Photographers print their work less often nowadays. It's not because they don't care; it is due to one fundamental issue: whom do you trust?
I love printing my work. It's the last step in the creative process, but this step can also become the most overwhelming. Why? It's because some internet sites promote themselves as the best printers for your work. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. Three printing companies struggle for every successful one. So who do you trust? Lumaprints.
Who Is Lumaprints
They are a California-based print-on-demand company that specializes in producing museum-quality products for photographers and artists. Founded in 2010 by CEO Kenneth Li and his brother Yong Li, they focus on turning digital images into high-quality products like canvas, metal, and fine art prints. They can connect with major e-commerce platforms like Shopify, Etsy, Amazon, WooCommerce, and Squarespace to automate fulfillment — all while shipping to customers with no Lumaprints branding. If you asked me to describe Lumaprints in two words, it would be quality and affordable.
How I found Lumaprints
I was being cheap. I received an offer for a solo show when money was tight and those funds needed to be spent elsewhere in the business. Solo shows are usually high cost with low return. It was fine, I decided; it was only cash. My search for inexpensive printers with strong reviews led me deep into the internet. Stumbled upon Lima Prints and started looking at the reviews, I thought I'd give them a chance. Initially, their pricing caused some concern. My prior experience here involved a printer whose cost was low, performance terrible. I placed my order and waited.
Lumaprints Quality
Finally, my prints arrived, revealing printing lines on several. I emailed, and within the hour they emailed back and stated they would replace the entire order and get it shipped out. That instance stands unique. Quality concerns ceased following that incident. Their quality is over the top for the price you are paying. Over time, I have ordered more than just their fine art prints. In a recent order, I tried their metal and canvas prints, with impressive quality. I have never had an issue with their color or density of the prints. I assure you they will resolve any issues without complaint. Their goal: your satisfaction, ensuring repeat business for future needs.
Premium Papers: They print on thick, fine art papers that feel substantial in hand. They're acid-free for long-term durability, with a range of weights, tones, and finishes so you can match the paper to the image. The result is a surface that holds color well and keeps detail where it matters.
Quality Frames: The frames are solid wood with clear, optical-grade acrylic up front. A 4-ply white mat with a clean bevel keeps the presentation simple, and everything is finished on the back with a dust cover and hanging wire — ready to go on the wall.
Color Accuracy: Printed using calibrated Canon giclée printers for consistent, accurate color. The pigment inks produce rich tones without feeling overdone and are built to last — resisting fading for decades.
Products
The standard products many photographers order are available from them. You can get prints in metal, canvas, fine art, foam-mounted, and even framed fine art options. They offer a unique product: peel and stick prints. In addition, they provide framed canvas prints.
Canvas Prints: High-quality stretched or rolled canvas prints. Made with carefully hand-stretched fabric on a wooden frame, our prints will showcase your work in bright, stunning colors that will last for decades.
- Production time: 2–3 business days
- Next-day and same-day production available
- Printing method: Giclée, eco-solvent inkjet
- Available sizes: 6×6" to 52×100" (stretched), 52×300" (rolled)
- Standard, custom, and large print sizes available
Framed Canvas Prints: Choose from floating, decorative, or traditional gallery frames — a perfect blend of elegance, depth, and versatility for any space. The vibrant, stunning colors of the print lure in viewers' eyes.
- Production time: 2–3 business days
- Next-day and same-day production available
- Printing method: Giclée, eco-solvent inkjet
- Available sizes: 6×6" to 52×100"
- Standard, custom, and large print sizes available
Fine Art Paper Prints: Fine art paper is a great way to add a unique look and feel to your art and photo prints. It's a durable and archival medium that creates an elegant, classic aesthetic. The vibrant colors give off a gallery feel that won't fade easily.
- Production time: 2–3 business days
- Next-day and same-day production available
- Printing method: Giclée
- Available sizes: 4×4" to 43×110"
- Standard, custom, and large print sizes available
Framed Fine Art Prints: Framing your prints is a great way to protect and showcase them in a more professional, polished manner. It adds to the longevity of fine art papers, enhances the overall look of the images, and protects delicate surfaces from scratches or smudges.
