Prints on Ilford Smooth Pearl arrived from DSI (Digital Silver Imaging) arrived. One word: Perfect. I did them through the ROES system. Adobe RGB 1998 profile attached. All Black & White. I had done tests with the paper on my own Epson 7800 and had my fingers crossed that results from DSI would match. Perfect match. I’m now going to spend the weekend uploading all the orders that have been piling up for the last two or three weeks. My thanks to Eric (owner) who called just to see how things were going and to touch base. I’m going to do them all as full bleeds and sign the back. Customers will also get the certificate of authenticity (signed) that they can put on the back of the framed print.
Also, given that they’re doing the printing I’ll be able to offer larger print sizes. Will have to re-think the prices again…
Being cautious, the only thing left is to see and hope that this level of service is the norm. So far, everyone that I’ve talked to about DSI has had nothing but good things to say about DSI… Below you can read other posts about the journey that has taken me there.. www.DigitalSilverImaging.com (I used ROES, Inkjet, Luster – which is Ilford RC Smooth Pearl). Phew.
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Today is a big day for me as the prints from www.DigitalSilverImaging.com are on the UPS truck and will arrive. First off, it gives me an idea of timing. Since I’m in New York and they’re in Massachusetts UPS ground will usually be a one day affair. So that’s excellent.
I ordered both a fine art paper print (Canson) and four Ilford Smooth Pearl prints. So it may have taken a bit longer for the fine art paper assuming that was also shipped. Assuming that I get papers today I should be able to settle down and make a choice. If I go for the Ilford Smooth Prints, I’ll have to decide whether to include the 1/4 inch white border, which makes the image size smaller and it may mean that custom mats are needed… I’m going to test that later… and would mean that I’d sign the back and just go with full bleed prints to be on the safe side.
Again, assuming that the Smooth Pearl results are the same as what I attained here with my Epson, and that the Canson doesn’t totally blow me away (it’s much more expensive) than I can finally start shipping prints from the last big print sale; and I can place a nice big order with DSI for all the orders that are waiting to be done. If it turns out that neither paper works, then I’m going to take a very deep breath and be back in the printing game again.
What I’m hoping is that if either paper does the trick, that I can send some of the larger orders out to DSI and do some of the smaller orders myself. Same papers. Everything signed, dated etc.
On another note – I signed up with Carbonite for backing up and it will probably take a few weeks before my first full backup is up there :) But it is going all the time. I haven’t check it in any systematic way to figure out how many GBs are going up per day, but as I say, it will be a while. Installing and setup on the mac were straightforward. I did a quick test of pulling a few files back just to see how that worked and it was fine.
Anyway, as usual, will write more about how the outsourcing saga goes. Hopefully this will have a happy ending.
