Getting the Best Wood Print Possible

We have been producing wood prints for a while now. Initially, we offered our Maple Wood Prints. Eventually, we added a more customizable version to our regular Wood Prints. So what is the difference?

Maple Wood Prints

At a little more than ½” thick with finished edges, these are considered a high-quality print where an image is infused directly into the surface of a specially coated wooden panel using heat and pressure. The process begins with printing the image onto a special transfer paper using dye-based inks, which is then placed onto the coated wood. When heat and pressure are applied, the ink turns into a gas and embeds itself into the coating, creating a vibrant, durable print that won’t peel or fade easily. This method produces rich colors and sharp details while allowing the natural wood grain to show through, giving the print a rustic, organic feel. Unlike traditional printing methods, dye sublimation results in a smooth, scratch-resistant, and water-resistant surface, making it an excellent choice for home décor, gifts, or displaying photography in a unique and long-lasting way.

At this time we have 5 common sizes. These range from 5×7 which is perfect for a tabletop display to 16×20 which is ideal over any large wall space. You can see and order these at the following link:

But there are some downsides to these. Foremost we are limited to the sizes that the manufacturer offers which were not that many. If you want something square or panoramic, you are basically out of luck

Next, if you want to isolate certain aspects of the image to be white then you are out of luck because the dye sublimation process is not able to print white. Rather “white” is reliant on the whiteness of the surface the image is printed on.

The next downside is that these panels have an MDF interior and are prone to absorbing moisture. As a result, they need to be pre-pressed to bake out the humidity, otherwise they will easily warp. This adds to the production time and cost. And the larger you go, the more difficult it is to do. It was not uncommon when we offered the very heavy 30×40 version to do multiple attempts which meant wasting a lot of inventory. Because of that now, the largest available in 16×20.

Standard Wood Prints

Ultimately, and because wood prints have become so popular and people told us they did like some of the limitations of the Maple Wood Prints, we opted to begin offering a direct print-to-wood panel option a few years back.

As part of the manufacturing process, we start off with large 4×8 ft panels. The individual print panels are CNC routed to the size ordered by the customer. They are then taken to a large flatbed inkjet printer in which the image is printed directly to the surface and instantly cured using high-intensity UV light.

Even with the initial step of having to cut each panel out with a CNC router, the process is a lot more effortless than that with the Maple Wood Prints.

Also, not only can you get incredible print quality but there is also the ability to lay down white ink and offer custom and very large sizes.

If you opt for the white base, you will get even more detail and a higher color range, since the no underlying wood tone will affect the image. Perhaps the only real downsides are the sides don’t have a laminate finish nor do they have a smooth satin finish on the surface like the Maple Wood Prints.

Optimizing Your Image for a Wood Tone Background

What you put in is what you get out—sharp, detailed images produce the best results. If your image is too low a resolution, it will look muddy and lack detail.

Most people prefer that wood background tone to their print so we should explore in detail what helps a photograph or artwork take advantage of it. Images initially with a lot of whites or lighter colors will work best if your desire is to show the wood pattern. Images where you have darker tones may start to cover up the natural wood texture so if it it has black or dark colors, you may not see the wood pattern very well.

For instance, when we were first testing the development of wood prints, we produced several test prints using various images from our stock image library. It allowed us to see how different types of images would look. One particular image was an abstract art piece. The tones tended toward either deep red, brown, or black with a few highlights in yellow and white. Even though the print came out looking nice it hid much of the underlying wood. Because of that, I would have probably been better off just printing it on one of our fine art papers and then mounting it on masonite.

So what kind of images look great on wood? Here are some examples of what I think looks good:

• Photos and portraits taken with lots of light
• Illustrations or line drawings
• Artwork on pure white backgrounds (my favorite)
• Paintings with bright colors

Photo and portraits taken with lots of light

These give the photo a very vintage look. If this is of interest to you, you will notice the image takes on a somewhat sepia tone. Not completely but just enough of a hint. Because the wood is somewhat yellow, your colors are influenced by this yellow tone.

Illustrations or line drawings

These look incredible. It gives the artwork a look as if it was created directly on the wood itself. While making an interesting piece to frame or display, we are already seeing what we suspect are artists intending to simply use these as under paintings which they will later highlight or paint over with actual paints.

Artwork on pure white backgrounds (my favorite)

Think of say a flower by itself with white in the background. Or a seashell which one customer just did the other day. It looked incredible. The artwork was centered on the wood print but the white background was not visible. I could see a series of wood prints displaying various subject matter.

Paintings with bright colors

A good example of this on our site is a faerie sitting on a log in a forest. The background sky was a very light shade of color so the natural wood texture coincidentally looked like clouds. Again, you want the wood to show up so if you have too many dark colors, you won’t be able to take advantage of this as intended.

The bottom line is any image can look good on wood but if you want your wood pattern to show up make sure you have images with a good balance of brights, mid-tones, and darks. Artworks and photos that best take advantage of the underlying wood patterns will have lots of lighter colors.

Now if this is not enough information for you how about simulating the entire wood print process? It is quite easy with a program like Photoshop. We will have to do a video tutorial later on this but for those somewhat versed in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements simply locate or even create a wooden-like pattern, complete with a small amount of yellowish hue. Then drag the image you want to print on top. This should create a layer over your wood background. Set this image layer as “multiply” and it will make your lighter tones turn translucent so the wood pattern underneath shows. Use this to get a general idea because each wood panel will be a little different from the other.

A couple of things I want to point out to the very color-consciousness. Let’s be realistic. If you are after that specific shade of blue, orange, or green that you spent hours trying to tweak and get right on your screen,  you won’t necessarily get it in a wood print. A wood print is not going to be accurate because the wood being printed on can vary. While we currently only offer birch hardwood, slight variations in its natural hue will occur. While I am not an expert, I know this can be attributed to things such as the age of the wood and even where the wood originated.  So if you tend to get hung up on colors, don’t do with wood prints since you can never predict how the underlying wood will affect the color. Finally, on a similar note, you can’t soft-proof a wood print. Soft proofing relies on a white point of the paper or media the image is being printed. Since we can’t create a color profile with a consistent white point on wood, it is impossible to provide you with one.

Hopefully, this will give you some insight into wood prints. If you want to test the concept out with your artwork or photography, feel free to start off with something small. I will be surprised if you are disappointed.  Be sure to let us know what you think of your wood prints when you get them so we can share your insights with others.