

Show HN: Printify.io – No-hassle canvas prints and posters - owensbla
https://printify.io/

======
RealCasually
The price is roughly triple that of Costco. A bit of hassle is worth that to
me (and to be honest, they have no hassle either).

~~~
rebel
I'd have to agree with you. As someone who works in print, I'm usually
surprised by the prices the fulfillment services are offering. I actually am
preparing a beta launch of a service to offer all of these same products (kind
of creepy coincidence) because I do feel the market is lacking. We already
have all of the equipment in place and running, along with fantastic discounts
on bulk shipping, supplies, packaging etc. Our pricing will be about 25% of
what is shown (give or take a small amount). If you are interested, I'd love
to chat with you and see if we can work together.

~~~
cauterize
+1 to interested. Michael's charging 350$ USD for a 30$ poster is absurd. This
space needs change.

~~~
rebel
Get in touch with me at interest@printdropper.com if you'd like to speak
further.

------
owensbla
Appreciate all the pricing feedback, brought the prices down a bit and added a
coupon for HN: use SHOWHN for an extra 20% off between now and the 15th!

~~~
datahipster
SHOWHN doesn't seem to work.

------
philip1209
The website would benefit from a gallery - the idea of printing on canvas
appeals to me, but I don't understand how it distorts photos and what the
final product looks like.

~~~
salberts
I agree, one of the most important factors in buying customized products is
getting a feeling of what you're getting. This way the user is more likely to
make the purchase and even more likely to be satisfied with the product once
it's delivered.

~~~
owensbla
I agree! Good thoughts (both of you). I love the idea of a gallery of
examples.

------
salberts
I'm in the field myself (see profile) and although the website looks nice I
don't see how it's different than any of the existing services.

Here are my $0.02:

1\. PRICE - The prices are way too high. Especially given that all established
print services offer huge discounts these days. Even our Printy.pics iOS app
offers lower prices + 40% discount.

2\. Registration - I would prefer to register when I need to (before payment)
and not when I'm asked to. The common practice for most web print apps is to
allow product creation and require registration (if at all) on checkout. I
guess you should do some A/B testing to see which approach maximizes LTV.

3\. Why .io?

On a general note, it is very hard to compare print products. There can be
huge quality differences and for someone who isn't an expert in the domain it
would be hard to tell if the price is worth it.

~~~
owensbla
1\. I'll be optimizing the fulfillment process as time progresses (thus
lowering prices).

2\. That's a good point. Definitely something I thought about while building
it. I decided to just move forward with how it currently is and
optimize/iterate after feedback/testing.

3\. No reason in particular :)

Appreciate the thoughts!

------
networkguy
Dont ask someone to create an account so quickly.

I cant say for other people, but I have too many accounts and I hate creating
accounts unless I have to.

Better to allow someone to upload a photo and make a purchase and convert them
into an account later than up front.

------
ljoshua
Would be great to have an API. Been passively looking for good poster printers
that I could automatically send jobs to, as well as do the fulfillment. Looks
slick.

~~~
salberts
There are many APIs out there. To name a few: CanvasPop, QuickPrints by
Walgreens, Kodak Alaris, Print.io, Pwinty, Printzel and others.

~~~
chrischen
CanvasPop isn't really an API, in the Twilio sense. It's more like a glorified
affiliate program.

------
bdcravens
I had a canvas printed on a cruise boat, where the prices are ridiculously
jacked up, for about 1/2 to 1/3 less than the prices quoted here.

------
stevekemp
I have to say I loved the way you illustrate the sizes of the prints - having
people hold them for scale. That's very very neat.

------
lindig
> High quality PNG's are best (150dpi or more). [..] All fonts should be
> converted to outlines to ensure fonts are displayed correctly.

Above is from the guidelines for posters. PNGs are bitmaps and hence there are
no fonts to outline. Outlines could be part of PDFs but those don't have an
associated DPI. This needs clarification.

~~~
owensbla
Ah yeah, I pulled PSD and PDF support right before launch, needed a little
more work for those. So, that text was with regard to those file types. Thanks
for catching that!

------
maxmzd_
Very well done. Love the simple approach. Definitely going to check this out.

------
meichenf
How does this compare in quality to canvas prints from a photo lab such as
Millers/MPix or WHCC? Cost looks to be about equal to a 1.5" canvas gallery
wrap from either those shops.

~~~
owensbla
Canvas gallery wraps are comparable to WHCC's premium gallery wraps. Though
they don't have backing. PM me or email me if you're interested in ordering a
test print: blake@printify.io!

------
davidbarker
Just a heads-up: I'm assuming you meant "uneven" in "Avoid making graphics
with straight borders. Borders may come up unever after the cutting process."

~~~
vxNsr
Ha, I actually read it as "uneven" didn't realize what you were talking about
until I looked again.

------
ComputerGuru
Anyone here have suggestions for quality wood and glass/plexiglass frames at a
cost not more than twice what you'd pay for prints in the first place?

~~~
mikegreen
americanframe will print and frame for decent prices.. twitter/fb generally
has discounts/promos as well.

------
alfg
Nice, clean website. Are you fulfilling the products yourself, or using a
vendor?

What are you using for the cropping tool?

Well done! Congrats on shipping!

~~~
owensbla
Thanks! I'm using a vendor for fulfillment. Ordered several test prints and
loved their quality.

And I'm using Jcrop for cropping.

[http://deepliquid.com/content/Jcrop.html](http://deepliquid.com/content/Jcrop.html)

------
wmeredith
The site never got past the loading animation for me.

Chrome Version 39.0.2171.71 on OS X 10.10.1

EDIT: Never mind, Ad Block was what was killing it.

~~~
agildehaus
AdBlock and uBlock both seem to kill this site. Seems related to the inclusion
of Bugsnag, and not accounting for the possibility of that library being
blocked.

~~~
owensbla
Disabled Bugsnag for now, thanks for catching that!

