You may be thinking to yourself sometimes, “How Does the Design Get on the Needlepoint Canvas?” You may know that stitch-painted canvases are thought by many to be the “best.” Or that a local shop looks down on computer-printed canvases, but do you know what this means? Do you know how to get good value when picking a canvas? Do you know what the benefits and defects of each type of canvas are?
Here’s my guide, illustrated with pictures, of each type of canvas, its benefits and defects.
Stitch-painted Canvases
With a stitch-painted canvas a person paints every intersection one color and one color only. You never have to decide about colors. To me this kind of canvas is the ultimate stress-free needlepoint because the canvas tells me everything. Most of what I stitch isn’t this but I love them when I need a break.
Benefits: Every intersection is painted one color, so these are very easy to stitch.
Defects: Expensive
Handpainted Canvases
A handpainted canvas differs only from a stitch-painted canvas in that curves and slanted lines are not painted intersection by intersection. This means that some intersections may have more than one color on them.
Most hand-painted canvases in the US stitch-paint some areas, mostly straight lines, and handpaint curves. Some designers who use lots of shading on their canvases mostly hand-paint.
Benefits: Less expensive to produce than stitch-painted and more efficient for many designs. Good balance between cost & ease of stitching.
Defects: Some intersections will have more than one color.
Giclee-printed Canvases
This high-end form of computer printing is accepted in the art world as the best way to produce color prints of artwork. That’s because the color reproduction is accurate and the quality us outstanding. Several needlepoint manufacturers have adopted this technology. The quality ranges from outstanding to poor, largely depending on the size of the finished piece and the detail of the sources work.
Small details or works printed at too small a size will have details lost. You have probably seen this yourself. Think of how much less detailed the same face is on 13-mesh instead of 18-mesh when both are the same size. The same applies here. If the source art has lots of detail and the printed canvas is 8×10, that detail will be lost, no matter how good the printer.
Benefits: Depending on manufacturer these can be almost like hand-paints.
Defects: More than one color per intersection. Colors can be lost in holes. Edges often are not straight to canvas threads. Printers very expensive, making these more expensive than other types of printing.
Computer-printed Canvases
Computer printed canvases are created using non-giclee printers. The source (the graphics file) will be the same for both, but the printer is different.
If you were to print needlepoint canvas in your home, this would be the technique. If buying something to transfer a design onto your canvas, use caution. First many of these films create solid rubbery sheets that when ironed onto canvas clog the holes. These won’t work for needlepoint.
Depending on how your printer works other films may fuse to the rollers instead of the canvas, ruining your printer. Check before use.
Some printers can print onto canvas directly and this is worth trying, but be sure your inks are waterproof.
Benefits: Can be done at home. Can be inexpensive to produce.
Defects: More than one color per intersection. Colors can be lost in holes. Edges often are not straight to canvas threads. May clog holes. May not be waterproof.
Silk Screened Canvases
This process uses one screen per color on canvas. The correct color of ink is pressed through the screen onto the canvas. The canvas is moved to the next screen (color) & the process is repeated.
This process can be done by hand or by machine. Most high-end kits from England are screened.
Screening’s expense creates practical limits to the number of colors used in a design.
Benefits: Good intersection between color registration and expense to produce. More control over process than printed canvas, below.
Defects: More than one color per intersection. Colors can be lost in holes. Edges often are not straight to canvas threads. Colors on canvas may not match colors of threads (this makes colors on canvas easy to distinguish.)
Printed Canvases
A type of mass market production of needlepoint canvas, this process uses the same process as full-color printing to put the image on canvas. The color image is inked on rollers, with all colors present at once. Rolls of canvas, often interlock are loaded and then run through the rollers.
If you’ve seen newspapers being printed in old movies, you’ve seen this process.
Benefits: Very inexpensive to produce. Inexpensive canvas means lighter weight finished product.
Defects: More than one color per intersection. Colors can be lost in holes. Edges often are not straight to canvas threads. Ink can flake off.
Concluding Thoughts
You may be wondering, as I did, why every mechanically created method has the possibility of edges that aren’t straight. That’s because needlepoint canvas isn’t really evenly woven. It can vary slightly.
When a person paints a straight line on canvas one thread is followed. It looks straight even though the thread itself may be slanted. When printing a canvas by machine the line in the source material is straight, but the thread on the canvas may be slanted. If this is the case the lines on the canvas will not be on one thread and we will not see them as “straight.”
