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Genius Printing Blog |
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November 12th, 2010
How often do you see your friend’s handwriting? Not often? In an age of email, text messages and Facebook, when you reach a milestone it’s common for the thoughts and well wishes of your friend’s to be typed up and electronically sent to you. Break the cycle by adding something extra to your next celebration with a signing board.
A signing board is a perfect keepsake for weddings, major birthdays, graduations, bon voyages, personal achievements and celebrations. Using pigment inks and printed on independently tested Canson Infinity canvas, a signing board is an image of your choice with surrounding white space for people to sign on. It’s a guest book with a difference. You’ll be able to look back on a one in a lifetime event with this custom made piece of wall art. Examples of the image could be the invitation itself, a pre wedding shot or any image you like. A popular way to create an impressive signing board is to have a caricature created and printed on canvas.
 
Place it near the entry on a table in a pool of streamers, glitter and permanent markers. Or simply stand it on an easel, you’ll find that this will generate plenty of conversation as people gather around and write their names and possibly some humorous and insightful notes especially for you.
Another popular use for Genius Printing’s signing boards is to commemorate a season or period of time that you’ll know you’ll want to remember forever. These could include a year of school with your classmates, a theatre group, a family reunion, a holiday, whatever you can think of - the options are endless!
If your sporting team kicks arse in the grand final or you simply want to remember an awesome season, have your team photo, team colours or a favourite moment from a crazy sport trip printed on canvas with enough space for all of your team mates to sign. This is also a great gift idea for a proud couch or giveaway at your next local club raffle.
Proud of your business? Create a bit of lively office culture by having your staff sign on a canvas around an image of the company logo or latest staff photo. Hang it in the reception area or in the foyer for your clients to see. This is also a great gift idea for the boss who has everything.
Fill blank space like you fill your spare time, with your friends and loved ones. This way you’ll remember it forever.
Tags: Canson Infinity, Canvas Printing, Caricature, Gift idea, Independently tested, photos on canvas, Signing board
Posted in canvas prints | No Comments »
October 27th, 2010
When the time comes to hang your new canvas print on the wall, the following tips may make your installation a little easier…
Placement: You might hear some people say that the first rule to picture hanging is to make the centre of the frame hang at eye level on the wall. This method will work well with most canvas prints, however don’t be afraid to experiment! Some of the most aesthetically amazing designs are those that break convention. Try juxtaposing the image against your existing wall art or furniture, place triptychs diagonally, or perhaps complement your new canvas print with an unusual lighting effect. You are the curator of your own space, as long as you’re comfortable with the end result, the options are endless.
Tools: I remember a time when using an electronic stud finder was a high-tech experience. Now we can download bubble level applications for our smart phones. As fun as they might be, don’t feel as though you need the latest gadget to hang your canvas on the wall. A hammer and a generic picture hook will do the job just as well.
Hanging: Common sense will prevail in this situation. Make sure that the picture is resting flat against the wall. Don’t be afraid to use grey-lead or chalk directly on the wall as it can obviously be removed with an eraser. If you’re not confident about your levelling skills, we recommend using a bubble level or measuring tapes. At Genius Printing, we go by the philosophy of overcompensating for hooks. If you’re worried about the weight of the canvas, use two hooks rather than one.
Other options: Who says that your canvas print needs to be hung on the wall? Instead, rest it on a small shelf perhaps with other art objects or personal ornaments. This will add a contemporary, fashionable look to the room.
All of our products are created with an appropriate hanging device attached to the backing. Genius Printing products such as Stretched Canvas Art Prints, Circular Stretched Canvas and Shadow Mounts are ready made with strong hanging wire.
Other Genius Printing products such as Float Mounts and Fine Art Metals are ready made with D-rings secured to the backing mount.
Acrylic Ice has two hanging options, hanging wire and standoffs. If you prefer to hang the Acrylic Ice on the wall using the attached hanging wire, the standoffs are simply used to hold the product together and offset the product from the wall. The Acrylic Ice product comes with detailed hanging instructions when delivered to you in case you decide to secure the product onto the wall using the standoffs. This involves using the supplied wall plugs and drilling screws through the cavity of the offsets. As this a little tricky we recommend the help of at least two people.
Now that your prints are securely on the wall, invite your friends over to ‘hang’ out and see your handy work.
Tags: Acrylic Ice, Canvas Printing, Circular Stretched Canvas, Fine Art Metal, Float Mounts, Hanging tips, Picture hanging, Shadow Mounts, stretched canvas
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
October 25th, 2010
Well it has literally been a year since our last entry and we are keen to get back on the blog wagon.
Keep an eye on this space because we are excited to tell you all about our new products, ideas and competitions in the upcoming weeks.
Also, all of us at Genius Printing agree that the coolest thing about this job is the fact that we get to see so many amazing photographs and artwork come through our printers. Genius Printing has so many talented customers! Inspired by our Image Essentials exhibition held earlier this year, we’d love to see photos of your latest canvas prints on your wall space so everyone can enjoy them as much as we loved seeing them.
