 year’s archival certified protection.

How are they printed & manufactured?

We’re passionate about the quality of our prints, and there are many ways to skin a cat, but invariably some ways will always be better than others. If you’re going to hang you canvas in a place of pride for years to come, why settle for a poorly made product? We use the latest fine art digital print technology which HP spent over $1 billion on in R&D. We all want our décor to look as nice as what you see in the National Art Gallery, so why not use the same technology they use for their reproduction prints? Coupled together with our rigid colour management and quality control standards, this allows for a custom canvas of unparalleled quality. Our customers would not settle for second best, and neither would we!

Do they offer any guarantees?

A canvas is something you should be proud to hang on your wall. If you aren’t happy to hang our work on your wall, we have a problem. We take immense pride in our work, which is why we offer our Love It! Lifetime Guarantee. When looking for a photo canvas company keep an eye out for money-back guarantees if you aren’t entirely satisfied. Likewise, keep an eye out for bonuses like anti-image pixilation guarantees, as there’s nothing worse than receiving a poorly manufactured, dull pixelated print.

How easy are they to use?

A lot of our customers provide us with photos taken on their mobile phones which are hosted on the likes of Facebook and Instagram. If you’re looking to get your Instagram photo printed, make sure the site you’re using supports that. If the site isn’t easy and convenient to use, the chances of them providing easy and convenient customer service is pretty slim. Likewise, make sure that the site offers post-production options such as colour correction, cropping and basic colour filters. These should be a staple of any photo canvas company, so it they’re not there, the chances of receiving a high quality professional looking canvas are relatively slim.

With these things in mind, picking the best photo canvas company should be a lot easier than it was before. If you have any questions about high quality photo canvases, or how to get the best canvas for your photography, make sure you call Parrot Print today. A member of our team will be on hand to give you all the help and advice you need.