Online Printing

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Andrew Lamberson

Andrew Lamberson

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I hesitate to post this question...it's probably gauche to some of you...but does anyone have recommendations for an online printer for some of my pictures? I would rather spend my money on a better monitor and a macro lens than a printer that I would seldom use.
 
I have used artbeat studios quite a few times for Metal prints and have been satisfied with the work.
 
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Ive used Artbeat Studios for metal prints and Bay Photo for FIne Art and Photographic prints. I’ve also used Mpix and it was fine as well. I just like Bay Photo’s customer service.
 
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I sent some 8x10 pictures for Mpix and they will be here tomorrow. I also sent 2 of the same pictures to Walmart (boo!) to compare. I'm hoping the Mpix prints win by a mile!

In today's internet world, I don't print as much as I used to. "Way back when" I had a dedicated photo printer and all the associated "stuff" but don't want to go through that pain again.

Thanks for the responses. I give the others a try. I think I would like to do a few prints on metal and see how that looks.
 
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WHCC is my favorite. Their quality is great, orders over $12 ship free, they are fairly environmentally friendly, and they send lollipops in the box as a thank you. I have used others ( Printique is pretty good, though I would steer clear of their acrylic) but WHCC is my go-to.
 
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I have been using White House Color for more than 15 years. There provide a full range of paper options and an equally wide range of mounting options, including masonite for very large prints. I can upload files to their server on Sunday and have the prints delivered to my house on Tuesday.

I do not have the space for even a small mount press much less one for 20x30 size prints and so having the mounting done by WHCC is very important. It is also much easier to transport a large print to a frame shop when it is mounted.

WHCC also takes files and reads in the Adobe RGB color profile and this is important for any print place that you use.

On a side note I use Fuji or Kodak papers which are far more archival in nature. Inkjet prints are OK for something that is not that important or can be easily redone but these prints are far more readily damaged by any chemicals in the air. An entire wing of the Met had inkjet prints that were all damaged by the off-gassing from a new type of floor wax that was used.

WHCC also has special rates for volume printing and if they do 20 prints they can be from 20 different image files and you still get the discounted rate.
 
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I use McKenna Pro out of Waterloo, Iowa ... amazing service and top quality. I use them primarily for metal prints since the paper prints 13x19 and smaller I do are done on my Canon Pro 100. However I know several pros who use McKenna Pro for just about everything https://mckennapro.com
 
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Steve said:
I like Bay Photo as well. In fact, just got a really great meal print from them yesterday. Turned out better than I thought it would - and I had high expectations!
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They did a really nice acrylic print for me this summer. I opted for the larger acrylic and it looks great. They may outsource this work, but I was still happy with the final product.

--Ken
 
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J. C. Strange said:
WHCC is my favorite. Their quality is great, orders over $12 ship free, they are fairly environmentally friendly, and they send lollipops in the box as a thank you. I have used others ( Printique is pretty good, though I would steer clear of their acrylic) but WHCC is my go-to.
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I really like WHCC and do have a small collection of lollipops as well.:) I believe they just started doing acrylic, but have not yet ordered one from them. I did order a small acrylic piece from Printique which looked fine. What issue did you have with them?

--Ken
 
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Replytoken said:
I really like WHCC and do have a small collection of lollipops as well.:) I believe they just started doing acrylic, but have not yet ordered one from them. I did order a small acrylic piece from Printique which looked fine. What issue did you have with them?

--Ken
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It's my understanding that they print on top of the acrylic instead of beneath. For the price, I would say that it's not worth it if that's what you're getting.
 
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J. C. Strange said:
It's my understanding that they print on top of the acrylic instead of beneath. For the price, I would say that it's not worth it if that's what you're getting.
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I am not clear how anybody could print on top of acrylic. My understanding is that a print is made and then a piece of acrylic is adhered on top of the print, and that is what my piece looks like. Is it even possible to print directly on acrylic?

--Ken
 
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Last year my wife and I selected 4 images and sent the same 4 images to WHCC, MPix, ProDPI, ProCam and Meijer. The photos from WHCC, MPix and ProDPI were all very close to equal. Some very slight differences in color but all were very close to what I was seeing on my color corrected iMac. Only when the photos were laid side by side could one see some minor differences. ProCam's images were overly saturated and almost had a "cartoonish" look. Meijer is what you would expect from a discount store. They were "good enough" to put in a scrapbook or something but not what I would offer to a customer or to hang on my own wall.

MPix did our calendars last year and I was happy with them and we got great feedback from those who purchased them. They were not inexpensive for calendars but the quality was extremely good.

I've had 30-40 8X10, 11X14 prints done by WHCC and have been happy with the turn around and the quality of the prints.

Bottom line, with the exception of the discount store and the one instance with a camera store chain, my experience with the others MPix, ProDPI, WHCC has been positive. ProCam was OK just the over saturation was "interesting" on the images they did for us. Meijer was fine for what it was but I wouldn't use them for anything important.

Hope this proves helpful for you all.
 
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Replytoken said:
I am not clear how anybody could print on top of acrylic. My understanding is that a print is made and then a piece of acrylic is adhered on top of the print, and that is what my piece looks like. Is it even possible to print directly on acrylic?

--Ken
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It is. There are two basic methods, face mounting and direct printing. Here are some references:https://baboodigital.com/everything-there-is-to-know-about-acrylic-prints , http://acrylicphotomounting.blogspot.com/2012/05/acrylic-photo-face-mount-vs-direct.html , https://www.artmill.com/articles/benefits-acrylic-facemount-prints/
From Printique's website (https://www.printique.com/products/acrylic-prints/) they say "Crisp, sharp, and vibrant colors are printed on polished, optical-grade acrylic." which seems to indicate they are direct-printed. It's sometimes hard to separate those labs that give face-mounted and those that only give direct printing so I was letting people know that I thought this one was the not as good kind (also they are weirdly expensive for direct printing.) Then again, because I thought that, I have never ordered from them, so I'll have to defer to you on this one.
 
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J. C. Strange said:
It is. There are two basic methods, face mounting and direct printing. Here are some references:https://baboodigital.com/everything-there-is-to-know-about-acrylic-prints , http://acrylicphotomounting.blogspot.com/2012/05/acrylic-photo-face-mount-vs-direct.html , https://www.artmill.com/articles/benefits-acrylic-facemount-prints/
From Printique's website (https://www.printique.com/products/acrylic-prints/) they say "Crisp, sharp, and vibrant colors are printed on polished, optical-grade acrylic." which seems to indicate they are direct-printed. It's sometimes hard to separate those labs that give face-mounted and those that only give direct printing so I was letting people know that I thought this one was the not as good kind (also they are weirdly expensive for direct printing.) Then again, because I thought that, I have never ordered from them, so I'll have to defer to you on this one.
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Thank you very much for this explanation and the links. The articles were interesting and I learned a lot about acrylic printing that I did not know. I will need to go back and look at my Printique piece and see if I can tell if a print is sandwiched in there, or if it is a direct print.

--Ken
 
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