Printroom: FAQs

To choose whether to sign up for a Classic account, Pro account or a Premium account, compare the benefits.

To sign up for a Printroom account: You can either upgrade your existing Printroom account or set up a new account. With your Printroom account, you create your own personalized studio home page and upload your photos into customized galleries. Your customers can then view and order your photos online. Printroom takes care of the printing, shipping, and business transactions so you can focus on what you do best . . . taking great photographs!

When you create an online gallery, you determine what print sizes and/or other products (greeting cards and gift items ) you want to offer and the price for each print size and/or product. The price of each print and product must be set above that of our standard price list. On all customer online sales, Printroom will deduct our standard prices of prints and products + 16% (13% commission and 3% credit card processing fee) from your sale prices. Checks for the remaining balance will be distributed to you on a monthly basis. You can monitor your real-time sales data online via your account at any time.

To see our list of features and prices for our memberships, click here to view our comparison chart.

Printroom will distribute checks to members on a monthly basis. Our current practice is to mail checks for your account balance (for shipped orders) as of the end of the previous month on the 15th of the current month. The checks will be made out to the payee name and payee address you specify when you sign-up for a Printroom account. This information can be changed by clicking on "My Profile" from your "My Account" page.

The Terms of Service describe the way in which you may use our services.

Printroom has a firm commitment to ensuring the privacy of your images. This page will provide you with Printroom's information gathering and dissemination practices. Please see our privacy policy for more information.

For standard prints on photo paper, Printroom uses digital printers with the highest quality silver halide chemical process�the same process used by regular photo finishers. This is direct digital continuous-tone printing, which produces stunning photographic prints far superior to ink-jets or dye sublimation printers. Some of our gift products such as t-shirts and photo mugs do use a dye sublimation process, however. Click here for more information.

Absolutely. With our state-of-the-art printing process, images will not fade away, and the long-term results are the same as standard high-quality 35mm photos. Our glossy, matte, and pro luster finishes are printed with Fuji Crystal Archive paper. For more detailed information regarding the display-life of this paper click here. Our metallic prints are printed with Kodak Professional Endura Metallic paper which has a display-life rated at 100 years in a typical home display, 200 years in dark storage, and 1-5 years in a commercial display. Our black & white prints are printed with Ilford Pearl RC paper.

The following chart gives you guidelines to achieve the best quality results.

Print Sizes	Good	Best
wallets (4)	338x448	507x672
8 die-cut wallets	338x448	507x672
3.5x5	350x500	525x750
4x5	400x500	600x750
4x6	400x600	600x900
4x8	400x800	600x1200
5x5	500x500	750x750
5x7	500x700	750x1050
6x9	600x900	900x1350
6x18	600x1800	900x2700
8x8	800x800	1200x1200
8x10	800x1000	1200x1500
8x12	800x1200	1200x1800
8x24	800x2400	1200x3600
9x12	900x1200	1350x1800
10x10	1000x1000	1500x1500

Print Sizes	Good	Best
10x12	1000x1200	1500x1800
10x15	1000x1500	1500x2250
10x20	1000x2000	1500x3000
11x14	1100x1400	1650x2100
12x18	1200x1800	1800x2700
12x24	1200x2400	1800x3600
12x36	1200x3600	1800x5400
16x20	1600x2000	2400x3000
16x24	1600x2400	2400x3600
20x24	2000x2400	3000x3600
20x30	2000x3000	3000x4500
24x30	2400x3000	3600x4500
24x36	2400x3600	3600x5400
30x40	3000x4000	3750x5000
32x48	3200x4800	4000x6000
40x50	4000x5000	4000x5000
40x60	4000x6000	4000x6000

Printroom gives you complete control over your prints. You have three options for image enhancement:

Color Managed Workflow. If you edit your image, you can take advantage of our color managed print workflow by downloading our ICC profile and using that to edit your images. Click here for more info about Color Management
Custom Image Enhancement. If you want professionally-edited images, you can have Printroom's image enhancement technicians manually edit and enhance your image for a small additional fee. Custom image enhancement can be ordered for any image in your galleries or you can choose to have it only done to an image as it is ordered by your customer. Click here for more information about Image Enhancement
Auto Correct. If your images only need minor adjustments, try Printroom's Auto Correct option. Select the Auto Correct option to enhance contrast, sharpness, and color balance.
Standard Enhancement (Pro and Premium accounts only). If your images need further corrections, standard enhancement provides exposure and color corrections performed by a trained professional. Standard enhancement is $.99 per image the first time it's ordered. This means, if it is ordered again, we will use the same standard enhanced image with the new order and any subsequent orders without any additional charges.
Premium Enhancement (Pro and Premium accounts only). If your images require the utmost attention to detail, premium enhancement provides red eye removal, exposure correction, color correction, facial retouching, and sharpening. Premium enhancement is $1.99 per image the first time it's ordered. If it is ordered again, we will use the same premium-enhanced image with the new order and any subsequent orders without any additional charges.