As well as getting the blog up and going, we’ve started a Facebook fan page. Check us out and friend us as there will be special deals for Facebook fans.
Until then, you’ll be happy snapping and we’ll be happy canvas printing!
Tags: Canvas Printing, canvas prints, Facebook, photo canvas, photos on canvas, Social Media
Posted in Latest News | 2 Comments »
October 13th, 2009
Travel photography is one of the best ways of communicating the amazing experiences you may have had whilst travelling the world. Whether you’ve captured a moment of full-on culture shock or glimpsed something that makes an exotic location unique and memorable, some travel shots demand special attention. This is when canvas printing comes to the fore.
We’ve seen some incredibly diverse images come through from people’s travels… landscape panoramas from all corners of the globe. Street art collages. Towering urban architecture. Thousands of images of the world’s most famous landmarks. Having the standout images from a collection printed onto canvas can be the perfect way show off your favourite holiday moments.
Tags: Canvas Printing, canvas prints, photo canvas, photos on canvas, picture canvas, printing on canvas, travel photos
Posted in canvas prints | No Comments »
October 7th, 2009
As the canvas printing industry grows it becomes critical that you find a supplier that is using the best materials available, so you get the best canvas print.
The only way that you can be sure that the canvas being used by your supplier is best quality is independent colour testing. There are only a small number of laboratories worldwide that are considered an authority on colour reproduction, longevity, fading etc. The most highly regarded of these is Wilhelm Imaging Research.
Rigorous testing is done on the permanence of inks, make-up of the canvas or paper and their reactions in dry, dark, light, humid and protected conditions. The results are then published so anyone can access them. It is vitally important that the lab be an independent body and recognised as such. Otherwise there is no way to guarantee the results of the testing.
If the canvas is an unknown brand or it hasn’t been independently fade-tested, then how can you know any good? Canvases of unknown brand, origin or construction may be prone to fading over time or even yellowing over time.
Genius Printing offer the Canson Infinity canvas and paper range. The canvas has been tested to over 100 years of colour lasting.
Tags: 100% cotton canvas, Canson Infinity, Canvas Printing, canvas prints, colour lasting, colour testing, low resolution, photo canvas, photos on canvas, picture canvas, poly cotton canvas, printing on canvas, UV Damage, UV Protection
Posted in Latest News | No Comments »
September 8th, 2009
A big question that you have to ask yourself when you’re printing your photos on canvas is what wrapping type you’d like to use. The wrapping is the canvas that goes around the edge of the frame. Genius Printing offers four options, Gallery, Genius, No Gallery and Pixel Bleed.
A Gallery wrap uses the image itself to wrap around the frame. So using a Gallery wrap means you’ll lose part of the edges of your image. So you wouldn’t want to use it when someone is standing at the edge of the frame.
As you can see with this Gallery wrap (indicated by the red shading) a large portion of the image is being lost to the wrapping. In this case we are losing part of the hammer, which we want to keep as it’s the focal point of the photo.
The Genius wrap can help fix this problem, al it does is crop the image to the shape of the canvas frame. It then copies the edges and flips the onto the wrap. This gives the appearance of the image wrapping around the edges without the loss that you get from a gallery wrap.
The Genius wrap works well with the majority of images, although it does tend to have issues if there is a focal point of an image near the edge. For instance if there is a face near the edge of an image then it will look pretty odd if it’s mirrored onto the edge!
You can also just opt for a No Gallery wrap. This is either blank canvas or a colour of your choice. If you can’t find the colour that you want you can just enter the RGB numbers into the order notes.
This is just a neutral grey border. Many people may not want to use a solid border as it won’t work aesthetically with either your photo or the room you want to hang it in.
The last standard option you have for a wrapping type is the Pixel Bleed. This takes the edge pixel of the image and stretches it around the frame. It works great in circumstances where a Genius wrap won’t work.
One issue that can crop up with the Pixel Bleed is that it can tend to look ’streaky’. If that wouldn’t work for you then this isn’t the wrap to choose.
It all comes down to personal taste, but there are a few things to look out for. Happy printing!
Tags: Canvas Printing, canvas prints, canvas stretching, Giclee Printing, photo canvas, photos on canvas, picture canvas, printing on canvas, stretched canvas, Wrapping type
Posted in canvas prints | No Comments »
September 1st, 2009
There is a way that many businesses try to cut their costs for canvas prints, many skip properly stretching the canvas. No one talks about it on their sites, but canvas tension is very important.
When you receive your canvas prints they should be very tight, there should be no visible slacking. This means that when they sit on the wall they will look nice, consistent and even. If they aren’t tight then they will sag, and believe me… You’ll notice. Many seek to cut their costs by simply folding the canvas over the frame and stapling it down. This just doesn’t cut it if you want a good quality end product. The canvas should be properly stretched using canvas pliers (and preferably by someone with the proper training!), this is the only way to get the best tension on the canvas print.
