Prints- how do you do 'em??

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kiiku	Prints- how do you do 'em??	Lead	[-]
Posts: 13 (03/26/08 11:46 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Tags : None So I've been trying to look into how, when, where and how much I can get prints of my work done for... any ideas? I've heard that you can get your prints done thru the print shop at the con, but for how much exactly, and how do you send in your work to have it done? I've never made prints of my work before so I have no idea how to go about any of this ^^; So basically: Where have you gotten your prints done? How much did it cost? How much should I try to have made/expect to make? What sizes did you have made? What do the print shops need from you as far as artwork/formatting in order to actually MAKE the prints? And anything else I might have forgotten lol ^^; Thanks!! (/>3<)/
jinyjinjin		#1	[-]
Posts: 82 (03/27/08 12:04 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	I am also interested in where everyone else get their prints done... i might think of switching anyway i use costco printing survices Where have you gotten your prints done? costco! its photo quality so its awesome! How much did it cost? depends on the size. check their website for full info. but its not as cheap as... non photo quality prints How much should I try to have made/expect to make? you need to do your research. don't print too many big prints. and popularity plays a role. I wouldn't print more than 20 copies of big prints. smaller prints sell better What do the print shops need from you as far as artwork/formatting in order to actually MAKE the prints? the file. money. and membership card if you are using costco Lookie here!!: Deviantart + custom Buttons
Perineko		#2	[-]
Posts: 112 (03/27/08 08:31 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	1) Where do you get your pints done? I use Staples, actually. I know a lot of people use Kinko's and stuff but that's way too expensive for me. note: not all Staples come with a print centre. Call ahead to find out if your nearby one does. The only con to this place that I've found is that there are differing levels of quality between stores. So I recommend that if you want to go with them, give them an order of only one design. If the colors are off or if there are "print lines" in it, try another staples. Of course, not everyone has the luxury of living in a place where there is more than one Staples.. 2) How much did it cost Ripping fee is usually 2 bucks and then the prices vary depending on size and paper quality. They have a pricelist in pdf form on their site. 3) How much should I make? Ah, the eternal question. Like jiny said, do your research. Obviously the big ones right now are Bleach, Naruto, and Death Note. However, sometimes doing stuff for those series can work against you. If you do a print of Naruto just in some ninja pose (or whatever he does) with a plain-color bg... chances are it's not going to sell very well becuase people have found prints of Naruto doing something unique. Be original! I've also found that different things sell well at different cons. What I found helpful is that I brought a notepad with me that had a list of everything there was on my table. When I sold something, I give it a tick. That way I was able to go back and see what sold well and what didn't. For example, one of my prints that I didn't think would sell more than 5 copies of completely oversold (I sold 44 copies). Similarly, one of my other prints that I was sure would be a seller only sold 2. It's really hard to say. All this to say, I usually overprint, just in case. I figure AN won't be my last con, and if I have extras of something I can just sell it at the following con. However in cases like the print where I only sold 2 of it, I'm only going to make like 5 copies this year. The popular ones I'm going to make 40 or 50 of. The medium sellers I'll make 20 copies of. 4) What sizes did you have made? 8.5x11 and 11x17. I only had 2 11x17s but they both sold pretty well. (but I also spent the most time on them). 5) What do they need from you to print it? PDF files. Staples will charge an extra 5$ ripping fee (per design, don't forget, which can add up VERY quickly when you have say, 10 prints) for any file format that's not PDF. I usually order my stuff on-site and bring a little zip drive with all my pdf prints on it, that way I can be very specific in person about what I want. Hope that helps!
