canvas

canvas, strong, coarse cloth of cotton, flax, hemp, or other fibers, early used as sailcloth. Left in its natural color, bleached, or dyed, it has a wide variety of uses, as for game, duffel, sport, mail, and nose bags, tennis shoes, covers, tents, and awnings. Waterproofed with tar, paint, or the like, it is called tarpaulin and used to protect boats, hatches, and machinery. Duck is a fine light quality used for summer clothing, awnings, and sails. Artists' canvas is a light, smooth, single-warp texture, specially treated to receive paint. Art or embroidery canvas is an open-mesh type, usually linen, for working in crewels and for needlepoint.

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canvas

Stout cloth. Canvas (probably named for cannabis, or hemp), has been made from hemp and flax fibres since ancient times to produce cloth for sails. More recently it has also been made from tow, jute, cotton, and mixtures of such fibres. Flax canvas is essentially of double warp (see weaving), being invariably intended to withstand pressure or rough usage. Articles made from canvas include camera and golf bags, running shoes, tents, and mailbags. Tarred canvas is used for tarpaulins to cover goods. Artists' canvas for painting is much lighter than sail canvas; those of the best quality are made of cream or bleached flax fibre.

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canvas

(1) In an image editing or paint program, the canvas is the window in which the picture is created or edited. It is the on-screen counterpart of the cloth canvas used by an artist. See paint program.

(2) (Canvas) A technical drawing, image editing and page layout program for Windows and the Mac from ACD Systems International, Inc., Victoria, British Columbia (www.acdsystems.com). Acquired from Deneba Software in 2003, ACD's Canvas combines numerous illustration (vector graphics) and image editing tools (bitmapped graphics) in one application. It also includes presentation graphics capabilities for producing on-screen slide shows. Specific versions have been created for GIS mapping, scientific imaging and the professional design engineering market.

Canvas

Canvas combines extensive drawing and imaging tools in one program. The PC drawing on top is a vector graphics rendering and the "first mouse" below is a bitmap. The open menus show image editing tools that are not normally found in a vector graphics drawing program.

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canvas

1. 

a. a heavy durable cloth made of cotton, hemp, or jute, used for sails, tents, etc.

b. (as modifier): a canvas bag

2. 

a. a piece of canvas or a similar material on which a painting is done, usually in oils

b. a painting on this material, esp in oils

3. Nautical any cloth of which sails are made

4. Nautical the sails of a vessel collectively

5. the floor of a boxing or wrestling ring

6. Rowing the tapering covered part at either end of a racing boat, sometimes referred to as a unit of length

7. under canvas Nautical with sails unfurled

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canvas [′kan·vəs]

(textiles)

A firm, closely woven fabric of plain weave made principally from hemp, but also from flax, jute, cotton, or a blend of fibers.