Fine art print shops accepting vector formats

[Hoppity]

I'm looking for US/EU print shops to provide print and dispatch fulfilment. My problem is that I sell maths-based prints where purity of line and edge are crucial. At present I output directly from Illustrator to an SC-P900 at maximum resolution and get superb results but I am UK based and want to get out of the hassle of dealing with tarriffs and increasingly complex packaging regimes.

The problem I have found is that people who describe themselves as fine art printers often seem only to accept raster file formats. At the kind of resolution I need the files would be beyond enormous for something like an A3 print from an original Illustrator file of only a few megabytes.

I sell world-wide but mainly UK/US/EU and really need to output within the relevant borders. So do people have any recommendation for print shops which are used to accepting Illustrator-based one-off orders for output on museum-quality papers, with subsequent packaging/delivery in those markets.

David Lawrence

[creative explorer]

@Hoppity You know this is a user community forum, you might get better results and views and do a Google search through professional fine art printing services directly—especially those with print-on-demand APIs or artist-focused platforms? Maybe, I am wrong and maybe beause it's the weekend, nobody is working and haven't responded to your post, or maybe they have, and aren't interested... look at maybe Reddit, Discord, Facebook... Good luck! 

[Hoppity]

Thanks for the reply but I’ve searched inside and out and have been astonished to find that the major ‘art printing’ services seem all to require submission as JPEG or TIFF. I was hoping that someone who produces large format high-end stuff could point me in the right direction.

H.

[Gord@APL]

Hiya David,

I worked for several years with a company called Halstan, based just outside London, who were a specialist music printer (trivia: they developed their own method for ensuring quality and consistency - see 'The Halstan Method'). They will definitely be able to accept vector formats and have an online portal for delivering PDFs.

Very reliable people, great to work with: https://www.halstan.co.uk

Edit, supplemental: they have plants in Germany and New Jersey in addition to the UK head office.

[Hoppity]

Thanks - I'll look them up.

DL

Sent from Outlook for iOS<>

[Jim_Rick6879]

You might want to check Giclée Today (US), The Print Space (UK/EU), and WhiteWall (EU) — all offer museum-quality fine art prints and can handle vector/PDF or Illustrator files directly.

When ordering, just export your artwork as a PDF/X-4 or EPS to preserve vector data. You can also contact their support teams to confirm they’ll print directly from your vector files rather than rasterizing.

[Hoppity]

Thanks for that  - all grist for the mill.

DL