How fast can I get my poster? Our order form will give you an up-to-date estimate, taking into account any backlog of orders or us leaving town. In general, we can turn around PDF orders the next day, and PowerPoint orders in two days. If you're ordering by mail, from there you're at the mercy of FedEx, UPS, or the US Postal Service. In any case, you'll be happier if you leave yourself a few extra days when printing a poster, just in case there's some problem with the file you submit or an unexpected shipping delay.
When should I submit my poster to get it by ____? Well, sooner is always better. It depends a little bit on how many people are in the queue in front of you, but in general we can turn around PDF orders the next day, and PowerPoint orders in two days. Please see our order form for an up-to-date estimate of availability. We can't promise you availability by any specific date until you actually submit an order.
Where on campus do I pick up my poster? You will be emailed detailed instructions on how to pick up your poster when it is complete. Remember you're entering a research lab that is kindly hosting our poster pick-up; please don't disturb the other students and staff in the lab. If you're at Duke you can pick up Mon - Fri from the Nanaline Duke building on west campus (Research Dr.).
What if I want a size you don't offer? We're happy to print other sizes; just choose the next-largest paper size offered. Note that our paper is always 42" (3.5 feet) wide; we cannot make posters that exceed 42" in both dimensions. To keep your price low, we leave trimming the printed poster to you. Please indicate in the "Instructions" box the printed size you desire. We can print portrait or landscape orientation, so your poster can be long or tall, but not both. (Keep in mind that people are only so tall. Research posters taller than about 48" require stepstools and/or squatting to actually read.) For larger posters and custom jobs, please contact us directly.
What forms of payment do you accept? All our payment processing is done via PayPal, which means they keep your credit card info secure. You DO NOT need a PayPal account, though you can use one if you have it. PayPal accepts all major credit cards (which includes most lab purchasing cards). Regrettably, we cannot accept any form of payment in person when you come to pick up posters; all payments must be made through our web order system. We also cannot accept university purchase orders at this time.
Why don't you process sales tax exemptions? We understand that many of our customers are at tax-exempt institutions. However, state law requires us to verify the tax exempt status by examining the appropriate documents. Unfortunately, we are not aware of any way to do this electronically, and so it is not feasible with our on-line business model. (Your meager tax savings would be more than offset by our increased costs -- and prices.) However, we have been assured that universities frequently face this issue, and are able to reclaim any sales tax they may have paid at year's end.
Is there a multi-poster discount? Yes -- you can submit up to three posters as one order, thereby saving on shipping charges.
Do you laminate / mount posters? Sorry, not at this time. To bring you the lowest possible price, we're focusing on the core of our business. Of course, you could grab some foamboard and spray adhesive from your local craft store...
Will you print a big photograph for me? Sure, we'd be glad to. Submit a high-resolution JPEG via our normal upload page, and choose a paper size large enough to fit your desired print size (see previous question). Of course, we can only print photographs that you own the rights to, which generally excludes professional portraits and the like unless you get a release from the photographer.
I want something besides a photo or research poster. Can you do it? We'd be happy to discuss other custom printing jobs with you. Just drop us an email.
What are the margins on the finished posters? Posters margins are approximately 1/4" on each side, which will result in a white border if your poster features a colored background. Otherwise, you can design for the full paper size and we will ensure your poster is scaled to fit entirely in the imageable area.
What resolution can the printer produce? Our printer produces a resolution of 1200 x 600 dots per inch (dpi). However, providing digital images at resolutions above 300 dpi will not improve output quality.
What sort of paper do you use? Can I get vinyl instead? We currently use a heavyweight photo-quality semi-gloss paper from HP. After evaluating many different papers, we determined that semi-gloss gives the same rich, vibrant colors as high gloss paper, but it doesn't show fingerprints and it doesn't create glare. We do not currently offer vinyl scrim -- it's significantly more expensive, the image quality is not as good, and it would require frequent loading and unloading of different papers. If you feel we've made the wrong decision, we would welcome your comments.
Do you offer proofs before printing? You have two options for proofs: digital and hard copy. For all PowerPoint files, we will gladly provide "digital proofs" as PDF files with embedded color profiles. Please allow an extra 1-2 days overall turnaround time for your order in this case. You can use these proofs to check spelling, layout, graphics, and special characters (PowerPoint is famous for mangling Greek letters). You can also use it to check color reproduction, assuming you view it on a properly calibrated monitor. High-end monitors (like Apple's Cinema Displays) generally give pretty accurate color reproduction out of the box, but typical consumer grade monitors may not. See the next question for more about color.
If you need a physical printed proof, simply order the poster on a smaller paper size first. We'll take care of scaling down the poster image so it fits the size you request. For example, a 24" proof would cost only $19.95 (plus S&H); this is a very economical way to see exactly what the final output will look like. Please remember this will add several days to the overall turnaround time, so plan accordingly.
How long will my poster last? HP rates our paper/ink combination for more than two years of life when displayed indoors under glass. From experience, we know that our posters show no changes at all after being stored in their tubes for 6+ months. Obviously, displaying them indoors during a conference does not hurt them either.
Like all ink-jet prints, our posters may fade significantly when displayed in direct sunlight. (The "UV" ink technology required for multi-decade lifetimes and resistance to sunlight costs much more.) When displayed semi-permanently in a lab, we have seen some posters fade within a few weeks (even when not in sunlight); other posters in other environments suffer no ill effects at all. We are not sure of the exact cause -- it may have to do with the atmosphere in research buildings (chemicals, yum). We are currently researching the issue; if you have fading data and conditions to report, please contact us. For long-term display, HP suggests that laminating the prints or mounting them under glass may help preserve them. (For storage, the posters are safe in their tubes, even in research buildings.) And remember, we work hard to keep prices low, so that you can easily replace old, out-of-date posters with current results.
How can I make sure the colors come out right? The bottom line: don't worry too much about it. Your poster is going to come out looking great. But there are some things you may want to think about when designing it.
Computer monitors can display a broader gamut (range of colors) than any printing system can create. That's because monitors use additive Red-Green-Blue (RGB) color, rather than the subtractive Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-blacK (CMYK) process used for printing. You can avoid out-of-gamut colors by designing your poster in a CMYK color space to start with, although this requires a package like Adobe Illustrator rather than PowerPoint. You can also help to avoid color shifts by embedding ICC color profiles in your poster PDF, such as "U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2" (for CMYK) or "sRGB" or "Adobe RGB" (for RGB).
If you don't want to worry about it, don't! In cases where your poster has out-of-gamut colors, we use a perceptual rendering intent that preserves the relationships of colors to one another. We also auto-calibrate our printers against the specific paper used to ensure accurate color reproduction. Although we don't achieve the excrutiatingly faithful color needed for advertising or catalog work, you'll be very pleased with the way your posters and/or photographs look.
Learn more from Wikipedia's entry for "color".
