FAQ's

CanvasReady.com.au

If the answers to your questions can't be found here or anywhere on the site then please contact us.

It's hard to make an informed decision when you don't know what to ask. On this page is lots of information on the key questions you need to ask when choosing a canvas printing supplier. While most of these questions will relate to quality of materials, what is harder to judge is experience. Incorrectly applied laminate, no colour correction, canvases not tensioned correctly are all serious problems. Experience is the only solution. We have decades of printing and colour experience and we stand by our product and experience by offering a 100% money back guarantee.

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1. What style and weight (thickness) canvas do you use?

The heavier the canvas, the better because heavier canvases are stronger, absorb more laminate and look and feel better. Canvas weight is measured in grams per square meter (GSM). There are a range of canvases offered in Australia. Some are low end, such as banner material sold as 'canvas' - 120gsm and 150gsm. This 'canvas' is slightly thicker than the paper we use to print our invoices on and is more like a piece of paper than a canvas. Glossy canvas is another one. It looks tacky but some use it because they think they can get away without laminating it. A non-glossed canvas with laminate will always give a superior end result. Basically, we think that at least a 300gsm canvas and up is acceptable. We offer the choice of a
Poly / Cotton or 100% cotton canvas. The poly / cotton canvas is 430gsm whereas the 100% cotton canvas is 390gsm. You can read more about the difference between our canvases here.

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2. What kind of printer / inks do you use?

The single most important factor when discussing printers and inks is the "type" of ink used. Pigment inks can display far more colours than solvent, flat-bed or dye-sub ink/printer combinations and are very UV resistant.These alternative types of printers and inks are more appropriate for sign-making and display graphics because they print on uncoated surfaces and tend to have better durability - especially outdoors. However these printers and inks don't stack up when compared to an INK-JET printer using PIGMENT inks. Large retailers, national photo printing companies, etc do not use pigment ink printers and often they are printed in China on massive flat-bed printers on an unknown (and undisclosed) canvas type. There's a huge difference in look and in feel. Pigment inks are more appropriate for fine art and photographic work. They are extremely well-suited to canvas printing due to their broad colour gamut and lack of odour / vapour issues. The broader the colour gamut, the more colours – and the more accurate the colours. We are canvas printing specialists and that's all we do. We use Epson printers with genuine Epson pigment inks.

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3. Do you laminate your canvas?

Some canvas printers will tell you that the reason to laminate a canvas is to protect the colours from fading. But the truth is that even under a direct UV light, an un-laminated print will still hold its colour for decades and decades. In fact, the reasons to laminate a print are because:
Protects the canvas from chipping and cracking prevents mould / fungus from forming on the canvas. Colours are enriched. Contrast is increased. It allows the canvas to be wiped with a wet cloth to clean it. So if someone uses a 'pre-glossed' canvas and say that they don't 'need' to laminate their canvases, ask if that means it'll be protected from scratches and cracking, if you can wipe it down and if it has any anti-fungal properties to it. It's likely the answer will be 'no'. Also check to see if they charge extra for lamination. There are a range of laminates and everyone uses a different brand, but they should all use either an acrylic laminate, or for humid locations (north of about Newcastle), a polyurethane laminate. Our laminate has proven high flexibility, UV blocking, scratch resistance and anti-fungal properties. It is also low-sheen and ultra clear. Is is sprayed on using a high volume, low pressure spraying system.

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4. What stretcher bars (frames) do you use?

Because stretcher bars are the "unseen" part of the canvas, they're often not discussed. But what use is a really nice canvas if it's mounted on a wooden coat hanger? The first thing to consider is whether or not it's been kiln dried. Wood is a porous material, that is, it absorbs water. When it absorbs water, the wood expands and as it dries it shrinks. All this expanding and shrinking causes the wood to warp over time, much like the pages of a book that get wet - they irreparably ripple. Kiln dried wood is protected from warping and this means you don't have a canvas unevenly sitting on your wall. The next thing to consider is the quality of the wood used. Low quality wood is likely to crack over time, or break if the canvas is dropped. For this reason, Canvas Ready uses only dense pine, imported from New Zealand. Then there's the shape of the bars themselves. "Square" bars rest against the back of the canvas and over time create a visible impression - not good! To prevent this we use bevelled stretcher bars, which are slightly cut away on the side that faces the canvas so that the only contact point on the facing side is on the very very edge - and NOT the entire width of the stretcher bar. This edge is also rounded off so the canvas doesn't stretch over a sharp, 90 degree angled frame edge.
Lastly, there's the physical depth of the stretcher bar. A stretcher bar that is very small will not sit out from the wall, losing the depth that a canvas print or painting would normally have. We use 3.2cm thick canvases, what we think is the optimal depth for canvas printing.

5. What are your prices?

Canvas Pricing >>
Acrylic Ice Pricing >>

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6. Do you have a 100% Money Back Guarantee?

