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RSS feedsOver the past couple of years, there has been a huge increase in the number of companies offering services that let you design documents online and order physical prints over the internet. Why would anyone want to use such a service?
Well, if you don't have a decent-quality inkjet printer at home then such a website could be just what you're looking for.
Online printing companies and services can supply your every need, whether you're looking to print invitations for your daughter's wedding, business cards or business stationery and personal letterheads.
Different companies specialise in specific areas of printing - some are geared towards business customers, while others offer a more personal touch, specialising in party invitations, postcards, thank-you notes and greeting cards.
The majority of these sites provide a combination of both consumer and business options. Most allow you to submit your own designs and offer a 'try before you buy' facility which allows you to preview online before purchasing.
And, if you haven't used the services before and just want an example of what you can get, many offer free business cards or other product samples, charging only for postage and packing.
Put to the test
So when it comes to taking care of your printing needs online, just how easy is it to design and order what you're looking for and how much does it cost? Well, with a total budget of £60, we picked four online printing companies, and set about designing and ordering a simple business card on each to test out their wares.
We rated the sites initially on ease of use - whether the design facility was easy to use, what the end result actually looked like online and so on. We also paid special attention to the ordering process itself, taking note of whether hidden charges suddenly appeared.
Some sites that offer free or cheap business cards, for example, have a habit of then charging nearly double the printing price for postage and packing but not revealing this until the last minute. We also judged each site on whether it offers secure payment options, and how quickly we could order the merchandise to be printed and delivered.
Once the cards themselves arrived, we rated them for speed of delivery, accuracy of order (in other words, whether the end result actually looked anything like the online design) and the all-important quality of goods - how do the free cards compare with the ones we paid for? Here's how our four test services shaped up.
Vistaprint
The cheapest of the services we tested, Vistaprint's printing range extends to brochures, invitations, letterheads, address labels, thankyou cards and even commemorative magnets.
We were most impressed by the company's offer of 250 free business cards for only the price of postage and packing (we opted for the standard delivery at £7.49). It's also one of the easiest sites to use - the free cards offer a series of designs to choose from (ranging from simple monochromatic, to colour and pictorial cards) and all you then have to do is insert the text and preview it before placing your order.
The only snag is that you have to reload the page every time you make a change in order to update the design, which can make the process a little slow if you're trying to get your design just right - particularly on a slower internet connection, such as a 56K dial-up modem. This phenomenon, however, is fairly common among sites of this type.
Interestingly, for an additional £7.99 you can customise the card with your own fonts, pictures and company logo. The site is secure, with users having to register before they can complete the order and pay. Once your order is complete an email is sent immediately to confirm.
Of all the services we tested, the products we ordered from Vistaprint took the longest to arrive, appearing a full week after the order was placed. On the plus side, it was also the only site to send us another email once the cards had been dispatched.
But Vistaprint was also let down by the quality of the products themselves. Although the printing was nice and bold, and the chosen floral design strong and bright, the actual card used felt rather thin, while the appearance of the Vistaprint logo on the back is another price to pay for getting the card for free.
Branches of the site are also available in 10 other countries, including the USA, Australia, Japan and Germany, and the company delivers all round the world. In this case, the cards themselves are printed in the US and shipped from there. Still, a comprehensive customer help section answers everything you could possibly need to know and offers a facility to email customer care.
Unfortunately, however, there's no phone number to call if things go wrong, which may put off some users.
Verdict:
The quality of the free goods might not be as good as that of some sites but the range of products is impressive and it's one of the most user-friendly sites around.
Surfprint
Another site that offers a similar free business card deal, where you only have to pay postage and packing (£10 in this case), Surfprint's other products include invitations, change of address cards, compliments slips and posters, although its selection is a little more limited than on other sites.
The free business card scheme (you get 100 in this case) again allows users to choose from a selection of designs for either business or personal use. Most of them are quite simple, but you can add your own image from a selection of simple graphics, or opt for none at all.
The design element isn't the easiest one to use. Each part of the card is assigned its own 'area' - the text areas are simple enough to use but adding colour and graphics involves opening countless folders in order to find exactly what you're after.
Unfortunately, many of the visuals look less than impressive when viewed on the site's preview screen. A sketch of a laptop computer that we added to the card design, for example, looked like a big blurry square when viewed on screen.
The ordering process, on the other hand, was quick and secure - again requiring registration - but when we received our order, we found the Surfprint company logo displayed prominently on the back of the card.
The main advantages that Surfprint has over its competitors is in the efficiency of delivery and the quality of the end result. Arriving just five days after the order was made, our designs were printed on good quality card and both the text and the laptop graphic were nice and clear - much better than they looked on the site.
