Best online printer?

Luvwine
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Best online printer?

I occasionally sell prints--from say 11x14" to 30x40." I used to have a 44" wide format printer, but found I was not using it enough to be cost effective. There is a local photographer who has an older Epson who has done a good job for me printing, but has become less reliable. I think I need to make a change and looking for advice for a good print company. I have an Eizo monitor that self calibrates and can download and use custom print profiles, but ideally it would be nice to have a person at the other end to give a "thumbs up" that the file looks okay to them.

Thanks for any recommendations. Want reasonable pricing, but not looking for the cheapest option. Want good quality.

Thanks for any thoughts.

Jul 11, 2023 at 09:18 AM

PIOK
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Best online printer?

I know only

https://bayphoto.com

Jul 11, 2023 at 09:24 AM

grandmas
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Best online printer?

MPIX

Jul 11, 2023 at 10:29 AM

dpm321
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Best online printer?

Another vote for MPIX but I primarily use them for B&W.

Jul 13, 2023 at 07:52 AM

JimboCin
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Best online printer?

It depends on what type of prints you want.

Two general categories:
- Inkjet (also called Giclee)
- Photo Prints

For photo prints, I have run test prints through over a dozen national labs and prefer MPIX / MPIX Pro / Millers.

MPIX also does inkjet, but I have never used them for that. I use local labs for inkjet. I prefer inkjet because of the wider paper selection and therefore the wider range of looks available.

Your profile says you live in Atlanta. I have to believe there are local higher-end labs that do inkjet there. I think it would be worth visiting a few and going from there.

Colorchrome Art & Graphic Solutions looks like one option. PPRpix is another.

Jul 13, 2023 at 10:45 AM

OntheRez
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Best online printer?

ProPrints https://www.proprints.com is superb. Have used them for ≈10 years. Sizes up to 24x60. They are absolutely devoted to customer satisfaction. I've tried several others. No one comes close to their quality of work and service. Recommended.

Jul 13, 2023 at 10:50 AM

mkuznicki
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Best online printer?

JimboCin wrote:
It depends on what type of prints you want.

Two general categories:
- Inkjet (also called Giclee)
- Photo Prints

For photo prints, I have run test prints through over a dozen national labs and prefer MPIX / MPIX Pro / Millers.

MPIX also does inkjet, but I have never used them for that. I use local labs for inkjet. I prefer inkjet because of the wider paper selection and therefore the wider range of looks available.

The MPixPro program ceased to exist years ago.

Be careful ordering from Mpix/Millers as there have been a lot of changes there this year. Although their website ordering and ROES ordering both show many of the same options as they have in the past, what you get may be completely different. Here's a quote for their Customer Service department a few months ago after I complained about a 16x24 metallic print (which was supposed to be on Kodak Endura Metallic):

"Yes we most recently switched the 16x20 and larger to Giclee prints due to Kodak announcing they are no longer producing any photographic paper. We did and do still have quite a back stock of Kodak paper on hand for the smalls still but are all out of Metallic, since Kodak stopped manufacturing that about 1 1/2 years ago....we just happened to have a good bit on hand to last us for a while.

Yes we are trying to keep it simple on the site, since we have paper for small sizes that are photographic for a while but the large prints 16x20 and larger are all going to be giclee from here on out- it's hard to separate that on the site and make it easy for people to understand. It's going to be confusing and hard to separate on the site this is this paper etc.... for a while until we make the switch to all Giclee paper when it comes to that."

They're trying to "keep it simple" and "make it easy for people to understand." Seriously?

Btw, I don't know what paper they're using for their inkjet prints (I wasn't able to get an answer on that), but it's not very good.

Edited on Jul 13, 2023 at 12:00 PM · View previous versions

Jul 13, 2023 at 11:26 AM

mkuznicki
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Best online printer?

dpm321 wrote:
Another vote for MPIX but I primarily use them for B&W.

Their B&W prints are no longer silver gelatin. They're now inkjet and they're not very good.

Jul 13, 2023 at 11:27 AM

mkuznicki
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Best online printer?

PIOK wrote:
I know only

https://bayphoto.com

+1 for Bay Photo

They do a nice job with both silver halide and inkjet and have a pretty extensive paper selection. Prices are reasonable if you order through ROES and choose the "no color correction" option.

I've tried some of their metal prints (dye sublimation) and they're mediocre.

Jul 13, 2023 at 11:44 AM

goalerjones
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Best online printer?

depends on services desired. I've successfully used the following before deciding to print myself

Bayphoto for prints (select color correction if you want them to do free re-prints if something goes wrong). Initial order qualifies for 25% off.
Nations Photo Lab for metal and acrylic (slightly better prices for these than Bayphoto)
icanvas for canvas up to 40x60

Jul 13, 2023 at 01:47 PM

JimKied
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Best online printer?

Check out New Mexico Fine Art https://nmfa.io/ - they can do most everything a big lab does and I find them to be more communicative and helpful when needed.

Jul 21, 2023 at 04:31 AM


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