- Production time: 2–3 business days
- Printing method: Giclée
- Available sizes: 5×5" to 40×60" glass size (image size + mat size) (depending on frame type)
- Standard, custom, and large print sizes available
Why I purchase: It never fails that someone will want a print that is framed for an office but doesn't want to pay top dollar for the matting and framing from a frame shop. Because of Lumaprints, I can offer these "penny pinchers" a product that is of quality that I okay with and it saves them a few bucks; it's a win, win. The quality of the framing is amazing as well as the frame build, they seem indestructible!
Foam-Mounted Fine Art Prints: Discover a new way to showcase your art and photos with foam-mounted fine art paper prints. These lightweight and sturdy prints offer the perfect solution for stunning, professional presentation. Enjoy the combination of vibrant paper print and durable display.
- Production time: 2–3 business days
- Printing method: Giclée
- Available sizes: 5×5" to 39.5×59.5"
- Standard, custom, and large print sizes available
Why I purchase: In the past a few competitions as well as client requests, have called for a mounted print. For one, its easy to order and I no longer have to take the time to mount my own prints which saves me a ton of time and the cost of keeping supplies on hand. In the past, there have been companies that have failed me
Metal Prints: Display your photos and artworks in a way that's both beautiful and durable. The infusion of the image into the aluminum's coating offers a level of vibrancy and vividness not seen in other print mediums. Plus, their protective polymer coating makes them durable, scratch-resistant, and water-resistant.
- Production time: 2–3 business days
- Next-day production available
- Printing method: Giclée, dye-sublimation printing
- Available sizes: 5×5" to 40×60"
- Standard, custom, and large print sizes available
Why I purchase: Metal prints are a dime a dozen and easy to find a place to print them at. I choose Lumaprints because I am getting value and quality all in one. Their colors always match my edits, and there is no going back and forth with them correcting the issue. The colors are vibrant and I am never disapointed. The quality matches that of national print labs without the high costs!
Peel and Stick Art Prints + Wall Murals: These offer your art and photos without the headaches of hanging prints. Peel and stick art prints and wall murals are incredibly easy to install, remove, reposition, and replace without damaging the walls they're applied to. Printed on high-quality woven fabric with a wide array of sizes.
- Production time: 2–3 business days
- Printing method: Giclée, eco-solvent inkjet
- Available sizes: 5×5" to 49×150"
- Standard, custom, and large print sizes available
Competitive Pricing
Their pricing is very competitive! I have always been happy with the price versus the quality they provide. This pricing structure offers good profit potential for artists and photographers wishing to sell their creations. I placed an order for fifteen 18×24 fine art matte prints for a cool price of $184.69. If I had placed that order through a west coast lab known across the nation, it would have set me back $813.75. The print quality received many compliments at the show.
Give Them a Try
Even if you have a printer that you love, I would recommend that you sign up for a free account with Lumaprints and try them. They may not offer every product under the sun like some printers, but they offer what has been popular with photographers over the last several years! They offer high-quality products that I am proud to offer to my clients at a very affordable price! Photographers frustrated by printers unable to capture their artistic vision will find Lumaprints ideal.
In the End
In a world that offers many companies that believe they offer high-quality print products only to let you down, Lumaprints has found the medium between quality, customer service, and a competitive price. My concerns about quality relative to expense were unfounded, as the adage "you get what you pay for" was demonstrably false in this instance. Photographers like myself will find Lumaprints the premier printing service for the foreseeable future.
8 Comments
Interesting article, and a coincidence too since I placed my first client order with Lumaprints earlier today. I had never heard of them until the last Fstoppers contest which awarded their products for first prize. I spoke with one of their representatives at length about their pricing because, like you, was suspicious that a low price translated to poor quality. Got the expected response of volume and efficiency. So they gave me $40 in free credits to buy a few samples, and I ordered half-dozen or so 8x10 prints on several different papers. Every one looked fine. I especially liked the black and white photo they printed on cold press bright paper.
The thing that continues to perplex me is how their prices can be so low. Their difference in price between luster and premium cotton fiber papers is minimal, yet in the real world, the price of a cotton fiber archival paper can be double the cost of a resin coated luster or glossy paper. I know... because I have a 44" Canon Pro-4100 inkjet printer and print stuff about every other day. My cost of paper and ink, using luster paper, is a hair over 1 cent per square inch. And their price for the same print is in the neighborhood, as I recall, of about 2 cents per square inch. That baffles me. Of course, waste and cleaning cycles add to the cost. And the cost of the machine, overhead, and labor all add up. Most printers charge 7 cents or more per square inch. The companies which cater to the whims of artists can be double that price.