Yes. You need to specify the items you want to offer and prices in the price list for each gallery.

Standard prints: (no frame) 2-3 days*
Standard frame: 7-10 days*
Frame w/etched glass, field dirt, or ticket: 4-6 weeks*
Note: Framed products shipped separately from standard (no frame) prints.

Yes, although our Pro Studio Manager is, by far, the most convenient method of uploading your full-size images to Printroom, you can mail in a CD_ROM or DVD with full-size images for us to upload. If you have created galleries and uploaded thumbnails (synchronized) and are sending us a CD with the TAGGED (not original) images, we will upload the full resolution files for free. If you have not created the gallery and uploaded the thumbnails, the price is $0.03 per image (credit cards only) with a minimum of $10.00 (covers 333 images). Your credit card will be billed after upload is complete.

We can only accept images from Pro Studio Manager that were previously synchronized in galleries as thumbnails to your account.

Please follow these directions to make sure the contents of media is correct: Click "CD-ROM Acceptance" for the submission form. Please fill out the form completely and click the "Submit" button. A confirmation will be e-mailed to the address specified on the form. Print the form and mail it to Printroom together with your CD-ROM. Once we upload the images into your gallery, we will notify you by email, so that you can set up prices and products to offer.

Printroom offers the highest protection for copyrighted images. Only low-resolution thumbnails or watermarked medium-size files are displayed. Full-size images are stored in Printroom's secure server and are only used to print photographs. Also, we offer anti right-click protections against unlawful image downloads.

Your studio website is your own custom website that your customers will see when they enter your site, and can be designed using our Flash homepage tool (Pro and Premium accounts) or HTML homepage tool (all accounts).

When you sign up for an account, you will select your own website URL: i.e. www.yourcompanyname.printroom.com. You may give this address to all of your customers. You can also purchase your own domain name through a domain name registrar such as GoDaddy.com or Downdoggy.com and have this page redirect to your Printroom address if you like.

Your Flash studio website can be customized to add your own logo/icon, up to 15 slideshow images, contact information, and up to three info pages about your company. At the left of your page will be a list with links to your events, groups and galleries. Your groups, events, and galleries can also be password-protected so only those who have the password can view them.

A gallery is what you set up to display and sell your images from a particular photoshoot. You can set up as many galleries per photoshoot/event as you like. When you set up a new gallery with our Pro Studio Manager software, you will have the option to select a gallery name, description and watermark. Then you can add print sizes, products (greeting card and gift items), print/product prices, background colors, security, and more on your website. All gallery names will be displayed on your studio home page if published.

A group is simply a container for galleries. It represents a designated event allowing you to categorize galleries from different times or portions of that event into one group. For instance; instead of creating one large gallery containing all of the images for a wedding, you could create individual galleries for each portion of the wedding, such as the ceremony and reception, and move those galleries into a group. This way, a customer can go directly to the portion of the wedding they're interested in without having to search through a much larger gallery.

When you set up a new group from your account page, you will have the option to select a group name, security, client access, and more. Just like you would a gallery. These settings can also be applied to the galleries within this group. All group names will be displayed on your studio home page if published. For more information, click here.

Pro and Premium members can also create custom Event Websites for your groups, with a Flash slideshow, music, info pages, and links directly to the event galleries.

On the new gallery set-up page, you will have three levels of security to choose from. The first selection is "public" versus "protected'. If you select "protected" and enter a password, only those who have the password will be able to access this gallery. The second option is to display or not display the image caption. The third option gives you the ability to control how your gallery is viewed.

Here are the different options with descriptions:

Searchable globally in Printroom�The gallery can be searched for just from Printroom's home page or your own studio website.

Studio search only listed�The gallery can only be searched for from your studio website.

Studio search only unlisted� The gallery can only be searched for from your studio website and it will not be listed there.

Studio search exact match unlisted� The gallery can only be searched for from your studio website and the name has to be typed in correctly with spaces and spelling to return a result.

Yes, once you create a gallery, you have a choice to publish or unpublish a gallery. Your gallery/group cannot be viewed by anyone until the publish button is selected. This allows you to upload your images, set your pricing/options, and make any necessary changes before your customers visit your site. Once the gallery is published, your customers will be able to view your gallery. You may select unpublish at any time to disable public access.

