Latex prints very well on canvas.
In fact, a lot of the largest canvas producers in the country, printers, use Latex printers.
Latex is a six-color printer.
So, it is not a fine art canvas printer.
A fine art canvas printer, would sometimes called a Giclee process, is going to be a
much larger color gamut; in some cases, twelve colors.
We have a commercial canvas printer.
But even with the six colors, the quality is very good.
What Latex is exceptional about with canvas is, we have very good quality at an excellent speed.
And because we're using water-based ink and thermal print heads,
it is very rare to have nozzle dropouts while it's printing.
It can do long runs of consistent color.
And also, with the new anti-slip, which allows us to have better scratch resistance on the ink,
the inks are much more resilient to scratching than they have been in previous generations.
For most canvas printers, commercial canvas printers,
they do not need to use a water-based laminate after they've printed.
Now, in some cases, if you want real imperviousness, you may need to put a water-based laminate.
The good news is, we use a water-based ink,
and you can use water-based after-laminates if you feel it's needed.
So, at least you're not using a gooey, smelly, solvent laminate.
The Latex will allow the water-based laminate there, and it will give you sort of a reassurance
that you have true imperviabili… imperviousness to scratching.
But for most people it's really not needed.
We've achieved a level of scratch resistance on canvas that for most end-users is acceptable.
That is, it meets their expectations for printing, fabrication, stretching, and shipment.
You hang it on the wall; ordinarily people don't walk up
to a canvas and start scratching away at it.
What I want to show you is some of the different types of canvas, what they are, and what they
mean, and some of the virtues of Latex on canvas.
This is a matte canvas.
My homely friend here is a matte-based canvas.
Canvases will all have different sort of top coatings.
They can be gloss – we traditionally associate them with gloss – matte, luster, semi-gloss.
These indicate that the surface has a certain reflectivity in it, and a gloss to it.
So, this is more of a matte canvas.
One nice thing about Latex is, when you're printing on canvases,
the Latex takes on the surface of the material.
So, matte will generally print matte, luster will print luster, semi-gloss, semi-gloss,
and gloss will print gloss.
It's not uniformly gloss, even when you're printing on luster.
Now, in this case there are different types of canvas.
So, this is an Ultraflex True canvas.
This is Giclee gloss.
This is a polyester cotton blend.
It is what they call a two-in-one.
So, they weave it so that when you stretch it, it's going to stay stretched.
It is a higher quality, printable canvas.
And frequently these are used with automated stretching equipment, which is very unforgiving.
They're going to pull in both directions and staple it down.
Because latex is such a flexible ink chemistry, it doesn't crack when you do that.
The latex will stretch very nicely over the canvas.
Also, you have a beautiful color gamut with latex, especially on these rich, gloss canvases.
You can print on gloss.
Here is a BF media.
Ultraflex.
Tara / Fredericks is a very large canvas manufacturer here in the United States.
They're right near my hometown, outside of Atlanta.
And also, here's Aurora; that's a very good canvas, also.
And that is a longtime partner of ours.
We've even been printing on some natural canvasses; almost linen-type materials.
You know, these real raw, natural canvases print very well with the Latex printer.
And then, again, BF Inkjet.
Almost all canvases will work very well through the Latex printer.
In most cases, you're going to be looking at about a 12 pass print, with about 120 percent ink.
I have also gone a little more than that.
I have even gone as high as a hundred and fifty.
The thing with canvas is, you really want quality.
You need enough ink there to have a nice, rich, saturated color
And you can't reduce the ink, because then you're going to have a little bit of a washed-out print.
And canvas usually signals that the customer is looking
for a nice, rich, saturated, vibrant print.
So, I would say that canvas would mostly start at 10 pass, 110; maybe 12 pass to 120 percent ink,
is usually where I sit.
And then occasionally I'll even go to 12 pass, 130 percent.
Or in extreme cases I might even go to a 16 pass,
or a 12 pass with an inter-pass delay at 150-percent density.
Those are really preferences.
And it also has to do with the surface of the canvas.
Some canvases have a beautiful finish on them that allows the ink to be highly receptive.
And some are highly textured and irregular, and those can require different ink sets.
Some might be much lower; some might be higher.
One thing I do want to mention about canvas, particularly with Optimizer.
On the printer itself, when you choose canvas as a category, it's actually coated canvas
and, or coated textile in canvas.
That is the actual selection we're recommending.
And it will allow you to put up to 120 percent ink.
The trouble is, when you choose that selection, the default number for the Optimizer is 12.
That is incorrect.
It really should probably start at 30.
If you use the Media Locator and you look at canvases
– so, choose three or four popular canvases.
And then when you open them up you can see the formula,
the sort of baselines that we recommend for those canvases.
We tell you the settings.
In those settings you'll see that the vast majority of
canvas really starts at 30 percent Optimizer.
In some cases, the most Optimizer I've ever seen on a canvas, I think, is 47 percent Optimizer.
And that was on a very irregular surface, matte canvas.
Canvas is a textured material.
And with that texture, the ink has to land on top of the canvas.
And the Optimizer is the thing that pins it, or fixes it.
If you don't have enough Optimizer on canvas, what happens is, the ink sort of drips down
into the valleys, and it doesn't stay up on the peaks.
Canvas is kind of irregular when you look at it in a loop.
That ink needs to stay up on top.
Otherwise, you get this little flecking and flacking.
You can also have bleeding and coalescence issues.
So, I strongly recommend if you're going to build your own canvas – and a lot of people
do; myself include – it's a simple three-step process on a 360.
In the first step, make sure you go into the advanced tab and change that ink, the Optimizer,
from 12 up to 30.
And then later you can always test it and see if you need a little more Optimizer.
But 30 is usually a pretty good place to start, at least for canvas.
Just wanted to give you a heads-up on that.
It's one of those little quirks inside there.
So, that is the canvas… um… settings, and the opportunities on canvas for the Latex printer.
Have at them.
We have a very large selection in the Media Locator.
There's an awful lot of certified canvas.
They're all very good.
And if you have your own canvas, take your time, and build the color work.
The printer will handle almost all the heavy lifting.