Originally posted by Fenwoodian Why don't these third party printers publish this critical information on their websites?
For the consumer, knowing what they are printing with would be a big help in choosing labs/printers. I think they avoid listing their equipment in part because:
a) Trade secrets. If one printer lists they use an Epson P8000 and another uses an Epson P10000, the former may lose business.
b) Too many variables. For example, if they listed that resolution is optimized at 300 dpi, someone may take a low res jpeg and try to upscale it to 300 dpi and the results look horrible. The consumer then blames the printer saying they did what the site said to do.
c) Special profiles. The best printers usually tweak and calibrate constantly and do not wish to share with their competition the details.
d) Itʻs the operator; not the machine. You can get great prints from a skilled technician on mediocre hardware and mediocre results with a button pusher on top gear.
Most pros that I know that go to the top printers have a relationship with management and the employees. Itʻs not like Shutterfly or Snapfish or Costco where you just upload and order. Iʻm the yearbook advisor and I will travel over 7600 miles round trip from Honolulu to Winnipeg for color and gray scale calibration and a press check to ensure with my images finalized on LR CC and their PC prepress software, German-made Manroland Press, Italian paper, US made ink, by Canadian pressmen, that we are getting the color balance, density, contrast, etc, within acceptable limits.