So the other day, in my quest for large prints at a reasonable price, I walked into the "Ultra" Ritz down the street from where I work. They advertised poster sized printing on-site. I told them I had a digital file on a CF card that I'd like printed 20x30 (inches) "no problem", they said. "we'll just need to print a 4x6 so we can scan it and then print it on our wiz-bang printer."
WHAT! stupid people.... so I used mpix.com and got fantastic results. Check it out, Wendy, they do "gift" items too. Christian ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, May 14, 2004 11:51 AM Subject: Ever had one of those days...... > ...... where you wonder if you are actually speaking the same language as > the local minilab operators? > > I called at my local Blacks store to pick up some "gift" items, a mousemat > and a t-shirts, which I had ordered. > I had dropped off a digital file, sized to the aspect ratio of the mousemat > (approx 5:4) and of sufficient resolution to print at 8x10. The t-shirt uses > the same ratio. > I glanced at the t-shirt, in its packet, and thought "the quality of that > picture doesn't look too good" and made a mental not to bother ordering t-shirts > again. Then the girl opened up the package with the mousemat to show me how > it looked. Same impression. Then I looked again. The top and bottom of the > image had been cut off and there was a part of the mat where there was no > transfer (top and bottom, of course!). I pointed this out and noticed that > the same cropping had occured on the t-shirt. Oh yes, she replied. That's > how the 4x6 we printed turned out. It wouldn't fit on the paper, so we had > to crop it. 4x6? I queried. Why did you print a 4x6? What do they do with > it? > Oh, they scan it to put on the t-shirt, she says. > > Can anyone see where this is leading? > > I provide a nice big digital file. They print it nice and small at an aspect > ratio which no longer fits on the item I'm ordering. The place which puts > the design on the "thing" then scans said print and ~enlarges it~ back to > the size it originally was but with a bit missing and at much diminished > quality. > > Then they wonder why I refuse the goods and also refuse to pay for the two > 4x6s I didn't ask for which they printed !! > I also tried, in vain, to explain that if in future they wish to print a > 4x6 then they should at least print it so that the height is 4" and leave > white space at the left and right as the image is going to be transferred > to an item with a white background. I couldn't make her understand this concept > at all. <sigh> > > Sorry about the rant. Just felt I had to get it off my chest and I knew you'd > all understand <g> > > Wendy > >
