I'm taking back my "print at Costco" thread - USE MAMEMARQUEES INSTEAD!

[Nannuu]

A while back I'd posted about printing 20"x30" at Costco for $9.99 ($16 after shipping).  Though it works fabulous with photos, it does not so much with artwork.  I tried multiple times to upload the art at 600 dpi, the site crashed everytime.  After several nights of trying this I decided to go with 300 dpi since that is still a very decent resolution.  It took the 300 dpi version no problem.  300 dpi on my home printer is great.  300 dpi through Costco is terrible.  It actually looks like it was printed at 72 dpi or something.  I'll try to get a good picture of what I mean tonight.  Very dissappointed 

[odysseyroc]

did you send the print at actual size? There is no reason that it would need to be 600 dpi at actual size. When you resized the pick did you use Nearest Neighbor or Bicubic resampling?

[tbombaci]

What kind of plotter do they use?

-Tom

[Nannuu]

Yep, definitely sent it the right size.  I created it at 600 dpi in photoshop.  Even the 300 dpi version looks great on the computer, zoomed in or not.
I don't know what kind of plotter they use.  My local Costco has a super large photo printer and they look great there.  But the 20x30 shipped to me (from who knows where) just looks bad.

[motorfish]

What about trying Kinkos instead?

[Nannuu]

Yeah, I should have gone straight to Scott for printing but I really wanted to test Costco.  Scott will be doing the reprint, because he is god.  I'll post some comparison pictures which I'm sure will prove once again that mamemarquees is still the best.

[Nannuu]

Whew, Scott saved me.  I posted results in my other artwork thread but not comparisons because I stink at taking pictures.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=51775.0

[sWampy]

http://www.winkflash.com/content/poster.asp does a great job and are cheap.   If you google, you can usually find some coupons also.

[dvdapex]

Swampy,
I was thinking of printing my sideart at Winkflash.  How did you mount your art to your cab?

[sWampy]

I didn't actually get any side art printed from them, but have gotten tons of posters, oils, and my bezel artwork done from them.   It's all looked really good, and been almost 1/2 what others were charging.   I did get a couple of mame logos printed and glued on blow my coin doors on the kick plate or whatever you call it.   I glued them on with some wallpaper glue, and painted over the top of it with a couple of coats of polyurethane.   Everyone who sees it thinks it looks great.

[farmecologist]

I used mamemarquees.com.   Very good prices and fantastic service.   I had a problem with my marquee and Scott took the time to help me out.