Couple of Costco Poster print questions

[Valley Steve]

Hi,

1. If I intend to buy a ready made frame from Michaels, Aaron Brothers and the like,

am I better off getting a Costco 20x30 print made with or without the poster board mounting? In other words, do the off the shelf frames acomodate the thickness of the board, and does the mounting make it look any better?

2. Instead of fiddling with color profiles, if I get a reasonable color print on a 4x6 print from my Epson Photo R300 should I be reasonably satisfied the Costco print in 20x30 will be close in color? If no, is there a fairly easy way to adjust. I do not have a monitor calibration system.

Thanks,
--
Steve

 

[William Pesch]

Valley Steve,

I recently had some pictures printed as 12" x 18" and one at 24" x 36", at Costco.

They all turned out great, actually looking a lot better than the 4" x 6" version.

There was some differences tough. The larger prints were not as dark or contrasty. I believe because when printing to 4" x 6" the print density is tighter making it appear darker. Printing larger size helps spread out the pixels I guess.

Just my observations.
--
Gritty

 

[jryan99]

As far a results go without a color balanced work flow, you'd best ask the tech's at your local cost co. I just did a 20 X 30 poster board print at my local cost co using the instructions found at http://www.drycreekphoto.com/icc/using_printer_profiles.htm at the results were quite good.

I talked to the tech, because from the web-site info it looked as if they could only print 16 x 20 poster board, but turned out they could do 20 x 30's. I asked them how I specified that my image was already color balanced, and they told me it would print exactly how I sent it. So, to me, that would mean they weren't doing any color balancing on their poster prints. Where as on their 4 x 6 to 12 x 18, they will do automatic balancing unless you tell them not to. So just because you got a good 4 x 6 print, doesn't mean you'll get the same results on a poster size print (they print on two different printers, using different processes). So you better consult with their tech.

 

[Ethan Hansen]

Hi,

1. If I intend to buy a ready made frame from Michaels, Aaron Brothers and the like, am I better off getting a Costco 20x30 print made with or without the poster board mounting? In other words, do the off the shelf frames acomodate the thickness of the board, and does the mounting make it look any better?

Costco offers two paper types for their poster prints. One is the semi-gloss poster board, the other a satin finish 270 gsm paper. The poster board fuses a thin semi-gloss film to a 1.3mm thick mounting board. Color and contrast range differs between these two stocks. The satin holds more color in dark shadows and typically shows a higher print contrast (120-140:1 vs. 90-110:1) than does the poster board. The board stock holds more saturated blues, particularly light sky colors. On the longevity front, the board has no optical brighteners while the satin paper contains levels comparable to Epson Premium Luster.

2. Instead of fiddling with color profiles, if I get a reasonable color print on a 4x6 print from my Epson Photo R300 should I be reasonably satisfied the Costco print in 20x30 will be close in color?

Well... the printer is different, as are the inks, paper, and driver. Also, what settings are you using with your R300: Epson profiles, one of the canned enhancement modes, etc? Short answer: No guarantee.

If no, is there a fairly easy way to adjust. I do not have a monitor calibration system.

The easiest method is to convert your images to sRGB and have them printed with the Image Intelligence auto-corrections enabled. Fuji's algorithms do an OK job at fixing color, exposure, contrast, and sharpening. The resulting prints are usually OK as well. For better than OK, you'll need to do a little more work.

Using printer profiles is not that difficult. Convert your images to the profile for your particular Costco, save them, upload, and collect your prints later. Our site has profiles for all but a few Costco poster printers. The key to using them is having the lab print your images without the Fuji Image Intelligence auto-adjustments enabled. Image Intelligence adjusts each image based on the content; profiles won't work with it. Most Costco labs have Image Intelligence enabled by default, however some do not. Of course, without a profiled and calibrated monitor you have no idea whether what you see on it has any color correlation with reality, so this may be overkill.

--
Ethan Hansen
http://www.drycreekphoto.com/

 

[Valley Steve]

Thanks Ethan, and the rest for your responses. This helps a lot!
--
Steve

 

[Ethan Hansen]

I forgot to mention - you asked about any problems with framing the poster board. There shouldn't be any for a frame designed to have matting. The poster board thickness (1/16") is comparable to standard 4-ply mat boards. Depending on the frame and how much spacer flexibility it offers, you may not be able to add multiple mats to the front of your images.

I would, however, recommend adding a 4-ply backing board behind large prints made on the poster board. We have received some thousands of individual board prints from Costco to make profiles for their Epsons, and some of the boards have warped or curved. Considering the prints are sent to us via next-day UPS, there is not a huge amount of time between printing and our inspection of the boards. Adding reinforcement to the overall print will likely make you or your clients happier in the long run.

--
Ethan Hansen
http://www.drycreekphoto.com/

 

[Valley Steve]

Thanks Ethan, most helpful!
--
Steve