DSF

Thanks Ross

From what you say and the questions you ask it looks like I have a lot of reading and research to do. I'll need to find out if the Epson WP models can print on canvas or not. The WP-7610 and 7620 are A3 and use pigment inks and cost between €250-€320, considerably more expensive than the equivalent Brother printers.

Madeira is a very touristy island and I also want to take advantage of this fact by making use of the thousands of photos I have taken over the years and canvas was my first choice.

Initially I read about using quality Neenah paper transfers onto canvas. Then I read your posts and became very interested in printing direct to canvas, but always thought that a fairly expensive printer was needed, which at the moment I can't really afford.

The method you use to hang the canvas is very interesting and very practical for tourists to take with as they don't occupy so much space as a full frame would. What are those 2 bits of wood attached to the canvas called?

You say that by using Epson inks the Brother loses vibrancy. Does it lose a lot or only a little?. How about good quality 3rd party pigment inks like OCP from Germany, will the Brother do well on canvas using them?

Thanks
Gil

Hi Gil,

I use a number of diffrent methods to produce my work. The canvas A3 prints actually got me started before I discovered Dye Sublimation. You can buy pads of 10 pages of A3 canvas, but it is sometimes hard to get really nice bright white. I think that, more than the less vibrant inks, is the difference for me. However, Epson has an ink called 'ultrachrome' and on really bright white canvas using a custom ICC profile it is specatcular. We have a member here w called Paul who can give you all the information you need about profiles and can create one for you for a very reasonable charge. Do some searches in the forum for ICC Profiles.

Again, the reason I use Brother is because I like them and because they are cheap here. Retail for an A3 is about $250 and on special $195. I can print hundreds of A3 pages then just throw the printer away if it breaks. So far though they are fine for me. The reason I'm suggesting Epson for you is just availability and service

The hangers are based on the old idea of hanging posters on walls in the 1970s. Almost every shared flat had a modern poem called 'Desiderata' on the wall in A4, hung from plastic strip top and bottom. We also had bigger posters of bands and hippie stuff. Because the plastic poster strips are hard to get here these days, I tried wooden strips in a couple of sizes also. Some people actually ask for the wood, so now I do 3 different things.

I tried the idea of heat transfer early on (a few years ago) and discovered most canvas is treated with a coating to make the ink sit on top of the canvas. Applying a heat transfer (I used Jetpro SofStretch) often peeled this coating off. So I decided to print direct to canvas. There's a setting for that on Brother printers and I guess also on most others.

Here's another A3 wall hanging from my early jobs. Now I cut the ends of the hanger even with the canvas.


Here's one using Dye Sublimation. A3 print onto a pre-stretched canvas. The canvas has to be treated with a polyester coating first for this to work and be permanent. These are expensive, but popular with customers. So basically, there is no framing and stretching to do. Just treat the canvas, then apply the sublimated print just as if you were printing a shirt.

By the way, they are only blurry because I'm using really low resolution images to post on the forum.