I went to KINKOS here in Bloomington Illinois where they just opened there "state of the art" copy center. I had to get some baseball stuff copied for all the kidies.
They have this 30" ink jet running out a banner for a customer on TYVEC banner material.
I grabbed a brochure and OMG! WOW $17.95 per SQUARE FOOT! And the resolution was extremely poor, which probably was the customer's fault for not having the images set up correctly. It was worse than the $4.00 a square foot banners I have seen made for commercial billboards. And the last insult: ITS NOT WATERPROOF
Not only that....they told me they like to print these banners on the grave yard shift (after midnight) because it takes so long to print.
Just an FYI
------------------ Draper The Signmaker Bloomington Illinois USA
Get To A Letterhead Meet This Summer! See you there! DUCK SOUP SPLATTER JAM Sept. 14,15,16 Somewhere in Alabama -------------------- 309-828-7110 drapersigns@hotmail.com Draper_Dave on mIRC chat
Posts: 2883 | From: Bloomington Illinois USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
Wow... thats steep for inkjet. To give you an idea of the difference in area pricing, the Kinko's here charges $12 sq.ft. Im sure the low-res you saw was the customers fault, as the Kinko's I've been in have been equipped with HP 2500CP inkjets - 600dpi postscript 2 machines. Very nice printers...
However, a $6hr. employee with no more training than 'click print here' is not exactly a digital printmaker. But it amazes me how the general public cant seem to grasp this idea.
Kinko's is the same as FastSigns/SignsNow/etc. A refuge for ex-pizza delivery drivers that offers convenience over quality.
------------------ Robb Lowe Hub City Graphics Spartanburg, SC
Maybe that says something about some sign shops printing $6/sq ft banners... kinda ironic, eh?
I'm sure the images werent setup right by the customer, I'm also sure the customer wont care about the resolution because it's just a stupid banner that's obviously temporary (TYVEK is not a long-term solution, plus the inkjet fact) plus banners are for reading from a long distance so it wont even matter in the end.
The "ex-pizza delivery boy" employee could be an aspiring commercial graphic designer, engineer or even a medical student just trying to put himself through college and pick up some real job experience along the way. Kinko's is definitely a less taxing job... I'd rather do that cause pizza delivery guys have to use their wages to maintain their vehicles more often so they can keep working!
Kinko's has some really good equipment.. the large format scanners, large format printers, blueprinting machines, dye-sub equipment, digital presses, layout software like Quark and PageMaker. What better place for a graphic arts student to learn how to operate all this stuff? Better yet, they'll know how to do it before leaving college.
------------------ Mike Pipes Digital Illusion Custom Graphics Lake Havasu City, AZ http://www.stickerpimp.com
Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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