When you see our list of sizes and prices it can look a little overwhelming! Don’t worry if you don’t have a set size in mind- you are always welcome to ask us for a recommendation. Sometimes you have a budget in mind, or sometimes you are looking for a specific width to fit a space on your wall. If you let us know these things, we can help you out with a final size.

A good starting point is to look at the shape of the photograph. The majority of photographs are rectangular shaped as a standard, unless they have already been cropped.

Then if we look at the subject in the photo. Sometimes it takes up most of the photo and so keeping it at a rectangular size is the best option. But sometimes you might like to crop off some of the photo to zero in on the subject- if that is the case we might be able to go for a square size instead.

Panoramic sizes work best for landscape images, where you want to crop some of the sky or ground out, or have used the panoramic setting on your phone.

Once the size is decided on, the next step is to work out how the image will wrap around the frame. The most popular option and the one people generally think of when they think of stretched canvases is the gallery wrap. This is where part of the image wraps around the frame. On the examples below, the red box shows the point that the image will wrap around the frame- this is how your proofs will come:

But sometimes the main subject is close to the edges of the photo and so we’ll lose important detail if we wrap the image around the frame. This can be size dependent too, as a greater proportion of the image is used for the wrap on a small canvas compared to a larger size. If this is the case, we have several alternative options:

The other option most people think of is wrapping a plain colour around the sides of the frame instead. Most go for plain black or plain white, but we can sample a colour from the image instead and go for something that is a bit more tonal. We can literally do any colour at all for the wrap, so let us know if you have a preference.

The alternative to that is a mirrored wrap. This is basically where the edges of the photo are copied and then pasted back onto the sides of the photo to then wrap around the frame. This can be a great option with landscape photos especially, as it is really hard to notice the mirroring.

Sometimes when mirroring we end up with things like faces that are doubled up on the sides which can look a bit weird. In that case, we can take the extra step of blurring the mirrored section- so you are still repeating the colours in the photo, but the image becomes indistinct.

The biggest factor in getting a lovely crisp canvas print, is the photo that we work with. You will notice that we ask you for the biggest version of the photo that you have, but what does that mean?

Generally speaking when you download an image off your phone or camera, you will be getting the highest quality you can. Sometimes you will get the option to save it in the original size, or if you would like to reduce the size to save space. When it comes to printing the answer is always the original size! We want to keep it as large as possible.

Some people worry about sending the image via email if they are downloading the original size. We can take big files at our end, so it isn’t an issue- generally speaking you can usually send around 20MB before it is an problem for email. But if your photo is bigger than that, then the image can be sent with a file transfer site such as We Transfer.

When sending by email, if you are given the option, always choose to keep it at the original size. If you are sending multiple files over email, feel free to send them in several emails to keep them at a large size.

If you are downloading an image from a website- especially the likes of Facebook, then it has more than likely already been reduced in size. Where possible try and send a copy of the photo that hasn’t been taken off Facebook to keep the quality high. We know that isn’t always possible, but just keep in mind that you may not be able to print to a very big size with it.

A common question that we get is ‘can I print a photo taken on my cellphone?’ and the answer is yes definitely! Modern cellphones have a great resolution and clarity and we’ve regularly printed canvases 1m wide with a cellphone photo. Just always download the photo in it’s original size to give us the best chance of printing on a large canvas.