Good Postcards, Bad postcards

[paulr]

Bad: gotprint.com. I tried them because they made promises about accuracy and were cheap. Lousy printing job, and when I called to take them up on their guarantee, they made me jump through hoops and send them a photograph of the offending postcards. Really? Then they declared that the cards matched, and that the fine print in their terms of service guarantees a match with FIFTEEN PERCENT. What a bunch of wankers. They wouldn't refund my money unless I mailed back the whole box of bad cards, at considerable expense.

I'd be grateful to anyone who wants to crank call these losers.

Good: printsmadeeasy.com. I've used them a couple of times before with good results, but since they seemed like such a hokey little shop, assumed I could get even better quality elsewhere. Which is why I tried gotprint. I sent Printsmadeeasy the same file, and the cards matched perfectly. They're also cheap. I'm going to continue with these guys.

I can't compare the quality to trusted shops like Modern Postcard, but the prices are much lower, the service is fine, and the three times I've used them, once with a black and white image, I've had no complaints about quality.

[Peter Mounier]

I used Modern Postcard once and they flopped the image. They too have a guarantee, but made me jump through hoops to get them printed again. They even had the nerve to say that the flopped image was good enough because there wasn't any writing in the image that would show that they were flopped, so it didn't really matter. The quality of the printing was very good though.

Peter

[David R Munson]

Another for the good column is 4by6.com

Great printing, a well-run company, and doing business with them is really streamlined and easy.

[paulr]

They even had the nerve to say that the flopped image was good enough because there wasn't any writing in the image that would show that they were flopped, so it didn't really matter.

They could have at least offered to add a sticker telling viewers to hold the card up to a mirror.
Amazing.

[arca andy]

Here in the UK Vistaprint seems to better in colour repro than Moo (poor midtones and shadow detail)...which is a shame as I like Moo's marketing..!

[paulr]

I had the cards that Gotprint ruined redone by Printsmadeeasy. They did a nice job just as they've done in the past.

[Jim Andrada]

Quick question for the postcard experts

How do you usually deal with images that aren't exactly in the postcard aspect ratio? Do you just leave white space, or crop the image or use the extra space for text or...? For example, in portrait orientation would it be better to do a bleed across the width and leave white space under the photo with a title, or shrink the photo a bit and leave some white space all around?

Just looking for thoughts.

Thanks

[ROL]

It's a postcard, or a greeting card, or whatever ...not a fine art print. I just crop to the essential elements, maybe even exploring new possibilities for a well worn composition.

[Jim Andrada]

Good thought! New possibilities indeed!