Why Oil Artists Struggle With Moiré – And Why A New Generation of Canvas Is Helping Solve It

Oil artists are paying more attention than ever to how their paintings photograph. Whether it’s for prints, submissions, or simply sharing work online, clean digital reproductions matter. But a surprising visual problem keeps showing up in photos of paintings: moiré — those strange ripples, waves, or rainbow patterns that were never in the artwork itself.

Recently, oil painter Louise shared something interesting. When she switched from a traditional woven canvas to ACF’s 100% PET canvas with our specialist coating, the moiré she’d been battling with simply… stopped appearing. The difference wasn’t subtle. Her photos looked cleaner, smoother, and closer to the real painting.

Her experience highlights something many oil artists don’t realise:

The canvas surface itself plays a major role in whether moiré appears in photos of your artwork.

And as more artists begin working on non-woven, next-generation materials, we’re starting to understand why.

What Moiré Actually Is (In Plain Language)

Moiré happens when two repeating patterns interfere with each other.

In our context, it’s the clash between:

• the fine, repeated pattern of a canvas weave, and
• the grid of pixels on a camera sensor or scanner.

When those two patterns overlap at just the wrong frequencies, the camera invents false patterns:

• wavy lines
• shimmering bands
• unexpected colour shifts
• exaggerated texture

None of these appear in real life — they only show up in the digital file because the sensor can’t properly interpret the tiny, repeating weave pattern of the canvas.

Traditional cotton and linen have strong, directional, regular weaves, which is exactly the kind of structure that causes moiré when lit and photographed sharply.

Why Oil Painters Are Hit Hardest

Oil artists often create surfaces that the camera reads with extremely high clarity:

• smooth blends and glazes
• sharp edges
• fine detail
• glossy varnish or semi-gloss paint layers

When the underlying canvas weave is strong, regular, and well-lit, it becomes even more pronounced in the photograph. The more visible the weave, the higher the chance it will clash with the camera’s pixel grid.

That’s why many artists see moiré in:

• skies
• skin tones
• soft gradients
• dark glazes
• clean architectural edges

…it’s exactly where you don’t want an unwanted pattern to appear.

ACF surface compared to traditional cotton

Louise’s Discovery: A Surface With No Weave = No Interference Pattern

Louise, who works primarily in oils, started noticing something after switching to ACF’s PET canvas:

“I’m not seeing the moiré or exaggerated texture I used to get when photographing my paintings. The surface looks cleaner in the final photos, and the details look more like the painting rather than the canvas weave.”

This makes perfect sense scientifically.

Here’s why PET reduces moiré behaviour:

1. No woven structure
   PET is not a traditional fabric. There is no criss-cross weave repeating across the surface. Without a fine repeating pattern, there’s nothing for the camera sensor to “collide” with.
2. A controlled, micro-even surface
   ACF’s coating system levels the surface, reducing the high/low peaks that cameras often amplify. Smoothness = fewer high-frequency artefacts.
3. No directional weave lines
   Linen and cotton have strong directionality (warp and weft). PET has none. This removes the “grid vs grid” alignment that typically creates moiré.
4. Consistent behaviour under light
   PET + coating reflects light more evenly, meaning fewer hotspots that emphasise texture.

The result isn’t just “less moiré.”

It’s less interference overall, which means:

• cleaner digital reproductions
• more accurate colour
• smoother gradients
• less retouching
• fewer re-shoots

Artists who scan their work often notice the same improvement.

Louise's art on a 150mm x 150mm standard canvas 

Louise's art on a 150mm x 150mm ACF canvas

This Is Not About Selling a Product — It’s About Understanding a Material Shift

Artists have used cotton and linen for hundreds of years. They are fantastic materials, but they were never designed for digital reproduction, because digital reproduction wasn’t part of an artist’s world until the last few decades.

PET introduces a completely new surface concept:

• non-woven
• engineered
• dimensionally stable
• micro-controlled
• built for modern workflows like scanning, printing, and digitisation

We’re not claiming PET is “better than everything.”
We are saying:

PET behaves differently — and that difference is solving problems artists once believed were just part of the process.

Moiré is just one example.

Every week we get messages from artists discovering new behaviours:

• incredibly fine detail retention
• effortless glazing
• smoother wet-on-wet blending
• no sagging during large colour fields
• improved scanning and photographing

These aren’t marketing lines — they’re findings emerging from real artists doing real work.

How to Reduce Moiré Even Further (Regardless of Canvas Type)

Even with a moiré-resistant surface like PET, good photography practice matters. The following techniques help eliminate moiré on any artwork:

• Adjust distance/focal length if you see patterns appear
• Change the angle slightly to break interference alignment
• Use diffused, even lighting to avoid emphasising texture
• Avoid shooting perfectly square if the texture is strong
• Use higher resolution where possible
• Apply minor moiré correction in Lightroom/Photoshop if needed

But the biggest improvement is simply starting with a surface that doesn’t create the interference pattern in the first place.

Why Oil Artists Should Understand This Going Forward

Whether you’re an exhibitor, a printmaker, a commissions artist, or someone selling online:

• Your photos represent your work
• Your digital file often becomes the “real painting” for buyers
• Poor reproductions reduce trust and perceived quality
• And moiré can quietly sabotage an otherwise perfect shot

As more oil artists adopt PET-based canvases, they’re not switching because of a trend. They’re switching because:

The medium now demands materials that work both on the easel and in the digital world.

Artists like Louise are discovering that a smoother, engineered canvas surface removes a well-known modern problem that cotton and linen were never designed to solve.