Custom Services, Mounting, Licensing & Research
Close Custom Services Page Print This Page

CUSTOM SERVICES OVERVIEW
While ordering online is convenient and economical, we also offer many custom services that are best ordered over the phone with a real person. Some of the custom services that we offer include:

Please call us at 800-633-5888 M-F 11am-7pm Eastern Time to order or to discuss any of these custom services that are not available with our online orders.
 

CUSTOM PRINT SIZES
We offer the most common standard sizes for each image online. It's impossible to list every possible size though, as we can print any custom size up to 30 inches wide and as long as 100 feet in house. We can print even larger using a third party printer. Most of the time customers need a custom size to fit into an exiting frame or mat though, and these are often only a couple inches in size. Custom print sizes typically cost $10 more than the next larger standard print size, so you can usually get exactly what you want for minimal additional expense.
 

CUSTOM IMAGE CROPPING
Most of our online images have been cropped to a standard size borderless print. You may prefer to have the image cropped tighter, cropped to an entirely different perspective (from vertical to horizontal, into a square, or a panorama), or crop off some part of the image that you find distracting. Most of our images can be custom cropped, but for the few cases where we are limited by our license agreements, or where the prints are produced by a different supplier. Custom cropping typically costs an additional $25, and you have the chance to approve a PDF proof before the image is printed.
 

ALTERNATIVE PRINT TYPES
Photo print orders placed online are printed on archival Glossy Kodak Endura Professional photo paper. 95% of our prints are printed on this paper, and we can't recommend it enough. That said, we can also print the following types of prints:
 
TRADITIONAL "REAL" PHOTO PAPERS:
 
Gloss Kodak Endura Professional (available online)
These are our standard prints as noted above, which are what most customers know us for. This is a traditional light sensitive photographic paper that is chemically processed (in other words, a real photo, and not an inkjet). It has a high gloss surface and shows the darkest blacks and sharpest line contrast of any of our papers, which makes most images on this paper look their best. You usually want to avoid touching the surface of these prints as much as possible, as they can show on the print surface (you really should avoid this with all prints anyhow). This is Kodak's professional grade archival paper, intended to resist fading and color shift.
 
Luster Kodak Endura Professional
Like our standard gloss photos, this is a traditional light sensitive photographic paper that is chemically processed (a real photo, not an inkjet). It has a medium gloss textured surface to help diffuse reflections. This is a very popular paper among wedding and portrait photographers, though it can work great for any photo. It also better resists finger prints and light surface scratches than our popular gloss paper. This is Kodak's professional grade archival paper, intended to resist fading and color shift. This paper is currently only available via custom phone orders, and costs $10 more per order (the entire order, not each print).
 
Matte Kodak Endura Professional
Like our standard gloss photos, this is a traditional light sensitive photographic paper that is chemically processed (a real photo, not an inkjet). It has a matte surface to help diffuse annoying reflections. This is a good choice if you plan on handling the print a lot, as it resists fingerprints better than Kodak's other papers. It's also the best Kodak paper at diffusing reflections, though this does have the effect of making particularly sharp photos appear to have less contrast and less acute details (it doesn't "pop" like our favorite gloss paper). This is Kodak's professional grade archival paper, intended to resist fading and color shift. This paper is currently only available via custom phone orders, and costs $10 more per order (the entire order, not each print).
 
Metallic Kodak Endura Professional
Like our standard gloss photos, this is a traditional light sensitive photographic paper that is chemically processed (a real photo, not an inkjet). It has a gloss surface, but it has a unique metallic layer embedded into the paper. This gives images a metallic appearance, especially in areas of silver and gold. It also gives images an almost three dimensional appearance. This paper works particularly well for images that contain metal, such as a lot of space and aircraft images. It can also be used to give a unique modern appearance to some old classic B&W and sepia toned images. Unlike in a real gallery, there's no way that words or images can accurately convey the amazing appearance of this paper online, which is why we always suggest that you buy a small 8x10 print on this paper before investing more money into a larger print. This is Kodak's professional grade archival paper, intended to resist fading and color shift.  This paper is currently only available via custom phone orders, and costs 25% more than our standard gloss prints, plus the $10 custom charge per order.
 
 
EPSON K4 PIGMENT PRINTS (ARCHIVAL INKJET)
 
Epson's K4 pigment inkjet prints are photo quality prints. General advantages to these inkjet prints over our Kodak prints are that they are considered to be of equal or greater archival permanence, they can be printed on watercolor type papers and canvas, for which there is no equivalent Kodak paper, they can produce some highly saturated colors that don't reproduce well on traditional photo papers (like extreme yellows) and we can print and ship as quick as same day with our rush service. Many wholesale clients of ours who frame hundreds of prints at a time prefer these prints, as they are less susceptible to denting and fingerprints during handling by framers, and the smallest pieces of dust that will show under glass on a gloss print aren't usually visible on these fiber surfaces.
 