There is no limit on the number of images in a gallery, but your gallery will only display 36 images per page. The 37th picture and any others following it will be displayed on the 2nd page.

No. Anyone may access and view your gallery as long as it is published and they have the password (if protected).

There is no limit on the number of photos you can store. Note that when using our Pro Studio Manager software to create and upload thumbnail versions of your images, the impact on your storage space will be far less than uploading full-size images. Thumbnails created by the Pro Studio Manager software typically range in size from 20kb to 50kb. We give you 300MB of thumbnail storage for Classic accounts, 1GB with Pro accounts and unlimited storage for Premium accounts. With 1GB of space, for example, you should be able to store around 20,000 thumbnail images. As long as you upload thumbnails first, using Pro Studio Manager, the storage for your high-res images is unlimited. If you need to upload more thumbnails than your account allows, (than 5000 thumbnails), you may purchase additional storage for $20 per 100MB. This is a one-time fee and will remain in your account as long as it is active. Or you can upgrade to a Pro or Premium account and receive 1Gb or unlimited storage.

First you must login or become a member. Next, go to the "My Account" page and you will see your total space used and your total space available on the right side of the page.

When you open a Printroom account, you receive 300MB storage for a Classic account, 1GB storage for a Pro account and unlimited storage for a Premium account. If you need additional space, you may either delete images from your galleries, upgrade your membership, or purchase additional storage for $20.00 per 100MB. This is a one-time fee. The extra storage will remain in your account as long as it is active. To purchase additional space, log in to the "My Account" page and you will see your total space used and your total space available on the page. Click on the "purchase" icon on the right side of the page and follow the instructions (Note: the minimum purchase is 100MB and you must order in blocks of 100MB). Once you confirm your order, your account will include the new capacity.

Not really. We do our best to make sure that your images are safe with regular system maintenance and backups. Guaranteed archiving is a much more complicated and expensive process. Among other things, it requires storing multiple copies in multiple geographic locations. It would be advisable for you to keep your own copies, just in case.

Because we offer image hosting as part of all of our memberships, we do not offer images in your storefront to be hosted by another site. To read more about our image hosting, see our membership features.

There is no limit on the number of galleries you can have in your account.

We recommend supplying your customers with your url and the gallery name. Or you can also create an Event Website for your client event, and give your customer a unique URL for that event.

Yes, from your storefront, customers can use our Crop & Border tool to customize how your image will be printed. They have the ability to remove unwanted white borders when an image has proportions different from the selected print size (the image is either too long or too square). There are four crop options and four border options to choose from. The example below shows an image with different proportions. If no crop is selected, the print will default to the "Center" crop option. Customers may either select "no cropping" and keep the white borders or select the "best crop" from the Crop & Border options. If the image's proportions are similar to the standard size print, the crop options will have little or no effect. You can also choose to preview images before they print, and make sure that nothing important is cropped from the photo. You can also change the cropping before printing as well, or order cropping services to have a lab technician crop the photo for you. Click here to learn more about cropping features.


			Pan right, down
			Center
			Pan left, up
			No crop

Posters containing player and team images are available for a variety of sports. They have configurable graphics and text and are available in 8x10, 11x14 and 16x20 sizes. A professional photographer can order a T&P poster or offer it as an item for sale. A poster can be ordered from a gallery only if the gallery contains an image named or having a caption containing "TEAMPIC". (This text shouldn't contain spaces and it is not case sensitive). The "TEAMPIC" image is automatically used as the team picture. A poster can not be ordered for the TEAMPIC image itself.

Yes. When you place an order or become a member, all information (including the credit card transaction) is encrypted using secure socket layer (SSL) before it is sent over the internet. Our Secured Server can only read this information and data.

Printroom offers four types of coupons and discounts:

Credit-Based Coupons:
These coupons credit your account with free prints, etc. These coupons are available only through specific promotions to members of Printroom. To redeem credit-based coupons, you must be logged-In while placing your order. If you do not use all of your credits, the balance will be maintained in your account. You may use only one coupon type per order (credit-based, photo pass, or gift certificate). If you have any credit-based coupons in your account, these will be applied to your order unless you specify a photo pass or gift certificate.

Photo Passes: These coupons can only be used once�with one order only�and cover specific products. To redeem your photo pass, simply specify the coupon number at the top of the billing page. You may only use one coupon type per order (credit-based, photo pass, or gift certificate). If you specify a photo pass in the billing page, none of your credit-based coupons will be applied to the order.

