Exercise 5.2: Print quotes

1. Print Quotes

Digitalab

The website seems impressive with good reviews and emphasis on quality and a more personal service.

Prices for 6-19 A3 size C-type prints: £6.70

The Print Space

Print space offer a good selection of different papers which range in cost.

Prices for Giclee A3 prints £9.85 – £12.96

Metro imaging

There are two services on offer, a standard service or a premium service which offers the help of an expert technician. The print runs are a minimum of 10 prints from each image. You are advised to contact them for a quote for individual prints.

Prices for A3 size are inline with the above however there’s quite a range depending on different types of printing which puts me off a bit.

2. Preparing an image file

Digitalab have good instructions for preparing and uploading files.

There are two ways to send the images via online which accepts JPEGS or for larger images a WeTransfer dropbox style service which can accept TIFF.

The instructions are as follows:

• To get the best results please work in sRGB colour space ( please do not work in CMYK ).
• Files should be supplied in 8-bit mode. We use Noritsu 3701HD and 3704HD printers and a Chromira printer for large format prints and these will only handle 8-bit files. When working with 16 bit files please change to 8 bit as the last step of your workflow.
• All prints up to and including 18″x12″ (plus panoramic format prints up to 36″x12″) are printed on our Noritsu machines. Ideally these should be supplied at the required print size at 300ppi.(For good quality we advise at least 200ppi.)
• All prints larger than 18″x12″ are printed on our Chromira 50 printer and these should be supplied at the required print size at 300 ppi. (For good quality we advise at least 200ppi.)
• If you require large prints on our Chromira printer you can supply JPG files via our online ordering system or if you prefer to send TIF files please use the WeTransfer channel. When saved at a high quality compression setting (10-12) JPG files are perfectly acceptable in comparison with TIF files.
• If you do send TIF files for very large prints please flatten your images and do not use LZW compression.

I’ve cut and pasted the above as I think it offers really clear guidance, one that I find I can understand!

3. Is an inkjet a ‘photograph’?

My view on questions of this nature are always the same. We are constantly evolving and changing. The original photograph was a chemical process of an analogue process. We have moved into digital. The choice of presentation of a photograph is immense in terms of the actual printing processes plus the choice of papers, physical or online viewing. The arrival of Covid and the prevalence social media is changing the way we view photographs.