Gallery Wrap for Canvas Prints

A ten second tutorial and Photoshop action by Paul Jaruszewski

A simple technique to increase the size of an image for printing on canvas when you wish to wrap on a stretcher and expose the sides of the image.

Gallery Wrap: Which option will you choose for the extensions?

If you happen to be able to print your image on canvas 2 inches larger in each direction, then your image will wrap around a canvas stretcher without any complaint. As and example you intend to display a 20 by 30 inch print on canvas and because you cropped to produce the 20 by 30 you have enough image to actually print 24 by 34 leaving a natural extension of the image to wrap around the edges of the stretcher. On the other hand…

Let’s say you did a great job of cropping in camera or the area outside your crop cannot be printed because of the content, etc., and you cannot use the image to create a border that can be wrapped around a stretcher. How do you handle this? I have a few suggestions. The best choice is of course your’s, and is highly dependant on the image being presented.

The simplest option is to size your image 2 inches larger than the face of the canvas stretcher. You wish to present a 20 by 30, you print at 24 by 34. The two inch margin will wrap around and be stapled to the stretcher. The flow from the face of the image to the sides will be natural and undistorted. Stretching this image will be easy because minor alignment issues will not be visible.

Another option is to simply expand your canvas by 2 inches in each direction and select a color to fill that space. White? Black? A neutral color between white and black? A selection from the front of the image? Your image, your choice. This clearly defines the face of the image and the sides of the image. If this is your goal, then you will find this option just about as easy as the first one. Be careful stretching this image as misalignment of the image on the stretcher will be easy to see. Too much image and you will have a partial image wrap, too little image and your wrap will creep to the face. A rotated or out of square stretcher… Ouch…

Another option is to use Photoshop to distort the original image at its edges and expand those edges to create a wrap that is made from the original image. If your original image isn’t big enough to allow for a 2 inch border on each side, one of these options may be your best choice.

Mirror edges. This routine will take the outside two inches of your image and duplicate them, flip them and reassemble the image. If you start with a 20 by 30 image this will create a 24 by 34 image.
Create 2 from 1. If you can spare one inch this routine will change that inch into 2. If you are seeking a 20 by 30, size your image to be 21 by 31 inches. This routine will grab the outer inch and make it two inches. The final image size will be 1 inch larger in each direction.
Create 3 from 1. Same idea as the second routine, but only usable in certain images. If you are seeking a 20 by 30, size your image to be 20 by 30. This routine will grab the outer inch and make it 3 inches. The final image will be 2 inches larger in each direction. IMPORTANT: The outer inch of the face of the image in this technique will be distorted. This routine is not likely to produce the image you are seeking for most images… but for that special image it works on, this is the one you might want.

Example of the 2 inch mirror action.

This is the "before" image for the 2 inch mirror example.

This is the image after the 2 inch mirror action.The gray area represents the original image. This image expanded by 2 inches in each of 4 directions even though it is displayed as having the same size as the original.

Example of the 1 to 2 inch stretch action.

This is the "before" image for the 1 inch stretch example. I chose this image because the original is good from edge to edge and I hate to lose too much image. Prior to running through the image, I will size at 21 by 31.

This is also a "before" image. The gray area represents the part of the original image that will remain unchanged and be on the face of the finished product. The border is 1 inch in size and represents the area that with be stretched into 2 inches.

This is the image after the 1-2 inch action.The gray area represents the original 20 by 30 part of the image that will exist on the face of the end product. This image expanded by 1 inch in each of 4 directions even though it is displayed as having the same size as the original. If you look at this image and compare it to the one immediately above you can see the stretching that occured. It is most noticible in the upper right where the mountain and the sky meet. Is this objectionable? Maybe, maybe not, but remember it is on the wrap where the stretched image is viewed. You have to decide if this distortion is worth keeping an extra inch of pixels on the face of the image for your pictures.

Example of the 1 to 3 inch stretch action.

If I can find an image that is acceptable to process where the face of the image is distorted like this action I will share it here. I have included this action in the package because you may have an image that works great with this way. Prior to running this action, prepare the image at the final size of the face and run. The action will grab the outer inch of the image and stretch it into 3 inches. One of the resulting inches will be on the face of the image. The other two will be on the wrap. The image size will increase by 2 inches in each direction.

These routines are free for all to use. Please share this with anyone who may be interested by pointing them to this website, not sending the action directly. By sending a link to this page I am able to update the actions and disseminate the most current version. These actions were created as a result of friends asking for help or suggestions in handling the printing of large images in canvas. If you have special needs for a custom routine, please don’t hesitate to email me at kd6lor1@cox.net. If the project is interesting I may take it on for my usual fee... Nothing...

Click here to download a zip file of the action!

Have fun! - Paul