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Low Overheads
Since our test marketing, with the explosion in the
digital camera business quality of printers has certainly increased much
further and prices have been greatly lowered again since our own test
phase so we are not in a position to recommend current model printers.
This is a
task more suited to a computer store, so we suggest
you shop around and ask about your chosen printer's capabilities.
The key factors are versatility, quality, speed, photo
quality and
economy both in price and replacement ink cartridges. Panorama capability
is also handy if you choose to market these but the huge variety of
other print and photo types available means this is not essential. Although most
ink
cartridges may seem expensive initially the per-print overhead is relatively low and easily built into your costing.
Non-Branded
On the latter subject
however, we would not recommend many non-branded colour cartridge
versions as the colour balance is sometimes inadequate and it needs to be
tried first. Black may be a
different matter generally, although we have not tested many ourselves.
One non-branded type may be worth trying if you want to save money as it
seems adequate in the limited trials we have given it. Details of
this, together with paper hints and tips also, come with the 'Quick Start Guide' accompanying any
of our quantity based Business
Packages.
A Quick Word About Paper
The above question is often coupled with
another: "...and what type of paper would you recommend?" Again,
there is no particular need to use the best (branded) unless you are
fastidious and generally the heavier (thicker) the better as long as it's
at least photo quality.
With a little shopping around we discovered that of the various
non-branded versions on the market the range of both low cost glossy photo papers
and old 'print' type paper marketed by one major chain was very suitable as well as being
economical (more info on printing and paper types and sources come with our
customer
purchases).
Printing &
Marketing Tips
Further printing and
marketing tips are also included with any purchase of our 'Complete Business
Packages' in a
handy 22-page
"Start-Up Manual"
provided on disc, although please note with our low
price structure we are unable to additionally offer individual business /
marketing advice and are not in a position to provide info internationally on prices/sources for items such
as frames.
There
are a myriad possible ways to sell Prints so apart from our good kick-start, as with any wholesaler we provide the stock (the images) - the
business part is left to you within the
Terms
of Use (copying or
distribution of our digital files/discs is of course prohibited and
carefully monitored).
OVERALL therefore, unless
you are already a professional 'Printer' equipment and materials can be as
economical as a Business Package itself - and easily and quickly absorbed
by your retail sales within the prices you decide to set.
With regard to
the latter, market research is a good business tool and this is a
relatively easy task nowadays via the internet. This is a first class
business based on sound reasoning, so take advantage of our current
special price offers and launch a very easily run business - today.
For more guidance on panorama
printing go
HERE.
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Larger
Size Prints?
WE are often asked 'how big can I print
these images'? Throughout the site we
have mentioned (with the exception of
England Photochroms,
Ireland,
Scotland,
Wales,
Western
Comics,
Detective Comics,
Large Engravings,
High Res. Panoramic Maps,
Humorous Lithos,
Seaside Scenes Vol.2
and Euro Street Scenes) that the range is
mainly marketed for users of standard size A4 'photo
quality' printers,
which is an area we are happy to specialise in. The above
especially high res. subjects also offer plenty of scope for use with
large format printers too, while nearly all collections do in
fact also
include many images suitable for larger size printing.
Bargain Priced
The images are mostly supplied pre-sized
for the standard printer market (representing 99.9% of users) and they are certainly bargain priced
for that sector. It would be a little unreasonable for professional
publishers to expect such liberal rights on large collections of 'giant size'
images for just a few Pounds, but that often appears the case. In
reality many of our images are indeed suitable for larger size
printing but, again, that is not a size market we feel the need to
sales-test.
We make no claim to be a picture library -
neither do we charge their extreme rates. Although our images may be
manipulated to print any size, and many of them will
also be very suitable
for large printing, we cannot bend the law of physics which
governs that the larger the print, inevitably the lower becomes resolution.
What then constitutes 'sales quality' is a matter for
individual taste and the 'how big can I print them without losing
quality' type of vague questioner must of necessity be referred here.
Successfully Sold
We had to set firm limits when
doing our own prints test marketing to be sure of a fully viable business product. Our
prints were very successfully sold in the sizes supplied (mostly
10x8 inches, or a little less in one dimension if the original
size dictated, plus large panoramas) and on that basis of perfectly
acceptable quality that is the market we have so far been
very happy to aim at for the
business package overall and we have many successful repeat
professional customers as a result.
No Uniform Resolution
Having said that, when our range has been
expanded sufficiently subject-wise and we have time to go back
over everything (there isn't just one standard resolution throughout
except for those subjects described as being 300dpi or over)
we intend to begin the long chore of testing
each of the many, many hundreds of images for suitability sales-wise for making
additional large format prints collections. These will then be packaged and sold separately. See our info page
Here
for more on the subject of resolution/size.
Does What is Claimed
In the meantime, our product is
very successful as is and it undoubtedly does what is claimed for it in the size
niche market it is largely aimed at. Accordingly, due to the
large amount of time it takes to answer e-mails on the subject
of size we no longer have the resources to address queries relating to non-standard usage.
A Fraction of the Cost
Consider
carefully our current extremely low rates. As you are
probably aware, or will be with a little research, they're
a tiny fraction
of usual image library prices (with often hundreds being
charged for a single image/single use) and if you own a
large format printer doesn't it make absolute sense at these minimal
prices to buy at least
one or two collections to test suitability for your own specific
larger format needs?
You will likely be pleasantly surprised
at how many
very high resolution (over 300dpi) images are
liberally sprinkled throughout and considering we uniquely go the
extra mile by also restoring and especially enhancing our images for
digital printing it must be said in conclusion that you would be
hard pressed to find any better quality or value image collections
anywhere out there! |
speed and output quality. Although it did not have panoramic
capabilities apart from their own folded paper range, panoramas were
initially marketed in 10x4 joinable sections (as per many of the
archived originals kept in museums in fact).
and this with its roll paper feature was quickly churning out single
length panoramas
as well as standard photos. Again, this is a very low
cost printer. A further HP 5550 was added later plus two more computers as sales continued to
quickly expand.