Gift Certificates: These coupons can be used throughout multiple orders until their balance is used. They can cover any product because, unlike photo passes, they have a dollar value rather than a product value. You may use multiple gift certificates in a single order.

Volume Discount: We also offer volume discounts on orders over a certain dollar amount. To qualify for the volume discount, your order must exceed the dollar value after factoring in any other coupons and/or promotions. The volume discount will be applied automatically to all qualified orders. The combined total of all coupons, promotions and discounts will be reflected in the "Final Purchase Approval" page. Click here to view the Terms and Conditions of a specific coupon, photo pass, or gift certificates and to check the balance.

Once you are logged in, click on the "Lab Orders" button. There you will see a summary of all your orders including the order number, date, amount, and order status. You may click on any order number to view the order details. If the order status is processing, you can still change or modify your address (not state due to tax implications), paper type, crop & border, and auto correct. Once the order has been printed, no changes will be accepted.

Go to your "My Account" page. Click on "Sales Report." On this page you will be able to view all orders placed in any given month. Simply click on the order number and you can view all the images ordered and see the order status.

Pro Studio Manager is by far the preferred method of creating galleries and uploading images for a Printroom account. Find out more about Pro Studio Manager. Alternately, you can use the Drag & Drop plug-in or Standard Browser Upload method, both described below.

Drag & Drop Plug-In is an easy-to-use image-upload method available for installation online. With Drag & Drop installed, you can upload your photos into your online galleries or shopping cart by simply clicking (or checking) the image files you want to upload. Drag and drop them into the Drag & Drop's blue target. After clicking the "Send Images" button, the image files will be uploaded to your desired destination. Classic members can upload up to 36 images at a time. Pro and Premium members can upload up to 252 images at a time.

How to install Drag & Drop Plug-In:
Install Instructions for PC users (Supports Windows 95 or higher, Windows NT):
Microsoft Internet Explorer:

Go to upload section where Drag & Drop is located.
On the bottom of "Upload Images" section, click "Install Drag & Drop uploader Active X"
Click "Yes" button on security dialog
The Drag & Drop Upload window will appear

How to use Drag & Drop to upload images (PC only):

Go to upload section where Drag & Drop is located.
Make sure that "Drag & Drop" upload method is chosen over "Standard Browser" method. If not, then click "Upload images using Drag-and-Drop method". When ready to use, your screen should look like this:
You must arrange your application windows in such a way that you can see the Drag & Drop upload box (the one with the blue "target" box in it) and the location of your image files at the same time. Your screen should look like the following:

[cascade screenshot]

The way you get your screen to look like this is as follows:
Reduce the current screen window to smaller size by clicking the "restore down" button on the upper right corner of the window screen. The "restore down" button is the middle button in the below image:

Open Windows Explorer to look for folders that contain image files that you want to upload.

[windows explorer screen shot]

Reduce the image file (or folder) screen window, so that you now see two small windows appearing side-by-side on the screen, one containing Drag & Drop with blue target box, and the other containing the image files you want to upload.

Left-click on the image file you want to upload (it has to be an image .jpg file) and while holding down the button, move the mouse pointer to the blue "target" on the other window and release the left button on the mouse.
You can upload multiple files at the same time by first highlighting all of the files with your mouse and then dragging all of them to the Drag & Drop box.
When all your image files are in the Drag & Drop box, click on "Send Images" button in the bottom right corner of the box.

Standard Browser Upload (for both PC and Mac users) If you choose not to install our Drag & Drop Plug-In, you can upload images using our Standard Browser Upload feature.

Go to upload section where "Standard Browser Upload" is located.
Make sure that "Standard Browser" upload method is chosen over "Drag & Drop". If not, then click "Use Standard Browser". When ready to use, your screen should look like this:
Simply specify the number of images you wish to upload (up to 36 photos).
Click the "Browse" button to browse and search the directory and image files you want to upload.
In the pop-up window, select the image file (one at a time) by clicking on the file name. Then click "Open".
Repeat 4 and 5 until completed.
Click the "Send Images" button when complete.

You need to select "All Files" from the "File of type" dropdown menu to see all the files in the folder.

With our Pro Studio Manager software, uploading thumbnails (which it creates for you) generally takes between 2-3 seconds per image. About 20x faster than uploading full-size images through a Web browser.

We support only JPEG RGB files.

Most browsers do not allow display of the progress messages while the upload takes place. You will see the thumbnail pictures of the new images only when all the files are uploaded. There will be no messages while the upload is in progress, so please be patient.

Frequently Asked Questions: All covered in one convenient place.