How to print it right at a local print shop

You can take the same downloaded file to several different print shops, and get wildly different results.

It is important to understand that printing is an artform itself. A printer, needs to be set properly, and maintained properly, by dedicated professionals in order to get the sharpest image quality. Unfortunately, this is not easy to find.

If you are thinking of taking the downloaded file to a grocery store or a pharmacy, STOP! Chances of you wasting your time and energy getting a blurry mess is high. We cannot say which stores will give you good or bad results, as it really depends on who is working that day, how old the printer is, and how long the printer has gone without proper maintenance. If the person working that day, doesn't know how to set the proper settings to get highest image quality, you can end up with a blurry image. If the printer is old, or has been exposed to everyday dust, and has not been maintained regularly, you can end up with a blurry image. These things don't matter much when you're blowing up a regular photo, but when you are printing thousands of small sharp images, it is very important to find a quality print shop that can produce quality prints.

How to find a quality print shop

Let's suppose we try to give print shops a grade of A, B, C, or S.

The C-grade print shops are the grocery stores and the pharamacies. They have their printers in the corner of their stores. The person working the printer changes randomly. You may get someone who's been working the printers for many years, or someone who just started their job. This is the riskiest place to try your money and energy. Their online storefronts likely won't be able to accept the file as their websites simply won't be able to handle the file size.

The B-grade print shops are the print shops where all they do is print. They don't sell groceries, or drugs. Their primary business is printing, and you will likely get a trained worker who has at least a basic understanding, and will likely have more advanced professionals on-site managing the operation. A good example of this type is a larger FedEx Office Print & Copy Center formerly known as FedEx Kinkos. This is the most widely available B-grade print shop. There are also local small print shops that fall under this category. These will often cater to local professional photographers. Prices are very close to C-grade print shop, but chances of getting a blurry image is much lower. Beware though that you can get a local small print shop that is C-grade, or possibly worse. If they cannot tell you what brand of ink they're using, then that's a D-grade.

The A-grade print shops are few and far between. These print shops will only handle your prints with gloves so that they do not leave any fingerprints. Their printers may be inside a dust-controlled environment, and not out in the open space. Their instake system may have color calibrated monitors for you to check the colors, and will pretty much be able to handle any file size. These will typically cost more, but you are guaranteed sharpest image possible for the technology used. Their highest quality prints are likely not available same-day.

Lastly, there are even fewer print shops that would qualify as S-grade, or super grade. These print shops will have been recognized and awarded by TIPA (Technical Image Press Association) for their print quality. You will be lucky to find 1 of these print shops even in a major metropolitan city. These print shops attracts the most discerning customers from around the world, as they use technologies that are not available even in most A-grade print shops. A prime example that is very important for photo mosaics is Silver Halide printing, which is very different from inkjet printing, and it produces superior image quality beyond what the best inkjets can do. And this is what we offer with our Premium Silver Halide, Premium Frame, and Premium Acrylic prints.

So, if you live in a small town, and your only options are groceries and pharmacies, and you don't have the time to wait for shipping from us, then take it one of these places, but ask if you can see a small proof print before they print the big print. This is not an unreasonable ask, and you can see if the end result is going to be to your satisfaction. Prints may not come out super sharp like ours, but many people do print at these places, and are satisfied. After all, it's not even about the print quality that makes a mosaic special. It's you who put the love into it that will matter to the one receiving it.

If you live in a bigger town, and there is a FedEx Office nearby, then this is a better option than any groceries and pharmacies. You can still ask for a small proof print. The inkjet print shown in our video for comparison is actually from our local FedEx Office. But beware that it still depends on the worker setting the right settings, and the printer being in good condition.

If you want to get a slightly better result than that, search for "professional print shop" on Google Maps. And look for ones that charge a little more. Printing industry is an incredibly competitive industry, so when a print shop is able to charge more, there is usually a good reason they're able to charge more.

If you're looking for A-grade print shops, you likely already have a print shop that you regularly use. The limus test here would be to try to do what you usually do, and see if you run into any problems like not being able to upload the file to their portal because of the large file size. And if you can upload it, make sure that the file has not been downsampled. Make sure it will be printed at full resolution. And if you're willing to wait for shipping, there are many A-grade print shops online to choose from that's going to give you very good quality prints at a lower price point than an S-grade print shops.

If you're looking for S-grade print shops, then you probably don't need us to tell you anything. Only advantage of ordering from us vs ordering from another S-grade print shop would be that we look at your mosaic, and make sure that we think that you'll be happy with the mosaic. Since S-grade prints are not cheap, it's important to make sure there is not a problem with the mosaic itself as there will likely be no issues with the print itself. We do this free of charge to everyone in the form of free mosaic reviews, but when it comes to ordering a print from us, we will take it a step further, simply put your order on hold and contact you if we think that there's any chance that you won't like that you receive. And then work with you to perfect your mosaic prior to going ahead with the print production.