Our new line of metal prints is here, and they rock! Now metal is available in 4 different metal surface finishes and multiple ready to display styles. Use our online ordering tool to create custom sizes as small as 8×8 up to 30×40. The “panel only” option can even be ordered with a frame! Metal prints are one of the most remarkable and easiest ways to display your work. And it is not just for photographers anymore. Every day see artists now offering their illustrations and reproductions as metal prints as well.
So, you may know that we have been offering metal prints for a while now. But last year we saw we needed to make some major changes as part of our efforts to become one of the premier locations to go to for metal prints.
Centralized Production
First, we recognized (and not just with metal) that we needed to move our metal print production to us headquarter facility so that we improve average transit time, speed up production and have better quality control. This was made possible when late last year we expanded our facility to allow us to move the production to from the East coast to San Antonio. Early this month we also we finalized the installation of the equipment need to make the manufacturing possible and the volume and size requirements needed. Most important is by being at our headquarter production facility allowed our Auxiliary Operations Manager to personally oversee the training of staff and production process for these metal prints meaning greater consistency levels.
More Surface Finishes
Second, many of our customers wanted more surface finish options so they could match metal prints they had produced elsewhere. When we studied this closer we found most other color labs have been limited to offering a white gloss like we used to do but some color labs were using other finishes. Some were using a silver gloss. Others using a white matte and others offering a silver matte. A few even offered semi-gloss versions in both the white and silver. As you can imagine, this has the potential to cause some problems if you try to order from a different lab that does not have your preferred finish, We decided based on the choices people were used to we needed to offer all the finishes.
Custom Sizes
Third, custom sizes. One of the most frustrating things for artists and fine art photographers is the lack of size options so many labs have. A few out there do a good job of offering a wide range of sizes but fewer do custom sizes. I saw this as a big problem. One of the reasons our fine art paper prints and canvas prints are so popular is we have the capability and offer custom sizes. For artists and fine art photographers which many times rely like to compose their images in uncommon aspect ratios, the custom size option is an incredible help for them, so they can minimize cropping. For photographers it also allows for popular things like panoramic on metal and square sizes. Not you can easily create a cluster of metal prints for a wall or even split a very large image across multiple metal prints.
We are extremely excited about out new line of metal prints and the options we have for them. If you want to learn more about our metal prints, checkout our metal prints page.
Metal Prints FAQs
WooCommerce
The plugin allows you to sync your WooCommerce store with FinerWorks, enabling automated order fulfillment for your print-on-demand products. When a customer places an order on your site, it can be automatically submitted to FinerWorks for printing and dropshipping.
You’ll need the following:
- An active WooCommerce store on a WordPress site
- A FinerWorks account
- Access credentials (web api key and app key available via your FinerWorks account)
When you set up your billing and payment methods, each time your orders are successfully received by FinerWorks, the payment method you set up within your FinerWorks account will be billed.
You can configure your shipping preferences (how you want us to ship orders to your customers) within the Order Fulfillment App or your WooCommerce Integration. When doing so, we will attempt to ship the order via the method you prefer.
If you have Auto Export configured within the FinerWorks plugin, and your products are synced with your virtual inventory, any new orders will be retrieved based on the schedule you set.
After the order is placed, FinerWorks will update the order with pertinent status information as well as update the order with appropriate shipping information.
Yes, you can choose not to use the Auto Export tool within the FinerWorks plugin and choose the orders you want to export. Alternatively, you can utilize the FinerWorks Order Fulfillment App to retrieve orders from your WooCommerce store.
Only if you want to use the Auto Export tool will syncing your products to your virtual inventory be necessary. Without that, we will not know what products to print and ship. Syncing involved making sure that your Virtual Inventory sku, matches your WooCommerce product sku.
A product code can come in handy when it comes to speeding up the process however, you will need to manually export your orders or use the Order Fulfillment App to select the orders you want us to process.
The plugin is free to download and install. You will only be charged for orders placed for fulfillment.
If you are testing your connection via the plugin and you get a connection failed message, check the logs in the FinerWorks plugin menu. It will usually provide some sort of insight as to why you cannot connect your plugin to FinerWorks.
Here are the most likely reasons:
- Incorrect / missing web api or app key
- Business profile incomplete*
- Billing & payment profile incomplete*
- Shipping preferences incomplete*
The last three should be completed via the Order Fulfillment App.
If you still have issues connecting, reach out to our customer service team.
Giclee Printing at FinerWorks
One of the largest ranges of paper selections, while using the highest level of archival print technology allowing superior detail and color, you can create custom giclee prints of your artwork and photos.