CafePress Sucks Ass 2: Electric Boogaloo
Wednesday, May 24th, 2006 at 8:45 pmI earlier wrote that CafePress sucks ass. Well, don’t worry, it still does. I’ve investigated two others, Zazzle, and DeviantArt Print.
Quality, based on what they require from the artist, and how badly they require the artist to mangle the art, is low from all three.
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Limited DPI: CafePress limits prints at 300 DPI for all print sizes, and Zazzle limits the print at 100 DPI for all print sizes. CafePress’s limit shouldn’t have quality issues with any of their three sizes of poser, or their three sizes of framed prints, but it may produce medium quality prints high contrast art work… 300 DPI, though, is considered high enough quality for mass production by most. Zazzle’s limit, however, will damage all artwork on any size print; it will lack detail, and makes it almost worthless to print on any size below 23×35″ or so. DeviantArt Print also limits at 300 DPI.
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Non-print Colorspace and limited color precision: All three require the source image to be in the sRGB colorspace at 8 bits per channel (ie, a 24 bit image). sRGB is a colorspace designed to match the average monitor, and it lacks a wide gamut; combined with the a low color precision of only 8 bits, it ends up being very hard to define precise colors. It also, unfortunately, is totally unsuited to do print artwork with. Most print artists prefer using a very wide gamut, one exceeding their printer’s, as to be able to use their printer to it’s fullest potential, and also to not lose quality when printing using an ICC profile for their printer and choice of media; also, only DeviantArt Print even provides ICCs, the other two don’t allow you to soft proof your work before hand.
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Lack of format choices: DeviantArt is at the extreme end of this, they don’t allow anything but JPEGs, and if you give them an image in any other format they will convert it to JPEG before hand due to their print servers not being able to handle any other format. CafePress accepts a bunch of formats (including PSDs), but as I mentioned before, they have to be in 8-bit sRGB. Zazzle handles a few formats, but lacks PSD.
These three problems are pretty much deal breakers. Zazzle’s 100 DPI limit, all three’s lack of other colorspaces, and DeviantArt’s convert-to-JPEG-beforehand problem are all unacceptable for quality print artwork.
Now, not all printing shops are this way, quite a few understand how the common digital artwork workflow works, and can accommodate my needs, but they don’t offer what these three do: they print, box, and ship the artwork for me, and they also handle the money and merchant end of things. Also, most printshops for large media require you to order in bulk up front, which requires spending money up front and waiting a long time before breaking even.
What I’d like to see is a printshop that does both… accommodates my workflow style, and can act as the merchant on my behalf. I’m afraid I just might be waiting awhile.
I’m about to give CafePress a try, because I don’t have the resources to set up my own shop or deal with pre/post-sales processes, but still would like to offer merchandise to help re-establish a nearly dead brand (Blaster Master).
I’ll post comments if anything comes up. If something does go wrong, I can try Zazzle and see what happens. I’ve been watching CafePress for awhile, but have only heard one complaint (from MegaTokyo), but I can’t recall what it was.
The only other self-publication site I’ve seen besides the three you’ve mentioned, is Lulu.com, but they don’t appear to offer printing on clothing items or such.
Yeah, I’d like to hear what happens.
I know Zazzle low DPI requirements sounds like a concern, but I ordered this one photo-illustration that i did and there was no pixellation or artifacting in the image at all. it was pretty nice.
I have washed one direct print Cafepress shirt so far,… inside out, and in warm temp, no dryer. Yes it did age a bit. Shoot, I have silk screen shirts that are 15 years old that still look pretty vibrant. I am surprised there aren’t more complaints on the web.
Have not tried washing a black shirt yet.
I think they might have less fading with a cotton poly blend shirt.
i’ve had nothing but good luck with cafepress. zazzle, on the other hand, sucks ass. the only product they offer that has turned out consistant nice-quality images are the stamps. everything else is crap. i ordered some magnets with two of my designs on them. they didn’t bleed one of them, so there was white space at the top and bottom and they didn’t center the other one. i double checked my design/layout after I got the items in the mail and wouldn’t you know it, everything looks perfect and i had everything sized correctly. they just don’t take the time to care much about the output of their product. oh, and using DHL as their shipper is ridiculous, IMO.
Came across your site somehow. You might want to give http://www.imagekind.com a look.
Ahah! A new contender!
Another new contender is Printfection. They have a huge selection of colors including many darks
http://www.printfection.com/
I am very disappointed with a black tshirt that had direct printing on it. there was ghosting on all the transparent areas and the colors are extremely muted. not at all like the preview before i ordered. anyone know of a place that does good custom tshirts on a black tee?
What year is this? 1993?
It is pitiful, I can’t upload an image and have random net users print a poster reliably .. I can’t search on a movie title and watch a movie online .. and about a decade back some “kick arse anti-authority” band called Metallica killed the one usable music service.
If there’s no conspiracy, maybe there should be.