ArmaStama		#3	[-]
Posts: 97 (03/28/08 12:29 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	* I 've tried out 2 different mom & pop places before, and while their prices are very good, (40 cents per 8.5 x 11 on cardstock) I've been a little disappointed with the quality. One particular project I printed came out very streaky and there was nothing they said they could do about it. I've gone to Kwik Kopy for the last two years and I really like how my prints turn out, they've been really friendly and professional, and don't mind cutting off the bleed area on your prints, since they have the equipment that does it quickly. I've gone to Staples before for emergency school projects and I've been horrified by their prices, on one occasion long ago I had to fork over way too much money, (can't remember how much) on another occasion when I needed to print 11 x 17, I walked out of the store. * Kwik Kopy I think charged me somewhere around 60-70 cents for 8.5 x 11 on cardstock, but they made a minor cropping mistake with a few, so I ended up getting several free prints. (if you pay this particular location by cash, they don't charge you tax.) I've somehow gotten lucky discounts from them because of paper jams and stuff. It's annoying because these print places rarely show a much needed 'menu' of printing prices on their websites, so getting on the phone and calling around is the best thing to do, even though I hate to! It's so hard to know how much to print, if I have a really good feeling about a design, I'll print 12. Everything else, maybe 4 or 6 each. It also depends just how many designs you have in total. I've only ever made 8.5 x 11, but I'd like to make bigger. One of the small mom & pop places charged me $2 each for 11 x 17s on a project, I wasn't so happy with the quality, so expect to pay a little more. In AA these sizes usually cost $10-12 because they're so expensive to print, but people go crazy for really good designs on this scale. *Any printing place definitely takes TIFF, BMP, or PDFs. I've usually taken bitmaps because there's no chance they'll say 'uh, what format is this...?' XD Which brings me to another complaint about Staples. The only application they use to view and print images is Windows Image Viewer, so not only could they not view more than a few simple image formats, they were unable to set my 11 x 14 image to print on 11 x 17 paper. Instead of going home and adding 3 inches of white to my image, (or going behind the counter myself and made an effort to adjust the print settings) I drove around and found a real printing place that could. The woman who printed them for me was very helpful, and even told me to never bother with Staples. As for Anime North's 'print shop', I don't really remember what it's all about. One thing for sure is, don't leave your printing to the last minute... ^^ I've made this mistake way too often and I've been really lucky the printing places I've gone to were nice enough to do an on-the-spot job for me when I was in a jam. You'll be grateful you got your prints done at least a day before the convention, because emergencies happen, and printing places can't always print for you on-the-spot, and almost all of them have close early on weekdays and open late on Saturdays, and very often aren't open on a Saturday and/or Sunday at all. So don't wait till the last minute! I know it sounds crazy, but I think it's more than just me here who's been crazy enough to put everything together at the last minute, and printing till the very last because they wanna fit in 2 or 3 new things they just drew. This year I don't wanna go through that stress again ^^;; Last Edited By: ArmaStama 03/28/08 12:47 AM. Edited 2 times.
kiiku		#4	[-]
Posts: 14 (03/31/08 01:46 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Wow! Thanks to both of you! I already have plans of keeping track of everything I produce and sell this year so I can gauge how to go about things next year or at future cons. Thanks a bunch for the advice; I'm really nervous since I've not done any of this before, and I've never really made my artwork public... So it'll all be really new for me ^^; I'm also hoping to get all of my printing done ahead of time, so there shouldn't be any last minute emergencies... hopefully ^^; If anyone has any more helpful input... then by all means, I'm all ears~! X3
tiikay		#5	[-]
Posts: 10 (03/31/08 02:26 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Where have you gotten your prints done? I'm the same as jiny, I use Costco. Very beautiful print quality, different sizes available (however since they're usually for photo enlargements, some sizes can be awkward, but it's easy to get around that.) How much did it cost? Costco is a bit expensive, it's $1.39 per 8x10 or 8x12, but as I said, decent quality images as long as you provide a good 300dpi+ image. They rarely make mistakes and the one time I had a streaky line across something I was able to get that replaced. I think I had about 90 prints last year, it cost me about $100. I made the money back in the end, so I suppose it wasn't too much of a dent in my wallet. This year I'm not doing as many though... stickin' to bookmarks and a few prints XD How much should I try to have made/expect to make? It's easier to figure this out if you've done the alley a few times and printed work n such. (I'm assuming you're new to the alley? you can hit me if I'm wrong, sorry!!) I've only been once, so I have an idea of what might work, but it's not 100% guaranteed. Just print more of what you think will be popular and work that you're proud of and think will do well. I tried to keep it to what I was suggested last year: if you're doing all prints/mainly prints, have around 10 different designs max and about 6-10 copies of each. Print more of what you think will be popular and sell out, print less of things that you're not so sure of. I just did about 10 copies of each, but I have lots of leftovers. If you over-print, well, leftovers can be sold at another time. Now I know for this year not to make too many prints of certain things. It really depends on how well the congoers pick up on your stuff. Art's such a subjective thing XD Just go with what your gut tells you this time, next time it'll be easier. What sizes did you have made? I made 8x12's, I'm probably going to stick with 8x10's this year for my prints (less awkward and they fit in binders n things), maybe a few 12x18's (few meaning... probably 2-3 max of certain designs that I think will sell well). Like I said, Costco does awkward sizes (the numbers are based on photo ratios/proportions rather than normal print documents etc), but I suppose it doesn't matter because it'll probably end up on someone's wall anyway, and they won't mind the size.. hopefully. What do the print shops need from you as far as artwork/formatting in order to actually MAKE the prints? Most print shops take jpegs, gifs (not suggested), bmps (not suggested either, then again, I haven't tried using this before so I wouldn't know), tiffs, and some let you use pdfs. Costco will do the first 4, if you ever decide to go there (try other places first imho, just for cost related issues), jpegs at 300dpi+ and saved as max 12 in photoshop work pretty well. You'll usually need a USB key or a CD to transfer your images, I bring a few different devices in case some of them don't work. Costco also does online ordering too, but I'd prefer to walk in there. Hope this adds on to what the others have posted! =)
