pondering hard copies
Mar. 20th, 2004 12:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
egypturnashThree or four people had a 'this belongs in a gallery, I sooo want a print of this' kind of reaction to Myself am Hell. And I've wanted to offer prints of my crap for a while.
But I'm laaaazy. I don't want to hassle with getting them print out at large scales, I don't want to ship stuff myself... I'm thinking of setting up the prints thing deviantArt offers. Anyone got experiences with that, positive or negative?
Their pricing scheme is a little complex; there's a 'base price' for each size, that I assume covers materials and labor, then anything above that is split evenly between dA and artist - for instance, a 20x30 print, the largest they offer, is $14 base price; if I set the price of that at $50, they'd get the base price, plus $18, and I'd get $18.
Convenience versus money... dunno. Thinking about it. Picking the price points is an issue, too. What's underpricing myself? What's overpricing myself? (And this is their price structure. Note that my example of $50 for a 20x30 is ten bucks more for me and them than their default!) Those of you who get prints handled through other online services, how's the money split look? Does the service you use offer better profits, at the cost of limitations on what you can display? (fantasy art only, furry art only, etc)
Another point is that dA's prints service only accepts RGB documents. I work in CMYK for the most part; I know that consumer-level color printers tend to have drivers that only think in RGB, but high-end poster-size stuff should be able to do direct CMYK, for one less color abuse step.
I'm not sure I'd offer small prints or not. On the one hand, they're cheaper, but on the other hand, half the point of doing this is to be able to let people see my art at large sizes - there are details that nobody knows about save myself, and the few other people who have copies of my source files, and I'm not sure they'd come across at letter-size output.
[ Addendum: a thought in dA's disfavor - I believe buying crap there requires you to create a dA account. Which is hassle. Other places aren't predicated upon membership in the main gallery. Also, they only send you the money on a quarterly basis. ]
But I'm laaaazy. I don't want to hassle with getting them print out at large scales, I don't want to ship stuff myself... I'm thinking of setting up the prints thing deviantArt offers. Anyone got experiences with that, positive or negative?
Their pricing scheme is a little complex; there's a 'base price' for each size, that I assume covers materials and labor, then anything above that is split evenly between dA and artist - for instance, a 20x30 print, the largest they offer, is $14 base price; if I set the price of that at $50, they'd get the base price, plus $18, and I'd get $18.
Convenience versus money... dunno. Thinking about it. Picking the price points is an issue, too. What's underpricing myself? What's overpricing myself? (And this is their price structure. Note that my example of $50 for a 20x30 is ten bucks more for me and them than their default!) Those of you who get prints handled through other online services, how's the money split look? Does the service you use offer better profits, at the cost of limitations on what you can display? (fantasy art only, furry art only, etc)
Another point is that dA's prints service only accepts RGB documents. I work in CMYK for the most part; I know that consumer-level color printers tend to have drivers that only think in RGB, but high-end poster-size stuff should be able to do direct CMYK, for one less color abuse step.
I'm not sure I'd offer small prints or not. On the one hand, they're cheaper, but on the other hand, half the point of doing this is to be able to let people see my art at large sizes - there are details that nobody knows about save myself, and the few other people who have copies of my source files, and I'm not sure they'd come across at letter-size output.
[ Addendum: a thought in dA's disfavor - I believe buying crap there requires you to create a dA account. Which is hassle. Other places aren't predicated upon membership in the main gallery. Also, they only send you the money on a quarterly basis. ]
no subject
Date: 2004-03-20 12:17 pm (UTC)What color profile space do you work under, if any?
Just for kicks, and all that. :)
no subject
Date: 2004-03-20 03:18 pm (UTC)That said, if you want to fool around with it, sure! Give me some maximum image area dimensions and I'll get you some high-res images. I have AI set to work in the 'US Web Coated (SWOP)' space that came with it, and have gone through and set up a gamma profile for my monitor. So I'm fairly confident my stuff would print with few hassles. Though I may use overly rich blacks sometimes.
Certainly, at least Revar needs a good print of that picture I did for her birthday, if that hasn't happened already! n.n
no subject
Date: 2004-03-20 01:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-20 01:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-20 03:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-20 03:39 pm (UTC)By far I think the best feature of DA prints is that you can buy your own prints at base price, which means you can get them framed and put on display somewhere where people will pay absurd amounts for them, or put them in charity auction, etc. If you're really interested in money that might be the way to go.
no subject
Date: 2004-03-20 01:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-20 01:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-20 03:30 pm (UTC)RV does larger prints than DA, but the price structure's different - it's a flat "you get 1/3 of the sale price" for large prints. Legal and letter are a larger percentage, based on the price - 50-60% to the artist.
Hm, somewhere around $50 or $60, a 20x24 image on DA is actually more money to me than at Rabbit Valley. Not sure where it is around the lower sizes, I should try some numbers.
no subject
Date: 2004-03-20 06:00 pm (UTC)$60 is a bit high for me - just over my casual "ooh shiny" splurge spending threshold - I'd rather ask for something personalised for that amount, even if it ended up being less detailed and smaller. But that's just me - I don't earn quite enough to justify $60 + international postage just because I like it. :) I think a lot of people are willing to pay that much though. I think i'd save up for a commission, personally.
just a thought...
Date: 2004-03-20 10:13 pm (UTC)I suspect this pretty much invalidates any fretting about RGB vs. CMYK, unless you're exactly specifying spot colors. At work I've seen wildly differing results from different print houses.
Re: just a thought...
Date: 2004-03-21 12:29 pm (UTC)Sometimes I wonder if I should acquire a swatch book and start making my color choices in Pantone numbers rather than in CMYK percentages...
no subject
Date: 2004-03-21 04:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-21 12:09 pm (UTC)Obviously I'm not going to take this without a grain of salt from someone whose entire identity is 'DA sucks'; got any pointers to stories of this? Beyond just paranoid readings of the ToS?
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Date: 2004-03-21 06:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-21 12:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-21 08:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-22 06:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-24 12:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-24 01:12 pm (UTC)