When you receive your canvas and pull it out of the packaging it should be taut like a drum, if on the other hand you can see it sagging against the frame then you should call the company and ask them why they choose not to properly make their canvas prints.
This may sound a bit harsh, but we strongly believe that if you’re going to offer a fine art product like canvas prints, then you should do everything possible to make it the best it can be. After all if you put your favourite photos on canvas and hung it up in your house wouldn’t you want it to be the best it could be?
Tags: Canvas Printing, canvas prints, canvas stretching, photo canvas, photos on canvas, picture canvas, poly cotton canvas, stretched canvas, Stretcher Bars, tension
Posted in canvas prints | No Comments »
August 25th, 2009
So you’ve just taken a beautiful photo of the sunset and you want to turn it into a canvas print. Unfortunately the horizon isn’t straight. Well don’t worry, straightening the horizon is a very simple process in Photoshop or similar software. Here is a quick guide on how to do it in PS.
Open your photo and select the ruler tool.
Make a line with the ruler between the two ends of the horizon.
Select rotate canvas arbitrary, click ok.
 
This will rotate the image so that the horizon is now straight.
You now just need to resize the image to eliminate the the odd sides. Select the whole image, select transform and then enlarge the image until you can’t see the white.
  
You now have a straight horizon ready to put your photos on canvas!
Tags: Canvas Printing, Giclee Printing, Horizon Straightening, Image Manipulation, photo canvas, photos on canvas, picture canvas
Posted in Tech Tips | No Comments »
August 11th, 2009
Stretcher bars are an essential component of canvas prints. They literally hold everything together!
So when you print your photos on canvas then it’s important to have high quality bars. It is essential that your printer use kiln-dried bars. These may be almost any type of wood, the most common is pine. If wood isn’t kiln-dried then it still contains moisture. This moisture will eventually leave the wood, the result is warping and shrinking. This can leave your canvas slack and misshapen.
Kiln-drying wood gets rid of all the shrinking and warping during the drying process. This means that your kiln-dried stretcher bars won’t shrink or warp when assembled. It also crystalizes any sap (tannin) pockets, eliminating the possibility of tannin leeching.
The other question to ask is whether to use soft or hardwood. Typically people use pine (a softwood), and there is nothing wrong with pine, it’s cheap and easily sourced. Alternatively hardwood can be used. There is a bit of a stigma about using hardwood because of the association with old growth logging. However not all hardwood is old growth wood. Genius Printing uses Eco-Select hardwood, this hardwood is forested using methods approved by the Green Building Council of Australia. So yes, our wood is ‘green’.
The other myth out there is that all hardwood leeches tannins. This isn’t the case. ALL woods contain tannins, some more than others. Many hardwoods do have large amounts of tannins as do many softwoods. When talking about tannins you must be specific to the particular timber you’re using and the the grade of timber you’re using. Genius Printing uses Eucalyptus regnans, commonly known as Tasmanian Oak or Victorian Ash. It has a low amounts of tannin present, it is easy to work and the grain is straight with long and clear sections without knots. This wood is highly regarded by builders, furniture makers and architects. The wood Genius uses is furniture grade meaning it has no sap pockets present in it.
Hardwood stretcher bars have much greater tensile strength than pine stretcher bars. This means you can have much longer stretcher bars without having to increase the profile or size of the bar. Another advantage is that hardwood grows slower than pine which means the grain grows closer together, as well as greater strength. This also gives hardwood greater moisture resistance. All wood will re-absorb moisture eventually but hardwoods will take significantly longer to re-absorb than pine.
So the main thing to worry about with your canvas prints is whether the bars are kiln-dried. But if you have the option between hardwood and pine, hardwood is the better choice. Why would you buy a Holden when you could get a Mercedes for the same price?
Tags: Canvas Printing, canvas prints, hardwood, photo canvas, photos on canvas, picture canvas, pine, Stretcher Bars, tannins
Posted in Tech Tips, canvas prints | No Comments »
August 4th, 2009
After many headaches and late nights at the computer the new Lens Trends is finished. It’s where you can get other peoples photos on canvas !
Lens Trends features a library catalogue of thousands of images covering a variety of categories from imaginative generic images for domestic and office canvas display, to artistic digital interpretations of people and places, countries and cultures, history, landscapes, plant, bird and animal life from around the world.
All images in this library have been supplied by customers of Genius Printing. Genius Printing is Australia’s leading canvas printing supplier.
All images in this library can be purchased for printing onto canvas. You pay for the price of the image and then the cost of printing it onto canvas by Genius Printing. The cost of printing depends on how large you’d like the image printed.
Tags: Canvas Printing, canvas prints, image library, photo canvas, photos on canvas, picture canvas, printing on canvas
Posted in Latest News | No Comments »
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