Canvas

There are Two Types of Canvases as far as the blend or the base of the canvas, the base of the sub straight. When they make canvas and then weaving them together, the thread that they weave the canvas with can either be of a 100 % cotton, or cotton polyester blend.

The disadvantage or advantage is 100% cotton is what the conservatory’s museums they want to stay with the 100% cotton because that’s tradition. Okay?

The cotton poly blends still has the same or fiber quality but has a little bit more stretch to it so what we find is it’s a little bit nicer to stretch, a little bit nicer to make the edges line up in the granary rack. It has less chance of belling or gathering wrinkles in the stretch canvas. All canvas expands and contracts from the heat and the cold. During the day, when it gets hotter, the canvas is going to get a little bit looser. When it gets colder, it’s going to tighten up. When it gets more humid, it’s going to get looser; when it gets drier it’s going to tighten up. And over time that continually expanding and contracting is going to give you a belling or loosing of the canvas on a stretcher bar. The cotton poly blend tends to hold that for a longer then what you can get with the 100% cotton. They both are great products; they both were great so it’s really a personal property. Most of the time we’re using a cotton poly blend.

The other thing to consider in canvas is stretching conditions. When you're stretching canvas of your stretching on a really human condition, then no matter where that stretch canvas got shipped to, another words of a god shipped torn, a human condition or got shipped to a dry condition, the canvases it’s going to loosen up. So we had a scenario where we had our really high end granary producing hundreds of canvases in Hawaii with the relative humidity is around 65%- 70% and then you can ship that anywhere in the country and they’ve never had any problems. They didn’t change your production facility to Las Vegas where the humidity was around five to seven. What happen is there is stretching of the canvases where there’s virtually no humidity and whenever a canvas got shipped into any area more humidity, the canvas is loosened up or wrinkled. The way they resolve that issue is by humidifying that room to around 45-50 relative humidities.

So that’s another part of consideration is when your stretching canvases, is the condition of where you stretch the most canvases out. Ideal scenarios always have a more humid condition because no matter where they got shipped, they would only tighten the canvas not loosen it.

The next choice that you can get in the canvas is the choice between a single weave or a double weave.

A single weave is one canvas, one thread coming from the right to the left and one thread going from top to bottom and is weaving with each other.

A double weave would mean there are two threads coming from right to left with one thread from top to bottom. A double weave is going to have a little bit more texture and it’s going to be a little bit more durable, so the double with is a more of a premium products and it’s a personal preference. I find it has been successful, stretchable for them. A lot of customers don’t like the single weave as much because they can't tear the canvas more easily. So that is the personal preference. I would say probing at any very large canvases with double weave would always be the choice of the selection.
So this would be where of the different tune is single weave is that the double weave is going to be a thicker canvas.

Now, let’s talk about the coatings that are on canvas. The initial coatings that come on canvas, when they produce a canvas, the first weave in the canvas then they're putting a Jose coating which is your base foundation that are arranged with the pin on the top up. And then they're putting an ink jet receptor coating.

The very first coating that came out was gelatin and resin pastes that are not water resistant so those canvases had water spilt on them. Then the ink with literally melt of the canvas and those canvases also have to have a coating that’s a solvent based coating. You never could use eco-print shelter. You need a newer water based coatings on this happy canvas.

Now that technology is being changed today by the -eramic pores or micro pores coatings. Those coatings are water resistant and what they really are I've been looking a t the coating microscopically is at these are microscopic a little cups that are holding it on the canvas. And they are what give such good placement; such could sharpness and give the fidelity on the depth and the color gamete and the great D Max or the black of the canvas.

So the newest technology is now micro pores technology. And that micro pores technology is a water resistant coating that means that you can print on that product, take the canvas and merely put it under running water and it will not wash off, that canvas would then be a kind of as you can use with the water based coating.

Now the canvases that you can get are also come in three surfaces. You will get them in mat, satin or gloss. The difference between them is first of the mat canvas is more economical to produce than a satin or gloss. A satin or gloss cost more money that takes more coatings to one to the canvas. What we’ve found out is that if you're proofing for a customer, that’s doing images that what really bright, brilliant, vibrant deep images or images that are underwater have water on the scene, the clients more likely is going to print and have their final product be a gloss.

So if you start with a satin or gloss canvas, and you put gloss coatings on it, it takes pure coatings to keep it really high gloss. If you start with the mat canvas and you go gloss coatings on it, it’s going to take you one or two more coats in order to replicate that same high glass you get with the satin or gloss canvass. So one of the reasons you would choose a gloss or satin is between you and the client was going to go of high gloss or satin. As a finished product, you probably would start with that canvas because it takes less coating. All the canvases mat, satin and gloss can't you could make a look identical by playing the finish coatings on them with enough coats. Another word is a mat with three to four coats of gloss is going to look it just like the gloss canvas with two coats of gloss.

So it’s really an issue of what you like to look at when you're proofing. Okay? If you like to look at a shiny print when you're proofing, and a shiny print always makes the blacks to the D max looks blacker, then you would choose the gloss canvas with the satin canvas.

If economics was an issue, then always the mat canvas you're going to go but it’s going to take a little bit more coating if you do one of the super high glosses your finished product.

We find for ourselves that the majority 80%- 90% of our prints, we actually do with a satin or a Lester coat, not our super high gloss. A super high gloss print does have better depth, but does have better D max blacks that is, and it does have more richness in the colors. But those have our canvases have so much shine on them that you have to have really control viewing conditions and control lives a gallery lighting in order to enjoy those images without getting glare on those canvases.

So we use here starting with the mat canvas and we’re putting two coats of gloss and then our third coat is either a satin or mat to impart the surface to the canvas.

All of the canvases that we do to have the long Jevity, we’re putting the finishing protective coating on those canvases. So that gives you kind a bit overview of mat satin and gloss. Basically, gloss is sad it’s going to cost more than mat. In mat, you can get the same look, but it’s going to require more coats if you want it to be a high gloss.