One of the great things about technology is how it allows everyone to create and share content - writing, photos, videos, etc. It’s easy to do online with increasingly sophisticated sites, but can still be a struggle when you need a physical production.
My Christmas cards are a prime example; they’re just non-standard enough to merit a custom job by having a photo on the front and a letter’s worth of text on the inside. Online printers aren’t setup for such custom jobs, and traditional local printers still charge high setup fees. Doing it yourself tends to lead to subpar products for the time invested fighting with your own printer.
A growing middle ground is the office supply stores with their own small business and personal printing services. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to have the equipment or staff to do much beyond the basics. Even getting non-custom jobs done there involved a fair amount of standing around waiting for them to figure it out while being interrupted by other customers and jobs.
In general, I’ve found online options to be the most efficient, even given delivery time and charges. Both business cards and other photo products I’ve ordered tend to arrive quickly and have an impressive quality to them. There’s still a gap when it comes to custom work; does anyone know of a reasonable online custom print shop?
del.icio.us/mbotos
