Poster and Canvas Printing.
Posters and enlargements, printed for the wall rather than for the counter. Event posters at 18x24 and 24x36. Photo enlargements on true photo paper. Canvas stretched or rolled. Fine-art reproduction on cotton rag when the original deserves it. Academic poster-session boards at conference size. Tell us the finished dimensions and whether it is being mounted, framed or pinned, and the shop will match the stock to the wall it is going on.
Request a quote. The shop will confirm options and timing.
What we print for this category.
Sizes, stocks, finishes, turnaround.
| Property ↕ | Detail ↕ |
|---|---|
| Common poster sizes | 11×17 · 12×18 · 18×24 · 24×36 · 27×40 · custom |
| Poster stocks | Matte poster · gloss poster · semi-gloss photo · heavy cover |
| Canvas | Poly-cotton canvas · rolled flat or stretched over bars |
| Fine art | Cotton rag and archival matte papers |
| Mounting | Foamcore · gatorboard · PVC · easel back |
| File setup | 150 to 300 dpi at final size · CMYK or tagged RGB · no upscaling |
Industries & use cases.
What to know about poster and canvas printing.
Poster stock and where the poster is going
An event poster taped in a window and a framed print hung in a lobby want different paper. Matte poster stock has no glare and photographs well under room lighting, which is why it is the usual pick for anything behind glass or under a spotlight. Gloss is more saturated and reads better at a distance in a busy space.
Photo paper is a different substrate again, coated to hold a much wider tonal range, and it is the right answer for portraits and anything where skin tone or a gradient has to stay smooth. If the poster is going to be handled or pinned repeatedly, a heavier cover stock outlasts standard poster paper.
Canvas, rolled or stretched
Canvas prints come off the press flat and can be delivered rolled for you to stretch or frame, or stretched over wooden bars ready to hang. If you want it stretched, the image needs extra material on every edge to wrap around the bar, usually an inch and a half to two inches, and anything inside that margin disappears around the side.
That is worth planning at the design stage. Either extend the background into the wrap area deliberately, or accept a mirrored edge where the border is generated from the image. Text and faces close to the edge are the usual casualty of a gallery wrap.
Resolution: the one thing that cannot be fixed at the press
A poster is viewed from further away than a brochure, so it tolerates lower resolution than a business card does. Somewhere between 150 and 300 dpi at the final printed size is the working range, and 150 dpi on a 24 x 36 is a genuinely large file.
What cannot be recovered is detail that was never captured. Upscaling a small web image to poster size produces soft edges and blocky gradients no matter what it is printed on. Send the largest original you have, straight from the camera or the design file, rather than an export sized for a screen.
Related formats
Anything printed wider than a poster, on a roll or on rigid board at scale, is quoted under large format printing. Hemmed and grommeted banners and yard signs are on the banners and signs page.
If posters are part of a campaign that also includes flyers and brochures, it is usually simpler to quote the whole set at once through marketing materials.
Recent work from this category.
“Thank you Valley Press for the outstanding customer service!
Often ordered alongside.
Three fields. One screen. Send your request.
The shop will review the specifications and deadline during business hours, then confirm options and timing.