I'm tired of inkjet printing at home or in the office. What is the very best print service out in the online world? Best for archival matte papers? Best for high quality, large (13x19 inch) glossy prints? Best Color match to your profiled monitors? Got an opinion or experience? Let's hear it.
25 comments:
For acrylic-faced prints mounted on aluminum dibond nobody I've used has done anywhere near the consistently high-quality that Whitewall has done for my work. In fact I just took delivery of 4 prints today which Whitewall turned-around within about 10 days...printing and shipped from Germany! Their color is excellent. Their choice of print surface is good. Their packaging care is exceptional. They are not cheap but they have always delivered 100% for me for the past several years.
I have not yet tried them on conventionally printed and framed work but plan to this summer.
https://www.whitewall.com
well, you've got your standard and pro photo labs then your bespoke artisan places then maybe some poster places are worth a look, we have one in the UK called poster pigeon, they don't have much choice of paper (economy, standard and premium) but do 8 colour inkjet prints for what seems like cost price for a home user and maybe a quarter of the price of a lab on hahnmule photo rag or whatever, I like getting 12x16" or 12x18" C prints, they're fairly cheap from my favourite (good value pro) lab, maybe $2.50 equivalent each
Very happy with the quality from Bay Photo in California. I recently had a 24” x 30” print done on Epson Premium Satin that really blew me away.
Here in Australia we have two amazing printers, Sandy Prints and Les Walkling. Both are bespoke and print major exhibitions for well known fine art photographers. I use one up the road called vision graphics, I can visit and see the proofs, which they do for my large prints. We also have a cheap professional printer rgbdigital and they are fully calibrated and send you back what you send them at a great price. I use them for any bulk prints. They have a wet service as well, and the prices are great.
Well, Justin Mott, who I started watching on YouTube after your fairly-recent recommendation, routinely recommends Printique. He claims that he gets all of his printing done there.
The only printing I have gotten done recently was with VistaPrint. Calendars - not the fine prints you are asking about. But the people who received a copy of the calendar really like the photos. VistaPrint does higher-quality photo printing, but I haven’t gotten any of that type of printing done by them.
I've been very happy with Printique. But I'm no professional or expert printer, and mostly create photobooks.
When my wife ran her photography business, Bay Photo was one of the labs she used. I am an amateur photographer, but that's usually the one I use now on the occasion we order prints. We both like the prints on metal, in particular.
Ken
www.genesisimaging.co.uk
Good enough for MOMA.
Although I don't have an inkjet printer anymore, I've been asking myself the same question, so I find your post quite timely, if not a bit eerie. I'll be interested to see what sort of comments you get. For what it's worth, my first choice is generally Printique for R-prints on Fuji lustre or pearl stock when I'm looking for reliably good print quality for reasonable prices and turnaround. I live in Philadelphia, so standard shipping times from their lab in NYC are quick. That might not be the case for West Coast or Midwestern photographers.
A few years ago I sent a test image to several online printers, and Bay Photo returned the print I liked best. No problem with the color match, many papers to choose from, and very robust packaging for shipment.
If the question is what's the best you can do vs good enough, then Whitewall would be the choice. My experience has been excellent. I think Whitewall business model is with pros that know what they are doing, eg, for each of their media they have the color profile available.
Several years ago I recommended Whitewall to a friend (an award winning photographer with significant gallery sales). Over coffee this week I asked him about who does his printing. Said he switched from Bay to Whitewall and is very impressed.
I've had good luck with FinerWorks. Amazing number of fine art papers, good color, flat shipping (up to 20x30", rolled for larger unless mounted or matted) and periodic sales of 30%-50% off for particular products. I tend to wait for a sale to come around on one of my favorite papers - Hahnemühle Photo Rag or Photo Rag Baryta, depending on the image - and send in a bunch of photos.
We use to have a great pro service here in Calgary. It went out of business due to the lack of demand for prints from the wedding/family type pros and the collapse of the oil industry here.
If any of your readers live in Canada, please chime in on where you get your prints done.
Eric
The Printspace
https://www.theprintspace.co.uk/
They ship internationally and also have a fulfilment centre in New York.
Another vote for Bay Photo, specifically for metal prints. For books, I really like Saal Digital.
I've been very happy with MPIX (Miller's Imaging) in Pittsbrug, Kansas. They have made eight 24" x 36" prints for me and I'm very satisfied.
I used Whitewall for an acrylic print and agree with Kenneth the work turned out great. Currently I use Paper and Ink Studio in Butte, MT, printing on Hahnemuhle Fine Art Baryta Satin, 300gm with archival ink. Print matches what I see in Photoshop and turnaround is what I expect.
Another vote for Printique. I was the executor for a photog-friend's estate, and we put together a gallery show of 16X20s of his large-format - but digitized - B&W architectural work. (Actually ordered CMYK versions which were spot-on after a tweak or two.) Highly recommended.
I’m also in Australia, and been thinking same as Kirk. Many thanks for the tips.
I've had good luck with FinerWorks. Great selection of papers, good color, flat shipping (I hate rolled shipping). They often have sales on their fine art papers with 30-50% off; I wait for one of these and send a bunch of photos in.
By coincidence I just got an email that Hanhnemuhle Photo Rag is 40% off. One of my favorites, the other being their Photo Rag Baryta. Time to pick some for printing from my recent Sweden/Finland trip.
Eric, I can't help with Calgary but here in Toronto several of the pros recommend Toronto Imageworks.
for Eric: I haven't used them, as I am still persevering with at-home ink-jet, but I have a bookmark for Resolve Photo (https://resolvephoto.ca) for local printing, i.e. in Calgary.
Thanks Ross and Jon!
Eric
Based on reading about and seeing his work plus his contributions to MJ's blog, how about Ctein? He does custom printing from what appears to be any kind of photopgraphic material, film, slide or digital.
https://ctein.com/customprinting.htm#digital
Yes, Bay Photo is good.
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