CanvasPop Now Lets You Turn Small Facebook Pics Into Big Wall Art

Digital printing company CanvasPop is at it again. The web-based print shop has been printing Instagram snapshots for mobile photographers since November. Now, Facebook photos can be printed on canvas.

Since inception, the company has wanted to dive head-first into the world’s largest archive of pictures on Earth. Perfecting the process to turn typically low-resolution Facebook pictures into smooth large-format prints took more than two years, CEO and creator of CanvasPop Adrian Salamunovic told Mashable.

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“We want to tap into that market,” he said. “This is where people keep images that are more important to them personally.”

When the company started printing digital pictures, customers would come in with low-resolution Facebook pictures they wanted to print after being turned away from other companies. CanvasPop welcomed them with open arms. The company claims to be the first to print enlarged Facebook photos of any size on canvas.

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“We took that on as a challenge to develop something that will work with these images, all these images that our competitors can’t,” he said. “We will be able to take up all the business that our competitors can’t — that is really the root of this idea.”

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When a small, low-resolution picture is enlarged, its pixels or the little squares making up the picture, get distorted. CanvasPop created PicturePerfect technology, which is a process called “micro-vectorization.” The technology turns pixels into little lines that can be enlarged to any size without loosing smoothness of the image. This is only a small part of the secret sauce, Salamunovic said.

There are several filters that consumers can choose from. Filters change the lighting and tones of photos. Other options include having a single panel, diptych, triptych or quad-view on the printed canvas.

Sizes go from 8-by-10 inches to about 24-by-72 inches, which is 2 feet by 3 feet. Prices range from $30 to $219. The service is available in the U.S. and Canada. The company is working on bringing the service to international consumers.

CanvasPop has gained popularity in printing large-format canvas versions of mobile Instagram photos. Since the service launched, Instagram has surpassed 27 millionth iPhone download. The company has also announced it will be available on the Android market soon.

“The Instagram launch was a complete success. We realized there is so much value in piggy-backing on existing communities and bringing people what they want.” Salamunovic said. “The end goal is to put a lot of smiles on people’s faces. We want to be in every home in America. Art and photography makes people really happy, that’s our mission.”

Want to print your favorite Facebook photo? CanvasPop is offering Mashable readers 20% off their orders with promo code MASHABLE20. The code is valid until 11:59 p.m. ET Sunday, March 18.


BONUS: 13 Products You Can Make From Your Instagram Snapshots


1. Bangles

This Instagram’d bangle on Etsy is made by BuyMyCrap.

“We fell in love with the Instagram process and how it allows you to create pieces representative of yesteryear with different tones, filters and effects,” says Lainey Bard, who’s affectionately known by her customers as Mrs. Crap. “Since we create wearable works of art, we decided to include Instagram inspired pieces in our shop.”

The Craps access the Instagram API via iPod to pull photos. Bangles are sold for $40.

Click here to view this gallery.

Images courtesy of CanvasPop

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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