
Show HN: Pantastic - thfc06
http://www.pantastic.co/
======
callmeed
Hey, great work. We're adding panoramas at <http://cheergram.com> very soon. I
like the niche printing business and I think there's definitely demand.

3 Things:

My biggest issue with the site is that you don't show the final product
anywhere. It should really be the _hero_ of your home page (where that little
dude with the chalkboard is). Even if you don't have one printed yet, make a
fake print+frame in Photoshop (not hard) and throw it on an istock living room
image [1].

Second, your "Buy Now" button should be other places besides the top-right
corner. Took me a while to find it. Look at our site or others that sell just
1 thing. You need a big CTA button middle-left. A/B Test it for sure.

Third, consider offering a frame as an add-on. I don't think you can walk in
to Target and get a frame that fits an 8x36 print and most people won't go
through the additional step of finding one or having it made. You want repeat
customers and the best way to get them is to make sure they use/see the
product the first time they buy. At the very least, tell them where they can
find frames to fit your prints and put that on your site and email receipts.

That's all I got for now. Good job.

[1]
[http://www.istockphoto.com/search/text/blank%20living%20room...](http://www.istockphoto.com/search/text/blank%20living%20room%20wall/source/basic#386395e)

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beggi
Hey, one advise for you at Cheergram. It would be great to be able to pick
pictures from other users than myself. I want to make a print with both my
photos and my girlfriend's mixed together but couldn't.

~~~
callmeed
Thanks, it's good to know people want that.

We have that feature _ready to go_ but I'm trying to clear some
legal/copyright questions first. For most people who want to just combine
their images with friends/family, it's fine. But there are people on Instagram
who wouldn't want me making money from their images being hung on other
people's walls.

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Terretta
Your site makes it look like you keep your Epson printer[1] at Magnolia
Editions' studio[2,3] in Oakland, CA.

That's a long way from St. Louis, and a long way from your basement.

1\. Your pic: <http://i.imgur.com/Ub3FVCy.jpg>

2\. Studio: [http://www.magnoliaeditions.com/exhibitions/magnolia-
edition...](http://www.magnoliaeditions.com/exhibitions/magnolia-editions-
studio/)

3\. Same pic:
[http://www.artltdmag.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id...](http://www.artltdmag.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1256940781&archive=&start_from=&ucat=39&);

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stevewilhelm
I hope Pantastic licensed that photo from Magnolia Editions.

Photographers don't take to kindly to companies using their work without
permission.

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greenyoda
The photo of the "studio" at the bottom looks like a large industrial space,
not the "founder's basement". If that's not really a picture of this company,
it's a bit misleading to have it on the web site.

Also, a single-person operation isn't usually called a "team". And while it's
impressive that a college student can run a successful business, it's possible
that emphasizing this on the web site might scare away potential customers who
are businesses with deadlines to meet. Why limit your market unnecessarily?

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wiredfool
And, it looks like you Really Like Chuck Close.

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jeblair
I think that is one of the Pace Prints workshops where a number of Chuck Close
works were made. Check out this time-lapse video of one of his pulp pieces:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9R7BzJMxfs>

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ryanglasgow
Great start here, I like what you've done.

Some feedback for improvement:

1) I would break the page up into multiple pages. Keep the homepage simple and
let the user click ancillary links if they need to.

2) It says the printing is done in the founders basement, but shows a picture
of a printing warehouse. Is your basement a printing warehouse? Honestly not
sure here.

3) The textures are distracting, I'd tone them down.

4) A blurred picture of the Golden Gate Bridge is cliche, I'd try something
else.

5) The 'What is Pantastic' doesn't really say anything. Statements like
"Delivered to your doorstep" (assumed), and #1 quality around (a relative
statement with no comparison) don't progress the sale.

~~~
kaliblack
I second the textures. I think the single page is fine though.

The FAQs are hard to read because the line height is the same for everything.

Agree with another comment that says the end product needs to be shown. I
don't care how you create the product or what printer you use, just that the
end product looks great.

