#purplerubyred

// Thank you for participating! It looks awesome!

I’m actually doing my prints myself with my fancy art printer, but this solution isn’t for everyone, especially if you’re just trying AA for the first time and aren’t sure whether you want to make that kind of investment. I personally would recommend making that decision after you’ve tried selling at a con or online some and you’ve seen how it goes.

I did some research into online and local printing before I got my printer, though, so what I can say about those that you might find helpful is: online is convenient, but they usually require that you order in bulk, and oftentimes they don’t carry higher qualities of paper. Lots of online places want you to order 50+ copies of something, even though you should only really expect to sell 5 or so copies of a print at a con, and some of them only offer really thin and dull paper options. What I did before I got my printer was I searched up a few local printers in the area (I weeded some out through reviews I read online), including a big chain store like Kinko’s and a few smaller mom-and-pop type establishments. Then I took an afternoon and just visited my four top store options and asked them about prints, especially about what types of paper they offered, what their prices were, and what “bulk” discounts they offered, if any. The other thing I made sure to check was what their policy on test prints (to check for color correctness) is. Different places had wildly different policies, so I’m glad I checked!

What really made me prefer local over online printers was how helpful and knowledgeable the in-store people are. Most of them were really willing to answer all my questions about the printing process, and they had prices that were comparable to online printers, especially when you take the online shipping and minimum order numbers into consideration. The other reason I greatly preferred local printing was that I could actually print a test copy of my poster, look at it, and decide whether the colors needed adjustments or not. With online companies, you just have to hope they get it right!