Need good US printer for drop ship- high-quality but reasonably priced

[Tamm]

I'm new to the forum, so I hope I'm posting this to the right place.

I don't live in the US, and I've previously used a European (Italian) printer for a show in Rome, printing mainly on Dibond (and some plexiglass).

I need to find a high-quality, reasonably priced US-based printer who uses archival materials -- preferably with a range of options, e.g., printing to archival paper (recommendations as to kind?), onto Dibond, etc., and can ship the finished product(s) out for me in the US>

I know asking for high-quality and reasonably priced might be a problem, but everything is relative. And there must be competition in the US, even on prices.

I will not be able to see the prints before shipment (my most immediate need is to send a gift and not for a show), so I need good quality service (not necessarily color-correction but someone who'll check the print and see that it's not "off" before shipping).

Any and all advice, recommendations, etc. will be appreciated, both as to appropriate printers and what service/materials (inks, papers, backing) to ask for. And please let me know if I should be posting this elsewhere on the forum.

Thanks in advance!

 

[JoBoSlow]

Finerworks does drop shipping for international and U.S. orders. You just check a box at checkout. Here is a link which explains it.

Order Fulfillment Guide - FinerWorks

A lot of photographers who sell on Etsy use them to fulfill orders. I use them on a regular basis and have also drop shipped a few prints by them without any problems. Quality of the prints are very good. I typically print on their Kodak and fine art papers but I know they offer photo acrylics as well. Actually I have been looking at doing one of those next. Not sure if that will be what you are looking for or not.

 

[Tamm]

Thank you. That's exactly the kind of information I was looking for. In the interim, not having got any responses yet, I've been surfing and have come up with the following other online printers who are said to do high-quality fine art work, which are: Millers (Kansas city), White House Custom Color (Minneapolis), and Pro DPI (Colorado).
I have not yet tried anyone (haven't needed to yet), so if anyone has comments comparing Finerworks, any of the companies I just mentioned or anyone else in their league vis a vis pricing and/or quality and customer service, I'd be pleased to learn what you've found, as I'm sure would many others on this board.Thanks again!

 

[cgipson1]

Don't know Fireworks, but WHCC does great work. I have had them call me or email questions on how how I wanted something printed, if they weren't sure. I do a lot of B&W on thier metallic paper, and it is wonderful. I have not tried thier canvas prints though.

 

[JoBoSlow]

I agree WHCC is good too. I have not tried their canvas prints. The only problem is WHCC charges for drop shipping. Not sure about some of the others.

I do a lot of black and white prints which is why I go with Finerworks. I saw a review comparing them to Mpix and Finerworks seemed to do better in that field, especially printing the darker details which I am a stickler for. If I can find it again I will post it here.

 

[KmH]

Miller's was in the little town of Pittsburg, Kansas, not Kansas City.

They have moved, and are now in a bigger town - Springfield, Missouri.

IIRC, Miller's and it's other 2 outlets - MpixPro and Mpix - is the largest lab in the US.

 

[Tamm]

This is a terrific and helpful conversation. Thanks all -- please continue to contribute if you have something to add about a printer or printers.
I'm curious, BTW: has anyone used metallic paper for color photos -- and what you think of the result?

I haven't seen that yet, to my knowledge.

 

[JoBoSlow]

I did some recent testing with some color prints. Primarily I have done a lot of my black and whites on metallic and love it for the depth. But this is what I found with my color test last year.

The local lab I use offers metallic on Kodak Endura paper. I have only done one image with them in color on the metallic. It was okay. The depth of the color and tones was incredible. It seemed to simply bring out details I would otherwise not get. It was HDR too so this was very important but I was not blown away.

An online lab I use then started to offer two types of metallic prints: inkjet and regular photo prints. I decided to try their inkjet and was pleasantly surprised. The colors had even more depth and I could see more detail in the darker areas. My overall opinion is the Kodak metallic will probably hold up better since there is no ink involved but if I were to mat and frame the print I would probably go with the inkjet. I may later try one of their Kodak metallic prints just to be sure since usually they come out a little better than they do at my local lab.