Great idea and good luck.

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ruswick
The actual page has several conspicuous issues. First, the typeface is
consistently too thin. You really ought to be using more robust type weights.
Second, there are too many textures that are too profligate. They distract
from the actual content and the variations in texture from block to block
create a somewhat grating reading experience. Moreover, the texture feels sort
of perfunctory: it seems as though you just pulled five gaudy textures from
Subtle Patterns.

The actual idea is novel, but I'm not sure how large the demand will be:
panorama software (especially on mobile phones) tends to be inconsistant and
produces rendering errors, and most everything my iPhone produces isn't fit
for large-format display. Moreover, the price is somewhat high. I acknowledge
that printing large images is expensive, but this is a non-essential service
and is somewhat of a gimmick. It will be hard to convince prospective
customers to drop $25 on something like this.

However, the idea is novel and the name is great.

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hnriot
I put two together in photoshop and print them at Costco. The Fuji crystal
archive paper is fantastic and works out at $4.50 each panorama. They are also
more durable, more archival and have the best color matching due to the
profiles being downloadable.

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apunic
Amazing: a landing page full of information but not one single picture of the
final product.

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stg
1) I'm in the UK and can't view the video.

2) Do you ship internationally? You should answer this in the FAQ.

3) Show me an example of the finished product.

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hnriot
I don't get people asking to see an example of the finished product? What do
you hope to see? It will look like your panoramic photo, obviously. How would
showing a photo of a photo print be any use?

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spontaneus
It took a while to find the price. You should probably make it stand out more
so people feel more comfortable when they click "Buy Now"

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epa
Interesting concept, unfortunate design.. Sorry. In this day and age of web
design, you need to be at a different level than this.

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hnriot
Really that's it? You just say it sucks but can't offer anything substantive
or actionable or even remotely helpful?

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epa
Yes in fact that is the only thing I have to say. While the concept is
interesting, the lack of well done design detracts me from the page and
service, leaving me uninterested. You can't tell someone how to design well,
its not one specific thing that needs to be changed.

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nkuttler
Looks nice but uh oh it's sloooow. You probably want to hook into a CDN if you
stay on the frontpage for more than a few minutes.

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michaelmior
Looks great! One thing I did notice is the background image
(<http://www.pantastic.co/ggb.png>) loads really slow for me and the design
feels a little broken without it. Overall love the look though :)

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munger
Nice looking site overall.

As others have mentioned - image optimization will help you a lot. Taking a
look at firebug Net profiling, the homepage footprint weighs in at 2MB. 500K
is your "studio" image, followed by the bridge bg photo at 370K.

So just optimizing these 2 images will reduce your bandwidth by around 660K or
33%. I'm guessing you can do both in 210K (150K bridge, 60K studio = 210K)
possibly better.

EDIT: decided to actually fix it instead of just talking about it.

[https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6653594/pantastic-there-i-fixed-
it....](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6653594/pantastic-there-i-fixed-it.7z)

studio.jpg photoshop jpg 70 quality ggb.jpg photoshop jpg 80 quality

old: 494k + 369k = 863k new: 64k + 1k + 70k = 135k

savings = 728K or 36% of your total homepage footprint.

Save more by splitting all your polaroid shadows to png, and the photos to jpg
60-80 quality.

Requires html/css change to layout studio image as 2 images stacked on top
(separate shadow png)

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thfc06
thanks so much! I didn't realize load time would be such a problem

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orangethirty
Good product. Has potential in the right markets. This is something I've
touched before, and it makes a fair amount of money. Which market are you
aiming for?

