Who are we all using for Online printing ??

9designs2

9designs2

9designs2

Soldato
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5 Jan 2003
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I seem to remember Photobox were most peoples top choice....

I have five A3's to print, thought I would use an online printer and not my S9000, they are all monochrome btw.
 
Good question. I want to get a couple of prints done and although I usually use Photobox, my last two orders had problems so I'm thiking of trying someone new. Also my PB prints used to come out a little dark, although I never downloaded their profile, maybe that would help?!
 
I got a sample pack from these guys, and they are stunning.

The metallic Kodak paper looks awesome!

although I am yet to try them!
 
thought id post in this thread instead of starting a new one, im wanting to get a few A2 prints done and just want to know if its better to resize the images my self in photoshop, or just let photobox do it?

also is there any thing else i can do to get the best results when enlarging prints?

my biggest concern is that i use a d70 which is only 6mp.
 
Rounding down, let's assume the D70 outputs at 3000px x 2000px. To get somewhere near the A2 sizing of 594mm x 420mm your uncropped and otherwise untouched image would need to be printed at somewhere around 128ppi.

That might look fine from a long distance away but at anything approaching a sensible distance it will look terrible. So you've got to increase the amount of pixels in the image to up your ppi to something acceptable.

You could use the 'Resample Image' option in PS and increase by a fraction of the size you need (some people recommend 1% each time) until your image hits the resolution that you need.

Or you could invest in some software that should do the same job as PS but better. Genuine Fractals used to be the weapon of choice when I last checked, but that was a while ago.

Personally I'd go with the PS option as it's cheaper and supposedly just as effective. But it's going to be worth your time printing out a series of smaller 'test' images at various ppi densities in order to see what you consider to be an acceptable level of quality based on the distance you'll be viewing these A2 prints from.

As a rough estimate, I'd say 200ppi would be a minimum requireds and around 240 would be the maximum.
 
cheers for your help glitch.

i have the files saved at 240ppi and used bicubic smoother option. I knew i was never going to get amazing results trying to enlarge to this size, im only getting a couple done to see how they come out.

thanks again.
 
steveinspain said:
Good online printers - try Lee at Togsprint.
He runs a small company that does it all by hand, and every print gets checked. He is not as cheap as photobox, but I wouldn't touch photobox for anything that matters.
http://www.togsprint.co.uk/
Click to expand...

Ive seen loads of people travel from ocuk to TP, but now it seems we have people emigrating the other way as well. Hello Steve. :)
 
Ok dumb question, these real photo prints, or inkjet same as I can do at home ?
I was looking for a chemical or wet print for long life etc.
 
9designs2 said:
Ok dumb question, these real photo prints, or inkjet same as I can do at home ?
I was looking for a chemical or wet print for long life etc.
Click to expand...

To the best of my knowledge, he uses ultrachrome K3, which are meant to last 75 years or so. I doubt he uses any wet methods.
Contact him - he is very friendly and keep to help out. Please feel free to mention my name, and where you heard about him - it won't benefit me, but as a happy customer, I am happy to help him and Talk Photography, the photography forum I am a member of..!
 
I've also used Lee at togsprint for some canvases and was very impressed with the quality and customer service. I still use photobox for standard 7x5 photos as they have always been good for those and I've had some A3 prints from them and for the price they have been good quality.

Will try intelligence direct next time and report back if they are noticeably different.
 
just a heads up, i got my A2 prints back from photobox today and im chuffed to bits! the quality is a lot lot better than i was expecting and the colours are pretty much spot on to what i see on my monitor.

only downside is one print was resized a bit smaller than A2, this was my fault tho as i saved it at the wrong dimesions :(

still very happy with them.
 
I've had several 20x30s from photobox a while ago and they were great.

I haven't had the need to get any prints done since then, but I'll definitely be looking around a bit next time before I make an order.
 
Im going to print most of my work here at work once I am put in charge of the digital print room. We have 2x44" printers, 2x24" printers and 6xA2 printers with a range of heavy art papers. Anyone for a 66"x44" print? :)
 
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