Welcome to the "real" world. (sympathic grin)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
...... where you wonder if you are actually speaking the same language as the local minilab operators?
I called at my local Blacks store to pick up some "gift" items, a mousemat and a t-shirts, which I had ordered.
I had dropped off a digital file, sized to the aspect ratio of the mousemat (approx 5:4) and of sufficient resolution to print at 8x10. The t-shirt uses the same ratio.
I glanced at the t-shirt, in its packet, and thought "the quality of that picture doesn't look too good" and made a mental not to bother ordering t-shirts again. Then the girl opened up the package with the mousemat to show me how it looked. Same impression. Then I looked again. The top and bottom of the image had been cut off and there was a part of the mat where there was no transfer (top and bottom, of course!). I pointed this out and noticed that the same cropping had occured on the t-shirt. Oh yes, she replied. That's how the 4x6 we printed turned out. It wouldn't fit on the paper, so we had to crop it. 4x6? I queried. Why did you print a 4x6? What do they do with it?
Oh, they scan it to put on the t-shirt, she says.
Can anyone see where this is leading?
I provide a nice big digital file. They print it nice and small at an aspect ratio which no longer fits on the item I'm ordering. The place which puts the design on the "thing" then scans said print and ~enlarges it~ back to the size it originally was but with a bit missing and at much diminished quality.
Then they wonder why I refuse the goods and also refuse to pay for the two 4x6s I didn't ask for which they printed !!
I also tried, in vain, to explain that if in future they wish to print a 4x6 then they should at least print it so that the height is 4" and leave white space at the left and right as the image is going to be transferred to an item with a white background. I couldn't make her understand this concept at all. <sigh>
Sorry about the rant. Just felt I had to get it off my chest and I knew you'd all understand <g>
Wendy
-- graywolf http://graywolfphoto.com/graywolf.html
