Getsmarts

We would like to send quality two sided Picture Christmas cards out this year. We have not been overly impressed with some of the companies we have used in the past. Thanks in advance for your recommendations.

Steve

cdayton

I’ve used Shutterfly for several years with good results.

leftj Loc: Texas

I recommend MPix. We used them last year and were very pleased. Will use them again this year.

Getsmarts

Thanks for the feedback. Shutterfly is an economical choice that we have used in the past (after all of the discount coupons). I was hoping that there are higher quality printing options available.

Getsmarts

Thanks. I will look into Mpix. We have not used them before.

Steve

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

shutter fly. However, the best prices I have found are from Costco.

Getsmarts

Thanks billnikon. We have used Costco for normal printing and have tried them for Christmas cards a couple times in the past. I was just hoping others have had great experiences with some of the other Companies. I don’t mind paying a bit more for a quality product. Mpix looks quite promising of the recommendations so far, but we will need to order to know for sure.

garrickw Loc: Wyoming Mn.

RED RIVER PAPER

Getsmarts

Thanks garrickw. We are looking for a printing service for the cards. A quick look at their website only looks like paper and card stock. I will keep them in mind if I ever get to the point of printing my own cards.

Steve

Brian S. Loc: Oak Park, MI

My wife and I both agree that Shutterfly is great and they are having 50% off or MORE sales right now. We will go back to them without a second thought. Price and Service are excellent.

Fredrick Loc: Former NYC, now San Francisco Bay Area

Bay Photo and Minted are excellent for Christmas cards.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Do you calibrate and ICC profile your photo-grade monitor monthly? That has the BIGGEST effect on whether or not you like your lab... Printing accurate color requires images adjusted to international standards. JPEG files do not have much latitude for color adjustment. Film negatives and raw files do! But JPEGs processed by the camera are like slides. Getting good ones requires proper camera settings and exposure methods.

In the early 2000s, I ran the digital imaging side of a large analog/digital portrait lab. We made all the greeting cards — about 140,000 orders of 50 cards each — for the 326 Picture People studios that were scattered all over the country. We could always tell when one of their stores' personnel didn't have a clue about digital image color management. Images would be dark and green, pale and cyan, too red... and no amount of post-processing could pull many of them back to neutral.

I spent lots of time on the phone with their operations guy, explaining those issues. Sometimes there was an improvement, but in stores run by bozos who didn't care/would not listen... none!

Folks, I see these posts by folks in search of "a good lab" or "a good printer" all the time. Many don't realize that nearly all labs in existence these days rely on technology to keep them tuned to an international standard. If your images meet that standard, they print well. If they don't, you can pay for SOME color correction, but the irony of that is that the farther off it is to begin with, the less latitude for adjustment there is.

Jesterman

We have used bay photo and love their work

Frida Loc: Atlanta

Mpix.com best for cards, prints, calendars & books. They work with professionals & I've found them to be top-notch! This is based on many yrs of being their customer. Good luck.

Frida Loc: Atlanta

Mpix.com by far the best!




quote=Jesterman]We have used bay photo and love their work[/quote]