Framing starts from £69.00 for a framed poster, which is the entry price on this page; canvas and the larger framed sizes climb from there.
This page sits under the gift itself. Next to it are the two ways to personalise, which is where the words and the picture are decided, and the keepsakes page, which is the same question asked about smaller objects. Come here once you know what the gift says and are deciding what it is made of.
Paper behind glass, or cloth round wood
A framed poster is a sheet of paper printed flat, trimmed and set in a frame. The file is printed 4mm larger than the finished size on every edge and that margin is cut off, which is why the design never runs short at the trim line.
The paper is one stock at every size: 250gsm uncoated off-white archival, the same sheet whether the print goes in a frame or not.
A canvas is a different object. The cloth is printed and then stretched over a wooden frame, and the image does not stop at the front face: it is printed oversize and a band of it continues round the sides. That band comes from the printer's template for the exact size, so it is 3.5cm per side on a 30x40cm canvas and wider again on the bigger ones. Depth varies by size too, and the printer's own product code names it: every framed canvas is ordered on the 2cm canvas frame, while the plain canvases come on either that or a slimmer one depending on the size. Hung on a wall, a canvas has visible depth and no glass. A framed poster is flat, behind glazing.
A framed canvas is the third thing: the stretched canvas set inside an outer frame, so it reads as a framed picture and keeps the depth.
Which of the three you can order
The name print can be framed as a poster at A3 or A2, and printed on plain canvas at 40x50cm or 60x80cm. It is not made as a framed canvas. The photo portrait comes as all three finishes, and it is the only one whose framed canvas offers a choice of frame colour: black, natural wood or dark wood at 30x40cm, black or natural wood at 40x50cm. That is a real constraint rather than a recommendation: if the frame has to match what is already in the room, the gift has to start from a photograph.
What each finish costs
The name print framed as a poster is £69.00 at A3 and £102.99 at A2. The same design on plain canvas is £59.00 at 40x50cm and £99.00 at 60x80cm.
The portrait framed as a poster is £74.99 at A3 and £119.99 at A2. On plain canvas it runs £85.00 at 30x40cm, £89.99 at 40x50cm, £109.99 at 50x70cm and £119.99 at 60x80cm. As a framed canvas it is £119.99 at 30x40cm and £139.99 at 40x50cm. UK delivery is included in every one of those figures.
Choosing by the wall rather than by the budget
The framed poster suits a room that already has framed pictures in it, because it matches what is on the wall. The canvas suits a wall with nothing else on it, because the depth gives it an edge to catch light on and it needs no frame to look finished. The framed canvas is for the case where a canvas would read as too informal for the room, which in most houses means the hall or the front room. Where the wall is the point of the gift, the portrait is the design we would put on it, because it is the only one whose framed canvas comes in a choice of frame colour.
Size is the harder decision and nobody can make it from a webpage. Measure the space before you order. Every size above is stated in centimetres for that reason, and A3 is 29.7 by 42cm if that is easier to picture.
How it arrives
Framed pieces are made to order, which takes two to four working days, and delivered free in a further two to five. They arrive assembled, so nothing has to be built or measured on the day.
If the leaving date is too close for that, the digital file is the format that gets round the production window, and a local print shop can do the framing. If the gift is being funded by a group rather than one person, organising a group retirement gift covers how the collection is usually run.