Also, publish an API for this. You can get a lot of business with a photo
printing API. Don't ask how I know... ;)

~~~
thfc06
Thanks! I'm going for the mass consumer market. I think this product will
definitely be aimed best at the young professional who wants to decorate a
living space and who is somewhat tech-savvy. What markets did you have success
with out of curiosity?

Also I have no clue how to do an api lol

~~~
alphakappa
Drew, Good job with launching this. I'm curious to know how you are printing
this - Do you have access to an existing printer (that's shown in the image),
or did you actually build up those facilities yourself?

~~~
thfc06
Thanks for the kind words. I have set up a studio with a high-quality Epson
printer with panorama-printing capabilities. If you want to know more details,
shoot me an email.

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iscrewyou
You are selling. Pricing should be the biggest thing someone wants to look at.
I had to revisit the page to find it at the very bottom in FAQ. For a second I
thought I had to register my name, email and photo to get the pricing.
Definitely something you don't want a user to think.

All in all, like the images and like the fact that you show how it all really
works down to the printer and toner.

~~~
de90
There is a price for it right at the top. Granted, the page took ages to load
(could just be the HN load though).

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richforrester
A lot of people are complaining about the speed of the site.

They'd be complaining less if they could read the texts before the images were
loaded.

A simple way to do this, is to give the areas containing background-images a
background-color that's close to the color of the image. This way, if there's
text on top (white text for example) it'll be readable BEFORE the image loads.

They'll notice the wait time less.

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scott_hardy
Great idea! One suggestion in terms of design--the FAQs are difficult to
quickly scan/read because the line heights are the same for questions and
answers. Consider adding additional spacing between Q/A groups for better
hinting at where an answer ends and a question begins. Great idea though, and
best of luck!

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vytasgd
Clean. Very clean and easy.

Quick Bug: (Chrome on OS X, haven't checked elsewhere)for your modal
(specifically modal.fade.in in bootstrap.css line 5004) you have "top:50%",
which causes the very top of the modal to be cut off. Simply bumping it to 60%
fixed it. Don't know if anybody else is having this same problem.

Best of luck to you!

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Vindexus
The "What is Pantastic?" section doesn't really answer the question. Those
three points could be applied to almost any decorative item sold online; they
don't tell me that you print panoramas that I upload.

I'd also really like some pictures of the finished product.

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tsieling
Congratulations. The photo of your physical printing space is a big plus, it
shows that you're for real. You could look for ways to highlight that more,
and have real people with the final printed product to show its scale and
quality.

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inovator
Awesome idea! Maybe have a section on your site to show some of your printed
canvas?

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shrig94
Hey great job,

the images load quite slowly, so I'd compress them, but it looks great
nevertheless!

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Nux
"The uploader did not make this video available in your country" - Way to go!

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thfc06
what country? It was a video from CNET...

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xemoka
Not available in Canada at least...

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RobSim
Working in canada for me

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coryl
Not working in Canada for me :|

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bdcravens
Awesome. I see you're from Houston, which makes me smile. In a world of high
speed Internet and amazing cloud options, it's funny that there's a handful of
"startup epicenters".

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buffportion
There's nothing wrong with being the only employee - if it's just you, say so.
Talking in the third person and using 'us' and 'we' is irritating.

~~~
sergiotapia
Irritating to you - reassuring to his/her actual target demographic.

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darkchasma
Looks great! A little issue with the menu hovering over other text when zoomed
@ around 200%. Nicely done though.

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foundertips
Congratulations, looks nice! :)

P.S.On a completely unrelated note.. Is Mr. David Veselka Lithuanian?

~~~
thfc06
Thanks! haha I'm actually not sure

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huhtenberg
I spot Comic Sans (probably a fallback font for @font-face styling?)

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TallboyOne
I like that you have a picture of your studio. great work my man.

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wsr
Why would you not make this video viewable outside of US?

tsk tsk...

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bdcravens
I think the video is from elsewhere.

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peapicker
The body text font looks really bad in Chrome.

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thfc06
really? what does it look like? I'm using chrome and I thought it was
rendering ok..

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hvs
Chrome on Windows looks janky:
[http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=e7y05l&s=6](http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=e7y05l&s=6)

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thfc06
thanks hvs, I'll look into it

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acido303
Thanks for blocking the video on my zone ...

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danalmeida
optimize your background images

