File size for canvas print

[rpcrowe]

I was going to order an 18 x 24 inch print from Easy Canvas Prints. The largest file size that I can upload to their site is 20mb which seems somewhat small for a print that size...

Is it in fact too small? If not, what would be the best way to size the file that I am uploading so that I would get the best quality reproduction.

[pschlute]

Do they require a specific ppi for your file ?

20mb should be fine as long as you are sending them a jpeg

What are the details of the picture you want printed ? pixels/ppi

[Round Tuit]

At 18" x 24" you can get away with printing at 200ppi particularly if you are printing on canvas. This would require approximately 18 megapixels of data which should fit comfortably in a 5 Mb jpeg file.

[Manfred M]

Does not seem small at all.

As a general rule, 8-bit works fine as no ink jet printer I am aware of prints at can reproduce more than around 1,000,000 individual colour shades, so the 16 million that a simple sRGB jpeg can reproduce will be fine. They claim to be using latex based inks, so these I suspect they are using custom inks. I seem to remember reading that these commercial printers tend to work native resolutions of either 75 or 150 dpi and given the rough surface of the canvas used, that is more than enough. These are not going to be high resolution prints.

I would be tempted to contact the company and ask for their printer profiles and resolution so that you can prepare and soft proof the image yourself.

[DanK]

20 MB is huge. Most labs want JPEGs, and a 100% JPEG from one of my 5D III files is less than 10 MB.

[Hevii Guy]

I would be tempted to contact the company and ask for their printer profiles and resolution so that you can prepare and soft proof the image yourself.

Experience has shown that many of these large on-line printing services unfortunately won't provide proper ICC combination profiles. Fortunately, this frustration resulted in me searching for and finding a very capable local lab for a recent (and likely, most future) print job(s).

[DanK]

Experience has shown that many of these large on-line printing services unfortunately won't provide proper ICC combination profiles. Fortunately, this frustration resulted in me searching for and finding a very capable local lab for a recent (and likely, most future) print job(s).

I've only used two labs, Bay Photo and Adoramapix, because I do almost all of my own printing. Both provide ICCs, but I don't know whether Bay Photo provides one specifically for canvas. You would have to e-mail them. Bay Photo is explicit that their ICCs are only for soft proofing and should not embedded. They accept both sRGB and Adobe RGB JPEGs.

[Manfred M]

Experience has shown that many of these large on-line printing services unfortunately won't provide proper ICC combination profiles. Fortunately, this frustration resulted in me searching for and finding a very capable local lab for a recent (and likely, most future) print job(s).

In general the online labs that do printing are very much like the photofinishers of years gone by and cater to "retail" clients that only want a picture that they took printed without having to worry about any technical details.

Just as in the film days, there are custom printers that do higher end work, with prices to match. Off the top of my head, I am aware of four such printing companies in the areas that I live (Ottawa - Gatineau, which has a population of over 1.3 million) with a few more around as well. While they take on-line submissions, they are not major eCommerce players like the ones that Dan has pointed out.

[rpcrowe]

I received my print from Easy Canvas Prints and I am quite happy with it. It is sharp (for a canvas print) and the color, contrast and density is right on!

The price was not bad either $27.27 (USD) for an 18x24 stretched canvas print with about ten dollars or so for shipping...