Lumaprints framing services are dirt cheap too. I hope they're good because I just ordered three framed prints from them today. I can't even make a print myself and have it framed locally for what they charge. I'm most concerned though about the quality of the acrylic. That stuff can be all over the map, and from best I can tell, their acrylic is not in the 99.9 protection against UV category of museum grade acrylic. I can't really figure out what they use, but I wish there was an option for better acrylic. Unfortunately the job drop ships to a client 250 miles from here so I won't see it before it delivers, but I'm sure I'll hear about it if something is wrong with the job. Very interesting company, to say the least.
You should like their framed prints. They are nice as well!
To be honest, I have been using a company in Quebec, Canada, Pictorem.com, for well over 4 years, mostly for canvas and HDR Metal prints. They offer free shipping from Canada, fantastic packaging, and they printed a 60X40 acrylic; it came out fabulous! So was the packaging. I just ran a price check on Luma and Pictorem. Pictorem beats them in all categories. They also print 16-bit TIFF files, not converted to 8-bit. It's pretty hard to find print houses that will print in 16-bit, because it clogs up their gang printing.
They also don't charge sales tax. I assume it's because they're not in the USA. You can also upload large files and files in many formats. I have No affiliation with them, other than I use them as my main printing service.
Pictorem is another company that I was not familiar with. Thank you for the referral. They appear to have a clean well organized website, and competitive pricing... although I question how you determined in your price comparison that their prices beat Lumaprints in all categories. I did a comparison on three options for 24 x 36 products. I included shipping charges on the Lumaprints price for direct comparison with Pictorem's free shipping.
24 x 36 Satin (Semi-Gloss) Paper Prints: Pictorem $37.00, Lumaprints $31.98
24 x 36 Canvas Wrap: Pictorem $100.00, Lumaprints $63.98
24 x 36 Metal Prints: Pictorem $240.00, Lumaprints $218.97
To be sure, pricing is not the only reason to use one printer or another. Print quality and customer service can make or break a relationship, and I've been stung more than once by a low cost printer who made promises they could not keep. I'm just asking how you determined Pictorem's prices were lower?
I'm curious too if this administration's tariff policies have affected printing imports from Canada or Europe? White Wall Photo Lab was another highly recommended printer, but I'm pretty sure we pay tariffs in the US on their products shipped from Germany, and it's anybody's guess as to what tariffs will be from one day to the next.
Ed, did you take into account the difference in exchange rate? Typically the CAD is 75-80% of the value of the USD. Also the price shown may include VAT, that won't be charged to US customers.
The Pictorem prices shown above are on their US site, no extra fees. Alternatively, the price on their Canadian site for the 24 x 36 metal is $326.20 CAD.
Looking further into the Pictorem website, I see they offer photographers a 15% discount which narrows the gap between their prices and Lumaprints. I also checked on the 16-bit issue because that sounded incorrect. While I edit images in 16-bit mode, I change to 8-bit for printing because, as far as I know, my Canon 44" printer prints in 8-bit depth. Pictorem appears to agree with this from their FAQ section:
Pictiorem: "Q. What Bit Depth Do You Print At? Do you print in 8-bit or 16-bit?"
"We print at 8-bit. In fact, most fine art prints are printed from 8-bit files, even if the original image was originally 16-bit. Digital printers — even high-end models like Canon PRO series and Epson SureColor — cannot physically output 16-bit color per channel. Their output is limited to a smaller color space and dynamic range than what 16-bit files contain. Although editing and storing images in 16-bit is very useful for smoother gradients, less banding, and more flexibility in adjustments, printing at 8-bit perfectly matches the capabilities of professional printers and ensures the best results."
From my experience, I can't see any difference between 8 and 16 bit images. Yes, I can feed a 16 bit image to my printer, but the output is no different than sending it the same file as 8 bit. For situations where gradients or banding are an issue, I typically solve them by printing at a higher resolution (2880 DPI on an Epson printer, Best quality on a Canon printer).
I can tell the difference when I look at 8-bit and 16-bit on my monitor, which is ASUS Pro-Art. In print. I might be wrong on them converting 16 bit to 8 bit. My bad. When I place orders from them I get the 15% discount. Still, a good printing service.