Pinkvivi		#6	[-]
Posts: 9 (03/31/08 10:41 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Where have you gotten your prints done? My situation is different as I work part-time in a photo-lab shop, that is equiped with an excellent Xerox laser-color printer... (http://www.fotoplus.ca/) Sorry, it's in french since I live in Quebec. How much did it cost? 8.5x11'' are 0,45$ on regular plain paper. 11x17 are 0,89$ on regular plain paper. So far, nothing exceptional. But what I really appreciate is that I can have bigger size (those are popular were I work!) : 12x18 and even 13x19 (but the shop almost never print on the last one since paper supplies are too expensive). So 12x18 can only be printed on glossy poster/brochure paper (1,25$) or 10pt/12pt cardstock (1,50$). What I usually do, is that I fit two 8.5x11'' on a 12x18, and cut them after, this way my prints are bleed (=no white border). As an artist, I am very picky about the printing quality, and yet I have always been very happy of the result there! The colors are great and the paper is nicer when using glossy brochure paper, than normal cheap plain paper. They also print with the photo-machine, the quality is even better! 4x6 are 0,29$ each when you get a 100 photo pre-paid card. But forget about bigger size, they are too expensive (8x10/8x12 = 6,95$, 10x15=15$) What do the print shops need from you as far as artwork/formatting in order to actually MAKE the prints? They print all files that are compatibles with Adobe Photoshop. Most of the customers brings 300 dpi max-quality jpeg. If anyone want prints to be done at this shop, well since I'll be in the Artist Alley this year, I suppose I could always bring your prints. =P Just contact me before the last week before the con, as I won't do any last-minute request...
Perineko		#7	[-]
Posts: 113 (03/31/08 01:21 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Just a note about Costco though because I looked into it myself and realized the fundamental problem: you need to have an actual membership, right? They're about 50$ if I'm not mistaken, so if you decide to go with Costco photos, factor that fee in as well.
ameruu		#8	[-]
Posts: 14 (03/31/08 04:04 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	well if your parents have a membership that's not a problem. if they don't, convince them! ahaha buying food in bulk is so much cheaper and awesome! please visit my artblog ~ http://ameru.livejournal.com
tiikay		#9	[-]
Posts: 11 (04/01/08 12:12 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Yeah, I forgot to add that in ^^; But as ameruu pointed out, some parents might have membership cards already, so make sure someone already has a membership if you ever think of getting stuff done there. If you don't have a membership then don't sweat it, there's plenty of other places to print. It's just that my mom has a membership, so it comes in handy ^^;;;;
ArmaStama		#10	[-]
Posts: 107 (04/26/08 01:14 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Just giving a little update on this thread, cause I did a bit of calling around to different printing places today. I called a few printing places that are franchised, since I'm looking for a happy balance of cost and quality. I've discovered Staples is cheaper than what I've experienced in previous years! Staples: 8.5 x 11 ___ 49¢ 11 x 17____99¢ This is on regular paper. Also, I don't know if they still have a CD processing fee, or a base charge per design. You can upload stuff online and pick it up, and they seem to have a do-it-yourself service too. Kwik Kopy: 8.5 x 11___ 45¢ 8.5 x 11___ 50¢ (100lb cardstock) 11 x 17___ 90¢ 11 x 17___ 1.00$ (100 lb cardstock) 12 x 18___ 1.10$ (100 lb cardstock) Print 3: 8.5 x 11___ 75¢ 11 x 17___ 1.50$ base charge per design: $2.50 I called Kinkos, Minuteman Express, Printwell Offset, and Inkwell Printing also, and along with Print 3, these places fall under the category of ouch. They're strictly all about big corporate jobs, so I felt a little silly going through their 'quote' system. If they were willing to do it, after understanding how little I want printed, they offered high printing costs along with hefty base charges per design. If not, they told me I need to print a minimum of 50 of each design. (I'm not that popular yet! ^o^) Kinkos was impossible to wrestle prices off of, the best I could get was a quote of $500 after some unwanted phone tag. The woman I spoke to misunderstood me, I was pretty sure at the beginning that Kinkos seemed a little corporate for what I wanted, but now I can be sure. ^^ So if you live close to Staples, they're good for a try. Check Kwik Kopy out though, I'm pretty happy with them and they have tons of locations. Friendliest people I spoke to on the phone today too.
Maiji		#11	[-]
Posts: 168 (04/26/08 09:04 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	My experience with Staples is that there is a $1 per file ripping fee, but nice people usually waive it and you can always get around it by making a multi-page PDF of the images you want printed. XD Also, their 'regular paper' is pretty good. It's a 98 bright 28 lb writing weight with a really nice smoothness. Artist Alley Jam? AAtoast!
ArmaStama		#12	[-]
Posts: 112 (05/14/08 09:34 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Here's a tiny update in terms of printing! For anyone printing on 8 x 10 photo paper, The Real Canadian Superstore is gonna have them on sale for 49¢ each starting Friday for a full week. This most likely includes Fortinos too.

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Prints- how do you do 'em??

Prints- how do you do 'em??

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