Looking to print a single sheet with several logos that a client wants to frame.
Where would you guys recommend getting a one of print like this done? Would probably be 11x17 at the largest. Thanks!
At a corner quick-print shop.
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If I need a one-off or something like that that is too big for my in-house color printer, I’ll send it to my local FedEx Office. They actually do a great job with the color on their printers.
Sorry, should have specified. Ideally I need it to be an online place so it’s easy to mail. There are no quick print shops near me I like, and Fedex has done terrible work for me in the past
Most office laser printers print 11" x 17"…
Any signshop will do it, but you may as well buy 2 at that size due to media waste. You won’t like the price.
Many frame shops have printers these days. Maybe your client can take it to his framer (unless the frame is coming from Walmart or something.)
They may make you sign a paper that you are allowed to use the logos in question. Kinkos/Fedex in particular.
You might be able to get it printed off your phone onto photo paper at a local photo print kiosk. Some of them do 11x17 or close to it.
This will need to be art quality as it will be professionally matted and framed, so definitely want to avoid a laser printer, and also why I was trying to avoid Fedex or a kiosk
Then I’d first check if the framer, or a framer in the area, has print capabilities.
The Kodak print route is a professional grade actual wet photo process (silver halide) on very nice archival grade paper. That’s an alternate route.
Or find a printer that does so-called Giclee prints. Fancy word for expensive art prints done on a high end production print machine. Gonna be way more than you want to spend.
If that’s the case, you also need to be concerned with fading. Most digital printing isn’t meant to be hung on a wall and last forever. There are processes, like Giclee prints, made for this kind of thing that use pigment-based inks rather than dyes.
As has already been mentioned, a frame company might be able to help you or point you in the right direction since they routinely run into problems like this. Then again, you mentioned needing to handle all this online, so maybe you’ve at least gotten some ideas now on what to search for.
Sad little secret about “Giclee” prints…
These days they are usually printed on high end industrial Epson printers using pigment based inks (not dye based) using an archival, neutral pH paper and printed at the highest quality setting (ie slower than watching grass grow.) The slow speed/high quality is why they cost so much.
While Epson touts 200 years on their pigment inks, that would be in a box, in the dark. If you put the print in a frame under UV filtering glass, and keep it away from high-UV light sources, it will last a long time. You also want to keep air exchange away from the paper and the inks. You are more likely to get oxidation/foxing than you are to get fading, under UV glass. UV plexi is slightly more air-permeable but is an option. Look for Acrylite OP-3 if going that route. you can get that with a non-glare finish. Very nice look.
You might look at a photo lab.
Cafepress and Zazzle do one-off prints, some with frames.
Unless the photo lab (in the old sense of a dedicated film developing lab) is approaching 30 years in the industry, more likely as not, they are using inkjets on photo paper. Even with the older labs, many have given up wet developing for a variety of reasons. Start-ups seem to be avoiding it altogether. While there are still quite a number of the smaller photo processing units out there (Kodak even still has self-serve wet developing in many CVS stores,) there are very few labs with the big Durst Lambda printers and even fewer with the even bigger Lightjets.
There is a photo lab in my city I deal with on a regular basis. They have a variety of means for producing prints (inkjet and traditional processing) and a variety of materials (traditional papers, metals, art papers, etc.).
Been around a while too, right? Started in the 60s or early 70s? A lot of the old labs added inkjet with the first “scotchprints” in the early to mid-90s and many have added many other capabilities just to stay relevant. I deal with two local labs (and a couple others scattered across the country) that do everything from wet photo to entire retail installations (work I used to do, BTW.) In the 20+ years I’ve been doing this, several old labs have folded up when their owners retired. The newer ones that start up, they are all doing inkjet, with varying degrees of success. It saddens me to see the old tech die out. The image quality of a finely tuned hi rez lightjet print hasn’t yet been equaled by an inkjet. But photo prints are limited in application whereas the light solvent machines and direct printers have opened so many markets with product that is serviceable. Plus it takes some skill to backend a large photo processor. Another dying skill in the print industry.
I’m always leary of a shop that says they are printing to metals. Some metal panel products, like DiBond are optimized for direct printing, but not a lot of true metals. Some places are doing dye sub to things like prepped aluminum blanks, but direct prints to bare metal, even ChemMetal, have always turned out to be somewhat of a disaster after post curing occurs…well…not always.