Epson Enhanced Matte (Premium Professional)
This is a bright white fiber paper made by Epson that is a true matte paper. It is a nice heavy 10 mil, 192g/m2 paper. When you buy a "Fine Art Print" from most of the big impersonal online photo sellers, this is the type of print that they are producing. They have been touted as "Giclee" Prints by some, and just "posters" by others, so there really isn't much consensus as to what to call these. We prefer to call it what it's really called by the manufacturer, which doesn't make for marketing hype. Many highly reputed photographers do use this as their paper of choice in producing their original prints though, and they often sell them for thousands of dollars. Needless to say, by whatever name you call them, these are very nice prints. We can produce just as beautiful of prints on this paper as the best, though I (Robert) still prefer the deeper blacks and more acute details in our standard Kodak papers. These are all matters of personal taste though. On rush orders, we're capable of printing and shipping these prints as fast as the same day, something that we can't do with our Kodak papers. These prints are available in 13x19 inch and larger print sizes, and are priced comparable to a similarly sized Kodak Gloss print. This paper is currently only available via custom phone orders
 
Canvas and Photo Rag Matte
Canvas prints are capable of being stretched on a stretcher frame, as is commonly seen with paintings. We also offer frame stretching among our mounting services. Rag Matte is best compared to a very heavy watercolor paper. Both of these are premium products, so please call for prices or to place an order.
 

CONVERT COLOR TO B&W
We can convert most of our color images to black and white. Our basic black and white conversion runs $15 per image. We don't just flip a switch on a printer like a typical lab to get a gray version of the image. Instead, we convert each color channel individually to taste to produce a much richer looking black and white print. Since this is a subjective process, and you may have your own idea of what you want, we also offer a premium black and white conversion service for $30, in which we produce a test print and mail it for you to preview prior to our printing the final print.
 

B&W PRINT TONING
We can tone any black and white print to suit your tastes. The most common toning is a sepia tone, which gives the print a brownish tone often associated with antique images. We can do a myriad of different types of tones though. Basic toning runs $15 per image. Like our black and white conversions, we convert each color channel individually to taste to produce a much richer looking print. Since this is a subjective process, and you may have your own idea of what you want, we also offer a premium toning service for $30, in which we produce a test print and mail it for you to preview prior to our printing the final print.
 

IMAGE RESTORATION

Most of our images for sale online have already been meticulously  restored. We are capable of performing digital restoration to any images that have not previously been restored though. We have a large archive of un-restored images that aren't even on the website yet, and we have access to millions of images through other archives around the world. We only do restoration work to images that either are in our archive, or can be added to our archive though, so we don't offer restoration to family photos. This service is billed at an hourly rate of $75/hour, with a 1/2 hour minimum.
 

PRINT MOUNTING
We offer photo print mounting to various materials, including mat board, foamcore, and masonite, as well as canvas stretching onto stretcher frames. Please call for prices and to place any print mounting orders.

PRESS PRINTING
We can press print short or long runs of all kinds of products from our images, from greeting cards and bookmarks up to full size posters. Our press printing is optimized for high resolution photographic type images, but we can also quote you for printing your own print ready files. As with all of our products, quality is our number one concern, so you will receive the high level of customer service and stunning print quality that our regular photo print customers receive. Send us your specs and we will get you a competitive price quote by the next business day.
 

RUSH PRINT SERVICE
In house rush services may be available depending upon our current workload. All of our prints typically take three business days in house processing. With our rush service, we may be able to get Epson prints out as fast as the same day (in by noon), and Kodak prints shipped as soon as the next day (in by 5pm). Rush service incurs a 50% premium charge, with a $20 minimum premium. This service will put your order ahead of all standard orders and next in queue behind any existing rush orders. We can usually give you an accurate appraisal of when your print will ship if you must go this route.
 

STOCK IMAGE LICENSING
Most images in our archive are available for licensing in your own projects. Licensing prices vary widely depending upon the image and the intended use. Many of the restored historical images are available royalty free for as low as $125/image. Upon placing your order over the phone, we can usually get the image to you the same day in a hi-res digital format via email or ftp.
 

HISTORIC IMAGE RESEARCH

We perform image research, copyright research and reproduction services at archives around the world. We make regular trips to the National Archives in Maryland and the Library of Congress in Washington D.C., work with NASA on a regular basis, and enlist the services of researchers at presidential libraries and other public archives all the time. Our rates are $50/hour, with a six hour minimum . This service is intended for serious historic image research required by authors, publishers and the media. This research can not only find unknown images, but it can also save you money by finding public domain images that don't require expensive licensing fees associated with rights managed copyrighted images from places like Corbis, Getty Images, or the Associated Press.
 

Please Call Us at 800-633-5888 with any questions you have.  We are here to help!
Close Custom Services Page Print This Page