[HN Gopher] Ask HN: High quality digital art printing?
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       Ask HN: High quality digital art printing?
        
       I need to print digital art (.jpeg) but most of the websites seem
       to be ads or spam blog posts. Does HN know some good addresses?
        
       Author : frozencell
       Score  : 8 points
       Date   : 2022-07-23 17:57 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
       | pjbeam wrote:
       | I had a digital art portrait done of my wife and had it printed
       | at a local fine art framing kind of place. It turned out
       | beautifully! No clue where you live but you might look into such
       | a place near you--the staff at mine were super knowledgeable to
       | the point they asked the artist to change the color
       | encoding/scheme/whatever (sorry no clue about this stuff) to make
       | the colors pop more on the canvas.
       | 
       | It wasn't cheap but the results were worth it!
        
       | brudgers wrote:
       | Printing is an art.
       | 
       | Consistent quality printing comes from working with a
       | printer...from a relationship.
       | 
       | Otherwise you get what you sent because ordinarily printing is a
       | commodity service, and a business survives on commercial work not
       | the occasional amateur.
       | 
       | Which is to say that getting what you want requires knowing what
       | you are doing, paying to learn by making lots of wrong prints, or
       | paying someone enough to care (and enough to educate you).
       | 
       | The first option might be off the table based on your asking the
       | question.
       | 
       | The second and third options are most likely available with your
       | local print shops.
       | 
       | Knowing the first name of your of your printer is perhaps a
       | minimum for getting consistent art prints. Good luck.
        
       | realslimjd wrote:
       | If you're in the US Reed Art & Imaging [0] is one of the best
       | photo printing companies in the United States. They're (I think)
       | the only commercial studio licensed to use the true Diasec
       | process in the US. Diasec is what most museums prefer for their
       | photo prints, just as a reference of quality.
       | 
       | I've also used White Wall [1] in Germany with similar results.
       | They use basically the same process, but an unlicensed version.
       | Bumblejax [2] in Seattle is also great.
       | 
       | The other thing you can look for is local camera stores that
       | still develop film. Chances are they'll have a high quality
       | printer and paper. Giclee printing (basically very high quality
       | inkjet) is what's most popular right now and supposedly is the
       | most durable, but I personally prefer chromogenic (C-type) prints
       | which is where they use lasers to expose photo-sensitive paper.
       | There aren't many places doing C-type prints anymore, so that's
       | generally a mark of quality.
       | 
       | [0] - https://reedphoto.com
       | 
       | [1] - https://www.whitewall.com
       | 
       | [2] - https://www.bumblejax.com
        
       | robcohen wrote:
       | This is something I've wanted to find as well, I searched awhile
       | back for large scale printer services and I came up basically
       | empty handed. If you search reddit, there are recommendations but
       | to be honest most of them seemed kind of too expensive for me.
       | 
       | I'm planning to buy my own large format printer used on
       | craigslist and learn to print large format myself. These printers
       | are really expensive, and the heads can get gummed up easily but
       | I'm hoping there's a way to make it pay for itself (renting it to
       | friends, etc).
       | 
       | For anything smaller, you are probably better off finding a local
       | photography printer and paying them, or just go buy an inkjet.
        
       | illwrks wrote:
       | Look for "Glycee" printers, they are basically fancy inject
       | prints.
       | 
       | I had some prints done in the UK, onto archival paper, the print
       | quality was fantastic. Depending on the source image your milage
       | may vary though. I had prepped my own imagery and soft-proofed
       | them prior to printing - I'm a designer so have a good
       | understanding of what I'm doing.
        
       | fat_cantor wrote:
       | smugmug
        
       | shrubble wrote:
       | Adorama.com has good reviews by some.
       | 
       | I think asking on the dpreview.com forum for printing, or the
       | photo.net forum is likely to get you good infirmation, from
       | people who care about printing photos rather than signs.
        
       | dtagames wrote:
       | Bay Photo[0] in California was an early innovator and is the best
       | in the business. You can get real museum quality printing on
       | canvas or other materials. Nice folks and a great user interface,
       | too. I've used them for more than 25 years.
       | 
       | [0]https://bayphoto.com
        
       | PaulHoule wrote:
       | Chains like Staples, Office Depot, Kinko's, etc. will print files
       | that you send them and you can pick them up.
       | 
       | Drugstores such as Walgreens have an expensive large format
       | printer but only stock glossy photo paper. Wal-Mart does photo
       | printing too.
       | 
       | Some art looks good on glossy paper, but if you want matte go to
       | the "office" chains.
       | 
       | Personally I own an inkjet printer and make decorative cards
       | (both photo and art reproduction) regularly. I started the hobby
       | with basic printers and came to the conclusion that: (1) a cheap
       | inkjet printer does great work with quality paper and ink (don't
       | mess around with off-brand ink), (2) if you print yourself you
       | get an element of control that you don't get from the store.
       | (Particularly if you want to get borderless prints just right)
       | 
       | I got my first printer for free until the pick roller gave out,
       | bought an ET-4760, discovered that the ink fades rapidly in the
       | sun, then I upgraded to an ET-8550 because of the better ink and
       | ability to feed through the back which means no fighting the pick
       | roller when you use particularly thick or thin papers.
        
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       (page generated 2022-07-23 23:02 UTC)