@patdavidasked about prints for one of my photos, and my only experience with professional printers was from 10 years ago when I shipped two prints, one to Canada and one to Belgium, and I was disappointed with the print quality. Of the several printers in the city where I lived at the time, none offered printer profiles for soft-proofing. Most didn’t even know what that was.
I would like to inquire about prints, so that I can make some for myself and for people who would like a something on the wall, and be pleased with the result.
Which companies do you recommend for high quality prints? I’m interested in options for Europe, USA and Canada for now.
Do they offer printer profiles?
How does shipping work in this day and age? I hear that is handled by the printing companies nowadays, making the process faster and cheaper.
Any other advice?
In Sweden we have one skilled/professional printshop, at least:
www.crimson.se. They are located in Stockholm.
Yes, they offer profiles for you to download:
I usually upload my images to them in the evening, they “print” the job a few hours later i.e. early morning, mail it the same day as A-post which will reach me the following day.
Another alternative is to find a trustworthy printer in Pat’s hometown, which presumably will make shipping a lot cheaper and faster.
At least from what I’ve seen here in the US, color management is what separates the consumer printers from the professional ones. I’ve been using mpix for a while and have been satisfied with the print quality, after some minor adjustments to my monitor. They have an option to turn off their color correction, but they do not offer profiles. They have a pro service, Miller’s that I’ve never used, but it looks like they have some nice products now, such as integration for ordering directly from your website.
That being said, I print everything at work now, I have an Epson R3000 and an Epson P7000 at my disposal.
In North America, one of the higher regarded print labs would be someone like White House Custom Color (WHCC). (Unrelated, but their “How it Works” page is extremely well done and cute - just scroll). I believe they get you 5 free 8x10 prints to make sure your monitor calibration and profiles are working correctly. They also do (your customer) print fulfillment in unbranded packaging (and have some integration options I think).
Thanks for the link to white House printers, Pat! I’ve mainly used Bay Photos with good results, but I have not been much of a stickler for calibration, etc.
