For anyone who is a fan of poster art and loves larger displays of photos and other favorite mementos, it’s likely that you’ve already started to think about canvas prints. Of course, in some circles, many of the painters and other artists aren’t too happy about canvas prints, as they offer a way to have a beautiful work of art cheaper than a painting, but canvas is still picking up speed. So many people that used to love posters are starting to turn to canvas prints.

But why would people who love posters and other larger art turn to canvas prints? Well, cost sure isn’t one of those issues, posters still cost less as canvas prints are a better quality product and the materials to create them are more expensive. You won’t find a poster for the same price that you will a canvas print. However, it’s not the cost that is switching people over.

If you think about the different materials that are used to make posters and canvas prints, you will see a huge difference. Canvas prints are stretched around a solid frame that will stand up to years and years of wear. The frame is actually part of the canvas print, and therefore isn’t something that’s just placed around the photo to preserve it. Posters, on the other hand, are normally framed so that they last a few years, and you can never really be sure how sturdy the framing is. Canvas frames are very sturdy, especially since the canvas is stretched on them, and super easy to hang.

Take a look at the inks that are used in posters and the inks that are used in canvas prints. They are so different it’s almost like night and day. Since paper doesn’t last very long anyway, the printers won’t use very expensive inks that make the colors and lines really pop. Canvas printers know that these are made to last for hundreds of years and they use the inks that will last that long and still stay beautiful.

Also, once a canvas print is completed, a very special sealer is put on top of the canvas to help keep it sealed and protected. Posters aren’t. They are not printed to last very long, the inks used are not UV resistant, and are not moisture resistant as well. In fact, anyone knows what happens if you get water on a poster – not a pretty thing. Yet, you can really run running water over a canvas print and it won’t damage it at all.

When you take a good look at the durability of canvas over paper posters, it’s easy to see why so many collectors are turning to canvas prints for their favorite larger photos. Canvas prints will last hundreds of years, where their favorite posters won’t last but a few years at the most. It won’t take long to have a new poster looking torn and ripped, although this does add to the appeal of some of them. But if you are after the image quality, then posters are not the way to go. Of course, for those things that have a lot of tiny details and need those sharp edges to keep them, canvas prints are not the way to go – glossy paper will always be the best. Yet for those larger photos that have wonderfully rich colors and can stand to have a softer feel added to them, canvas prints are the way to go.

Consider how the canvas will take in the ink and create extremely small areas of shadow and light on the image when it’s printed on the surface. This subtle change as you change the lighting, change your viewing position, or simply move the canvas across the room will create a different look to it each time. The texture itself creates a wonderful way to make any photograph “pop” off the canvas, and will add an extremely personable and unique look to the photo.