i've been wondering

[piranha]

the daily photo project is giving me much joy, and i've been planning to make a calendar for 2009 with my favourite photos of the year -- for myself and family.

i also want to make myself a tshirt with the light through trees image.

would any of you be interested in one or the other?

how about small posters, framed prints, mousepads, other tshirts, greeting cards, etc if i made such items available via cafepress or a similar service at or slightly above cost?

do you have any experience with cafepress and other services like it? it doesn't seem cheap to me, but also not horrendously expensive. i know if i had to do it locally and then ship things to people personally it's doubtful if i managed a run of calendars; i don't think i'd have the energy, so it'd be more reliable if i'm gonna farm it out to a company that'll handle it all for me. what else is there besides cafepress?

Comments

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

spreadshirt, i think.

i like cafepress all right; i have a store set up on there for james's shirts. (if you need a shirt about the english language, pls buy from cafepress rather than the people who sell them at conventions. kthxbye.)

[trelana.livejournal.com]

I'd absolutely love a t-shirt (or three, ha) with the light through trees photo (if it's on a black shirt -- I don't know that it'd look right with another colour, but would be absolutely amazing on black). Possibly also interested in a calendar.

Not sure about either CafePress or other services, though, sorry. :/

[crazed-lynn.livejournal.com]

I haven't dealt with cafepress in several years. aeire used them for t-shirts and I bought one. The image quality (match to the original) was very good, but the image deteriorated too quickly for my taste. I don't think it stood up to more than 10 washings.

That said, I think their quality has gone up. Or rather, I've heard reports that their quality has gone up.

cafepress

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

thanks for the tip -- i hadn't even thought of that. guess i'll do some googling for the fastness of their tshirt prints. or buy a one-off and wash it a lot.

[janetmk.livejournal.com]

I'd be interested in a calendar and t-shirt.

[daev.livejournal.com]

I would be wildly in support of a calendar of your nature photos!

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Oh, my, yes, please! And I have a post somewhere with friends' advice on better options for cafepress-ish items. I will look for it.

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

I remember people saying Zazzle had more color options and better pricing structures, but I haven't really researched it: http://www.zazzle.com/

[firecat]

zazzle has more colors available in large sizes, IIRC.

zazzle

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

sorta -- for a basic black tshirt zazzle goes up to 6X while cafepress stops at 3X; the colour choices really vary a lot depending on the tshirt style. zazzle also seems to be a little more expensive, and i can't sell anything at cost; they automatically mark up by 10% (which one can change to be higher, but not lower). they seem to have more tshirt styles though, and no limitations how many styles one can sell (cafepress limits their free shops in that regard, one has to pay to get unlimited choices).

i'll probably start a shop in both and order myself samples to see about the quality. and spend some time making lists comparing all the features.

[zxhrue.livejournal.com]

I'd be game for good prints of 'light through the trees' and/or 'a moment of zen' (piccy of 21st May 2008), heck, I'd even do 'em for myself if given access to the original images.

a moment of zen -- download

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

the zen photo: http://www.sendspace.com/file/82ar2u -- the image resolution of 300 dpi should give you enough size to print on a tshirt, you can lower that to 200 dpi which gets you more coverage. heck, 150 dpi is probably good enough for tshirt fabric. if you don't have software or don't know how to get it to the size you want just let me know and i'll do it for you.

you have my permission to use the file to make yourself a tshirt. feel free to crop, change the tone, add text...

the "light through trees" photo needs work before it can be printed (i've got to make parts transparent so it doesn't look like crap on a black background). have to experiment a little before i let that loose in the wild.

Re: a moment of zen -- download

[zxhrue.livejournal.com]

wow! thanks!

um, too reiterate and clarify, will probably try to get a nice 8 x 10 out of 'a moment of zen'. but otherwise will not redistribute, reproduce or otherwise transgress the spirit of the permission granted above.

will keep my eyes peeled for news of 'light through trees' shirts...

[crystlyte.livejournal.com]

I would definitely be interested. I've heard that cafepress does a decent job, but I haven't heard about the quality of the t-shirt colors.

[selki.livejournal.com]

I'd love to get a calendar!

[firecat]

I'd love a calendar if the quality is good.

The only person I know who tried doing greeting cards through CafePress, the quality of the photos wasn't very good at all. I don't know if that was CafePress's fault or the fault of the photographs.

There's also moo.com for greeting cards and such. My moo card photos came out a bit dingy but a professional photographer (bitterlawngnome) had some made and said they came out fine, so it was probably the fault of my photos.

calendars

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

what do you consider good quality for a calendar?

thanks for the tip about moo.com -- i'll check them out. about the dinginess, some possible GAS: printing will dull colours because monitor RGB uses a colourspace that can't be reproduced by today's print inks, so you need to oversaturate if you want to approach what you see on your monitor, and if the colours are very bright, you won't be able to get there.

T-shirts

[betonica.livejournal.com]

I would also love a light through trees tshirt in black. I've bought a few t-shirts and other things from cafe press, and had no problem with them. I admit that I don't wear them often enough to know if the image fades with many washings, though. I might be interested in other items, but tshirts are the thing I'd most likely go for. Most of your images are stunning; they make my morning. I'd love to see them on ts, etc.

[geekchick]

I'd love a calendar, and quite possibly prints (once the employment thing gets all sorted out again).

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

Calendars, yes! Shirts depending on availability (size/shape -- I'll buy men's shirts for the boy, but they look like crap on me; I have to stitch them creatively, which gets wearing, or find a girly cut).

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

*makes note to find some girly cut tshirts in larger sizes*