Although the site claims to have the world's most advanced online printing service, we found it to be a little lacking elsewhere. There's not much in the way of customer help offered online, for example, although a phone number for the company's main office in Ayrshire is given, and was answered within two rings - the quickest of the lot.
Verdict:
A bit of a mixed bag - while the site isn't particular user-friendly, the end product turned out to be one of the best we ordered. Worth using, if you don't mind the slightly cumbersome design process.
Goodprint
Of all the sites offering free business cards that we tested, Goodprint offered the widest selection of designs - coloured cards, logobased cards, plain cards and others using a simple graphic or picture are all available - and it also offers 50 free business cards.
However, expect to pay at least £9.95 in postage and packing to have them delivered within seven working days. If you want them sooner than that, then expect to shell out £29.95 for the privilege.
The site itself is very well designed, with everything from pricing to product displayed prominently. There's even an animated infomercial explaining just why printing business stationery online is such a good thing.
The card design itself proved very easy: you simply add your chosen text to one of the templates, although there's no facility to change colours or fonts. Your order can then be placed via Goodprint's secure system.
The cards arrived well within the seven working days we were promised, and were of pretty decent quality. For some reason, they also happened to be the largest of all the cards we ordered.
Unfortunately, the red-and-orange v colour that we used in our online design and that looked good on-screen turned out to be disappointingly peachy in tone, making the name and address details far harder to read than we had expected.
And, despite Goodprint's assertion that its advertising details would be featured somewhere on the free product, the back of the card was refreshingly blank.
The emphasis with this site is on business cards, although Goodprint does also offer free e-cards and a range of business services including digital printing. The site's personal touch is aided by a tracking area, which allows you to find out the status of your order. The customer service telephone number, which is featured prominently throughout the site, was also answered quickly.
Verdict:
The site is really easy to get to grips with and, although the finished product is a tad disappointing it's still a good bet for business needs. Just make sure you're careful which design you choose.
Everydayprint
The most expensive of the sites we tested also offered one of the most comprehensive ranges of products and enough business card designs to keep even the most fussy punter happy.
Everydayprint also supplies postcards, compliments slips, letterheads, leaflets, posters and more. There's no free business card deal, but a set of 100 business cards set us back £15 (not including postage and packing). All prices are clearly displayed in a separate area, together with a notice about the site's secure payment credentials.
Design-wise, Everydayprint offers a wide range of templates to choose from, many of which come with a space for you to upload your own company logo or picture.
There are several different colours to choose from, and any text you require is easy enough to insert - although bear in mind that if you want to change anything, such as colour or template during the design process you have to go back to the relevant section instead of being able to update it on the spot, which can prove a little frustrating.
That said, we had no complaints with the quality of the product itself. Our cards were delivered within just two days of the order being placed, while the colour, tone and text were all of a very high standard - although, admittedly, there seemed little difference between the quality of card used here and that used by some of the sites offering freebie business cards.
Everydayprint gives the impression that customer care is a priority - the layout of the site itself, for example, is uncluttered, so it's easy to find just what you are looking for. Additionally, the customer helpline number was answered swiftly and our queries dealt with in a friendly, professional manner.
Verdict:
Although the design process is a little complicated, Everydayprint scores highly everywhere else - from quality of product to levels of customer care. And it wasn't overpriced either.
Cut and print
All of the sites we tested had their pros and cons. Surfprint, for example, had the least user-friendly design facility but the cards themselves were well worth the trouble, while Goodprint's wide range of designs and templates produced a mildly disappointing end result.
VistaPrint was impressive for its sheer breadth of product range and impressive customer care, but lost points for not actually providing a helpline number.
For a good all-round service, however, Everydayprint emerges as the overall winner. The small quibbles about its awkward design system are far outweighed by its welldesigned site, customer service that actually seems to put the customer first and a very impressive end product. Well worth the extra money.
Online photo printing
With prices starting from as little as 50p for a 6x4in photo, ordering photo prints online is economical - especially because you print only the pictures you want, so there is no wastage.
The best companies currently offering these services include Ofoto and Fotango, both of which allow you to upload and store digital images, as well as print and order whichever you want. Some of these sites also offer special introductory deals (at the time of writing Ofoto is offering 10 free prints to new users), so it pays to shop around and see who has the best offer.
Design and print at home
You can, of course, design and print your own cards, invites and posters at home, should you so wish. All you really need is a good photo-editing package such as Adobe Photoshop Elements (which costs around £80, check out www.adobe.co.uk for more information) and a decent inkjet printer.
A multi-function device combining scanner, copier and printer all in one is good for this kind of job, as it can save on desk space. Finally, make sure you use good-quality paper or card, and that your printer can handle different sheet thicknesses. And bookmark a good online retailer of computer peripherals and consumables such as Dabs.
See also:
All Online
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