You might be concerned about buying over the internet, or what the final printed result will be. That's why we have a 100%, no questions asked, money back guarantee.
We want to ensure that every customer only has positive things to say about us. If you have a problem, just return the product within 7 days and we'll fix the problem by either sending you another canvas, or refunding the purchase price as we deem appropriate. It may not be our fault, but it's all our responsibility!
When purchasing an item that includes a delivery charge, it is generally accepted that any delivery charges are not included in any refund.
With Canvas Ready, if a canvas needs to be returned because of a problem caused by ourselves, we'll refund the total order price, including delivery charges. If we are sending out another canvas instead of providing a refund, we'll also pay for the shipping of the replacement canvas. We will likely ask that you return the faulty canvas to us (at our expense) via registered post / courier before we provide a refund / replacement.
On the other hand, if your are just not happy with the result through no fault of ours, then you'll need to pay for the return of the canvas and we'll refund the total cost less the delivery charges. If we are sending out another canvas instead of providing a refund, you'll need to pay for the re-delivery cost.
In either case, it is your responsibility to ensure the canvas arrives safely back to us. If Australia Post or the courier looses the item and you don't have any tracking number or insurance then we will likely not be able to refund / replace.
To further alleviate concerns, we also have a free sample service which you can use before you make a purchase.

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7. How quickly can you print my order?

Turnaround means the time between you paying and approving the order to us sending you the order.
Even our standard turnaround is one of the fastest canvas printing services in Australia! But just to make sure you get your delivery in the minimum amount of time possible we also offer a Priority turnaround service for 15% more as well as an Ugent turnaround service for 30% more. Below you will find a table outlining how long each order takes in business days, along with a date of when we'd ship your order if you were to approve and pay for your canvas today.

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8. How much is delivery?

First of all, delivery charges are per ORDER, not per CANVAS. If you're shipping a very large canvas and / or you are in a remote area, we may need to charge more than our standard rates for delivery but we will quote you first. Use our shipping calculator to work out the cost before placing an order.
If you choose courier, we can have your order delivered to nearly anywhere in Australia within 3 days.
You can have your order delivered either via Australia Post or courier. The key difference is that an order sent via courier has a tracking number and can be traced. Anything sent via Australia Post can not be traced. Some orders, because of their size can not be sent via Australia Post and a courier must be used. You'll be notified of this when placing an order if your box dimensions exceed Australia Post's limits. The other difference is Couriers are quicker, getting items from Melbourne to Perth in 3 days whereas Australia post may take 5 to 7 days.
Both Australia Post and couriers CAN deliver to PO Boxes.
What if I'm not home?
If you're not home Australia Post will leave a card in your letter box. You can then collect the delivery from your nearest post office.
For couriers, they will either leave a card OR leave the package 'on the doorstep'. You can authorise a courier to leave the package 'on the doorstep' if no one is home however this will void your insurance should it get stolen, lost, or even damaged. If you select a courier delivery, we'll ask for your authority to leave. It's up to you whether you want to or not. If you don't give that authorisation then they'll leave a card giving you details on where to pick the item up from or who to call to arrange a re-delivery. IMPORTANT: It is up to the courier company whether they re-deliver or not! If you're in a remote location, there may not be a courier depot very close to you and that depot may refuse to re-deliver if you weren't there the first time a delivery attempt was made and you didn't give them an authority to leave the package.
Insurance
Items do get lost and they do get damaged! While this is not a common occurance, insurance is advisable. Standard post does not have any insurance and the item can't be traced. Australia Post does have Registered Post that provides tracking and limited insurance. Unforunately, their tracking is not very good and making an insurance claim is slow and cumbersome. Therefore, we provide our own optional insurance to the value of your order. We also provide our own insurance for couriers. By being in control of our own insurance we can re-print and re-send lost / damaged orders immediately without needing to wait for the outcome of a claim. There is also no paperwork involved with our insurance. You can select insurance when placing an order.

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9. Do you have a colour-managed workflow?

Colour accuracy is complex. Really complex. Where your eye sees a rose petal as one type of red, a scanner sees another, a monitor projects another and a printer prints yet another - all the same "red".
To overcome this, the printing industry uses a thing called a colour profile. A profile is a description of how the scanner, monitor or printer is reproducing colour and any differences can be accommodated for by the software on the computer.
That's why we use a correctly calibrated, custom colour profile for every piece of equipment. It's critical to ensuring colour accuracy in the finished product.
We even make our colour profiles available for you to download and install on your computer, to make sure the image you are editing on your computer and the image you are seeing in the SmartProof is colour accurate.
If you're using our Professional Service, we'll even help you synchronise your settings to match ours and you can purchase hard proofs to double check everything will come out just right.

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10. Do you offer free samples?

We are so confident in the quality of our product, that we'll even send out a sample - for free!
The free sample is not some image we've selected and spent hours getting perfect. You upload an image to use using the normal ordering system, select "free sample" as the type of canvas and we'll send out an unframed 7" x 5" canvas on your choice of canvas with FREE SAMPLE printed across it.
That way, you know for sure what it's going to look like when it arrives and will give you an idea of how our service works.
If you don't want this on the image, we suggest you simply buy the smallest possible canvas size as a test of our quality and then you can keep that canvas and order a bigger one.
We can't find anyone else that offers this service and all we ask is that you let us know what you thought. It doesn't mean you have to sign up to receive our junk mail!

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