What is the difference between a canvas and a rolled canvas?

Canvas prints are an easy & affordable way to get your photographs printed & displayed on your wall.
Through a professional & reputable print lab, you can have high quality prints that will last decades.
Often there is a choice to order your print either stretched or rolled.

So what’s the difference between a stretched canvas & a rolled canvas?  As the name implies, a stretched canvas is held taut over a wood frame, otherwise known as stretcher bars.  A rolled canvas is simply rolled & usually stored or shipped in a protective tube.  Whereas a rolled canvas needs to be mounted first in order to hang, a stretched canvas is ready for display.

Hanging Your Canvas Print - Stretched vs Rolled

There’s no point in having a lovely canvas print unless you’re going to display it somehow.

So how do you hang these 2 types of different canvas prints?

Displaying A Stretched Canvas

There’s actually 2 ways a canvas print can be stretched.
1.  Gallery Wrap - This is where the canvas is pulled all around the stretcher bars & secured with staples to the back.
The most popular finish is having the image printed so it bleeds onto the edges, creating that depth that wraps are famous for.
But the edges can also be black or white, so the entire image fits on the face of the print.
2.  Sometimes called a studio wrap, thinner stretcher bars are used & the canvas is stapled & secured around the edges.
Gallery wraps are ready to hang straight out of the box.
They usually have a hanging wire strung across the back, so it’s as simple as knocking in a nail or hook into the wall.
Larger prints do better with 2 nails or hooks as it keeps them from falling out of horizontal alignment.
Studio wraps require framing before they are able to be displayed.
You could hang a studio wrap as is, but because the staples are visible it’s not a very good look.
The main reason for purchasing a studio wrap would be to use a custom frame.
Again, a hanging wire will be attached to the back of the actual frame.
The frame can add a bit of extra weight, but it’s no different from displaying any type of framed photograph.