Printing on canvas

A modern thermal colour printing process is used to produce canvas prints at photo-on-canvas.co.uk, similar to the principle of inkjet printing. UV dyes with pigments are mixed together in varying proportions from twelve different dye chambers and each pixel is printed onto the canvas using jet nozzles that are fine as a hair.

A pixel is a dot in an image and is the smallest measurable unit in the output of digital images. On canvas prints, each pixel is separated into four more printing elements based on their brightness and colour. This means that the original image information is broken down into a fine grid screen when printing on canvas. The individual dots are printed separately, colour by colour, onto the canvas. These printed dots cannot be recognised by the person viewing the image at high resolutions, with individual pixels being recognisable at most. With canvas printing, resolutions are given as standard in dpi (dots per inch) which describes the density of the dots on the printed product.

The photo on canvas is unwound from the printer material spool during the printing process in tiny steps, just a few millimetres at a time; this requires absolute precision and optimum timing when printing on canvas, otherwise stripes would form on the printed image. Laser sensors that constantly monitor the position and alignment of the materials are used to ensure this, and carry out any corrections should they be necessary. This is how a perfect print on canvas is produced.