Printing pics on canvas

Even the largest of canvases can be printed using comparatively conservative resolutions. The weave of the canvas itself helps to smooth neighbouring tones into one another as the inks soak into the material, like paints in a painting. Being larger than photo prints, canvases are usually viewed from across the room rather than close up, which means that the naked eye is unable to spot dull edges within the image. That means that even the original iPhone – never mind the current eight-megapixel models – could take shots that are suitable for printing this way.

If you’re planning on printing a 60x40cm (24x16-inch) canvas Photobox, you can get away with 2 megapixel shots (although if you can stretch to twice that you’ll naturally get better results). Take advantage of this by cropping out any surplus areas within the shot to give your subject greater prominence – and, optionally, to reposition it within the frame to adhere to the rule of thirds.

If you want to apply a coloured wrap around to the frame (rather than stick with the printer’s default white edging or a continuation of your image), add a fat border, specifying a width on each side to match the depth of the wooden frame around which the canvas will be stretched. Select a colour for this that compliments the dominant tones within the shot.

If you can’t decide which is the best colour, Color Thief can pick for you. Create a web-ready version of your image (you can compress it heavily) and drag it onto the blank frame at the bottom of lokeshdhakar.com/ projects/color-thief. Use ç+ß + 3 to take a screenshot showing the result, open this in Photoshop and use the eyedropper tool to sample Color Thief’s suggested tone for use in your border.