Apdenmark with their distributors Graficomp launched their exciting production of prints, from printer to mounted and finished in a stretcher frame at Sign Africa, held at Sandton Convention Centre from 8 to 10 September.

Graficomp are suppliers of Apdenmark canvas frames and accessories. One of the fastest growing products in the market for digital printing is the canvas picture, and Apdenmark has specialised in supplying all accessories for your canvas production.

It is amazing how much the value of a print can increase just by adding a stretcher frame to it. The acrylic satin coating gives the optimal UV and scratch protection to the printed image and dries in five minutes. Finding the right and consistent canvas media is not easy. With the different HP canvas media you are confident that you have right product for the right image. With stand alone MOSAIC 2.0 Software, you can make a mosaic picture effortlessly!

http://www.signafrica.com/indexPage.php?page=viewNewsletterArticle&id=2603

Stretcher bars are a critical part of the canvas framing process. They come in all shapes and sizes and can be used for a variety of framing needs. You can use them for large prints or small prints, as well as every size in between. Anyone who works with canvas art, including painters as well as those who produce digital prints and photographs understands the importance of stretchers in the world of canvas art. There are many different things to think about, but here are some basic tips and things to keep in mind when it comes to using these bars.

First, the bars that you buy need to be made out of a high quality wood and have smooth edges. The wood should be so that it will not rot or warp over time, which means you should also keep them out of excessive humidity and moisture. The edges should be slightly rounded, as well, because they will provide a more delicate touch to the edges of the canvas, which are the most sensitive parts of the entire canvas to work with. When you are buying stretcher bars, you can find single bars and put them together by yourself or you can buy pre-formed pieces.

If you choose to put your own stretcher bars together, you will need to make sure that you are able to get them into a rectangular shape so that you can have the best shot at stretching the canvas properly. If you buy pre-formed stretchers, you won’t have to worry about this because they will already be put together for you. For the novice, it’s important to note that the stretchers are NOT the framing boards that go around the exterior edges of the canvas and stay on the artwork. The stretcher is what is used to put the canvas over the frame, and then is removed to be used in other works.

Stretcher bars are a great help to the process of framing canvas art and putting it up for display. Without them, people would have many canvas prints just sitting around without frames or a way to be framed. By stretching canvas properly with these bars, anyone can turn a great print into an amazing work of art with ease.

Any fine artist knows that a print is not complete without the right canvas stretcher frame. This is the component that stretches out the art work and holds everything in a flat display.

As times change, more styles of stretcher bars become available, and choosing the right one for  your project may seem a bit confusing. Here we will look at some of the different aspects you might assess so that you get the canvas frame that is just right for your project. Your piece of art is only a pull away from perfection.

One of the first things to consider is what size of canvas frame you will need. That will obviously be determined by the kind of print you will be making. For the most part, the canvas stretcher bars start at 8 inches and increase by two inches all the way up to 72. All stretcher bars are designed to be interchangeable, so you can have an 8 inch length and a 60 inch height if need be. The pieces interlock very easily to create a 90 degree angle. You can make any square or rectangle you desire as long as you purchase the bars in sets of two or more.

You might also want to consider the kind of wood that your canvas stretcher frame will be made of. Pine is the most common wood on the market.

Once you get your canvas stretchers, it’s just a matter of putting them together for display.

A stretcher bar is used to construct a wooden stretcher frame used by artists to mount their canvases. They are traditionally a wooden framework support on which an artist fastens a piece of canvas. They are also used for small-scale embroidery to provide steady tension, affixing the edges of the fabric with push-pins or a staple gun before beginning to sew, and then removing it from the stretcher when the work is complete.

Since a stretcher is simply a frame, it can be constructed in a variety of ways. The differences in construction have to do with how the corners are built.

The mitre joint is the most popular method of adhering corners on a stretcher, although butt joints are also fine if used in conjunction with gussets. Keys or small triangle wedges are inserted in the joint after stretching the canvas to give the canvas its final tension. When fastening the canvas, pressure should be distributed evenly around the stretcher to minimize warping due to unequal distribution of pull.

Unlike other types of frames, the corner joints in stretcher bars are not glued or fastened in any permanent way. This allows the canvas to be retensioned over time, as it has a natural tendency to stretch and sag over time. In contrast, strainer bars stretch canvas in a fixed (non-adjustable) way.

The use of stretcher bars in the home print market has become increasingly prominent with inkjet-printed canvas prints becoming more popular in the home.

Although artists use blank canvases and pre-stretched canvases in the art business, many photographers use stretcher bars for framing wedding photography and reproduction of photographic prints. Stretcher bars are also used in picture framing when framers are framing things like sport shirts etc. Stretcher bars are used extensively in theatrical productions for framing material backdrops.

When a photographer takes a picture then digitally transfers this onto a canvas (inkjet printing), he then stretches this over a stretcher frame. By wrapping the canvas all the way around the frame, known as gallery wrap, the photographer can then hang his picture on the wall – already framed.

The profiles on the stretcher bar should be slightly rounded. This has two advantages: 1) It allows the framer to see and obtain clear edges on images that have precise borders, and 2) It also allows the canvas weave to “roll over” the profile rather than snap over a sharp edge which is a major cause of canvas cracking.

Here there are no compromises.

Contact your local reseller for further information.

1. HP Professional Matte Canvas 430 g/m”- 15.2 m  

2. HP Collector Satin Canvas 400 g/m”- 6.1 m

3. HP Artist Matte Canvas 380 g/m”- 6.1 m

4. HP Universal Matte Canvas 350 g/m”-6.1 m / 15.2 m

More information: www.hp.com/go/designjet/supplies

We have now worked for two years on developing software that is incredibly user-friendly, that can be operated by all employees in an ordinary print shop & photo-shop or directly by customers in an online shop.

This stand alone software enables you to make a mosaic picture with very few clicks.

The software will automatically calculate the spacing between the pictures and the amount of image that needs to be duplicated in order to get the right mosaic effect.

This piece of software will save you from many working hours in Photoshop!

Coating canvas after printing is a must; although some printers and certain manufacturers claim that their products do not require coating, we strongly advise to take this step in order to protect the print.

Our acrylic satin coating gives the optimal UV and scratch protection for the printed image.

Used for many years to preserve fine-art, now the perfect companion for a digital canvas production.

Dries up in 5 minutes

0403-004: Canvas coating satin, 0,5 liter

0403-005: Canvas coating satin, 5 liter