You also may be wondering about running with different kinds of inks and paints. Virtually all hand-painted canvases these days use acrylic paints and these are generally waterproof when dry. Some designers put a sealant on their work, just in case, which is another layer of protection.
The oil-based inks used in printed and screened canvases are also waterproof when dry.
The difficulty comes in computer and giclee canvases. Some brands of ink are waterproof, some aren’t. In computer printing the ink comes from the manufacturer. At least with my home printer, Epson inks are waterproof, HP inks are not. Rarely do computer-printed canvases run, but I had this happen once.
I often tell my students that there are no bad canvases, just ones that are inappropriate for you right now. Being aware of the limitations and costs of each type of canvas will help you pick pieces you’ll love to stitch.
About Janet M Perry
Janet Perry is the Internet's leading authority on needlepoint. She designs, teaches and writes, getting raves from her fans for her innovative techniques, extensive knowledge and generous teaching style. A leading writer of stitch guides, she blogs here and lives on an island in the northeast corner of the SF Bay with her family
Janet – thank you so much for featuring my angels in your various posts. probably 95% of our designs are totally stitchpainted, making them very easy to stitch and thread – no guessing about how many shades on the design. It’s true that stitch-painting lays it all out there for you, but we encourage all our stitchers to customize their angels to fit their personal tastes – hair, skin colors, even changing backgrounds and element colors. Once you cover the painting up with your fiber – who’s going to know!
Great article. Wish I had a list of designers who handpainted and who stiched painted. I am suspiscious that some are computer printed
Most designers who do computer-printed canvases are up front about it. Most shops are as well, but you can always ask.
Keep stitching,
Janet
Oh dear, I have been to the best needlepoint shops and they do recommend different threads, however, I have yet to have one give me a short tutorial. Your site without a doubt the most instructive site of any subject I search for. Because of your instructive and enthusiastic review of new threads, I am using some. Thank you again for all your time consuming and care in writing this newsletter.E
Thanks, threads are my passion, so you’ll always find information about the newest ones here.
Keep stitching,
Janet
Thanks! I’ve been having trouble explaining this to my husband.
I would like to learn how to paint and or print and sell my designs on needlepoint canvas to add to my social secuyrity income. Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Please email me directly using the contact form about this.
Keep stitching,
Janet
I would love to visit (when we can travel again) a needlepoint canvas factory. Royal Paris, Margot, SEG, Orchidea, etc. Is there a way?
Hi there, I am a fan of computer-printed canvases because I like the variety and complexity of the patterns available. That said, I am starting a William Morris type pattern that has multiple frames. If I stitch the frames in a straight line, my stitches move into another part of the pattern. If I try to follow the printed line, my stitches do not look straight and I don’t like the look. What is the best way to deal with this?
Lines will not look straight on needlepoint canvas unless the edge is on a single thread. Although we think of canvas as evenly woven and straight, it actually isn’t really. What makes it look straight to us is keeping edges along single threads.
in your case, the solution for you is to figure out which thread is best for the line and to stitch your line on this thread, in spite of what is on the canvas.
Keep stitching,
Janet
I like that you listed the benefits and defects of each kind of canvas printing. My wife is wanting to get into needlepointing. I will send her this article so that she can see the benefits of each kind.
Please help me understand. We are printers of fine art. We believe we have the equipment necessary for needlepoint canvas, having printed samples on 100% cotton needlepoint canvas. My potential client tries to explain the necessity of having the image strike the canvas in an exact position for the cross-stitching. This is explained somewhat on your website but not detailed for a printing service that is just learning about needlepoint. I found no other service in the US doing this, except perhaps one. There is a big one in Great Britain that uses very large equipment and shows it on YouTube. How can we learn and understand the process better?
The importance for this is that the easiest canvases are those which have only one color per intersection. If more than one color is there, the stitcher has to make a decision as to what color to use, making it harder, but not impossible, to stitch.
I’ve never tried printing canvas myself, so I don’t know enough to translate this into terms that would work for you as a prince. I’m thinking this might need trial and error tolerant.
I’m also thinking that talking on the phone might help. Can you contact me so we can set something up?
Keep stitching,
Janet
Hi! I was wondering if anyone had any positive results printing a needlepoint design on a printer at home? using a nice canvas?
I haven’t done it myself, but I know folks who have. Ome thing to be sure of is that your printer uses waterproof ink, not all do.
keep stitching,
Janet