Ottawa Places

When it comes to printing, whether it's an image from this site or others, you have options.

For this site, the goal over time is to present images from around this region, allowing people to get local art prints or downloads. Images of various types, whether it's a place, a theme, a colour or other -- it's taken locally by a local photographer.

For many images here, downloading a hi-res JPG is sufficient for printing online at Posterjack or CanvasPop. Ottawaplaces.ca stores hi-res versions of the lo-res versions you see on the site. That makes it easy to get one or more to you if you decide to order.

They can then be printed and framed as you like. They should work fine on the wall when using Posterjack or CanvasPop but there is a catch.

The issue with online shops like CanvasPop, despite being easy to upload and use, is that in particular for CanvasPop they only print at 150 DPI. Fine at 5 or 6 feet away if it's canvas, but by no means fine art or preservation level quality. I've had decent results from Posterjack which does print at 300 DPI with Adobe RGB colour space, and, they have specials regularly if you are a subscriber. But you are still sending JPEG, which may not have all the detail that other formats like TIFF have.

We also want to support the higher-quality fine art print, where, for example, we are able to work with the original photograph as a TIFF, RAW, PSD file (ideally TIFF Adobe RGB format ready to go) and then we in turn will work with a selection of Ottawa's fine art printers. So for example, we can get a print you see here printed quite large on Gicleé paper at museum quality. We also ensure your print is adjusted as needed for the fine art print you will be showing off.

The lo-res images you see online (we store the hi-res but only show lo-res) and most digital devices are in the sRGB colour space. That's OK, but not nearly the colour gamut of Adobe RGB or ProPhoto, and then there's the CMYK choice for those who wish that more subdued look in the print. What's our position on that?

If you want fine art printing we'd work with our fine art printer on your behalf. We'd get the printer to do any conversions or adjustments for print. Pricing is fairly standard, there is no cost to "adjust" the print unless it needs extensive re-working.

The online services like CanvasPop or Posterjack will only take what you give, and, while it might work just fine for you, some will want to extract the most colour and detail in a vivid or subdued look. So the fine art option is there for you, just ask. It might cost a bit more, but for larger sizes on the wall, where you wish to show that image off, that may be best.

Either way -- both methods for printing will get you art for the wall, but consider fine art printing handled by us and adjusted for print, for your wall.

If you have any questions -- just ask.

Kurt