Giclee coatings, also known as canvas varnish or canvas laquer, serves to protect, preserve and enhance canvas prints produced on digital inkjet printers such as Epson’s.

The canvas coating protects the canvas prints by stopping harmful Ultraviolet light from changing the inks and canvas that is used to manufacture the finished product. It also assists in stopping the photo from “yellowing” after it is printed. Canvas coating also protects against moisture and from scuffing.

The varnish actually enhances prints by increasing density by as much as 20%, which brightens and intensifies the color of printed photos on canvas. Example – Blacks are made darker, reds look richer, and yellows have more saturation. The depth that can be achieved by adding a coating depends on how glossy the canvas coating is. We use a semi matt coating that not only deepens the colour, but stops the photo from looking too shiny. Our coatings are applied using a roller method as well as a spray method.

The main area where we feel canvas coating has its biggest benefit is when it is used on dark photos and blacks. These type of photos can easily get scuffed and marked due to the amount of ink that is put down in the printing process.  If you are spending quite a bit of money getting a custom canvas print made, we strongly suggest spending the extra money to get the print coated.

We have attached a photo below of a mountain scene , half coated , half uncoated. The difference is quite dramatic. The left hand side is clearly richer in colour and we have also scrubbed it with an abrasive cloth and there was no damage done.

The results speak for themselves on the canvas.