Online printing services provide the ultimate solution for professionally printing your documents, fliers, brochures, business cards and many other items. These services make it possible to take your ideas and turn them into professional documents, marketing materials or even promotional items. Whether you want to enlist a professional designer, do it yourself with design tools, or just upload your own design, online printing companies help you prepare your document.
The best online printing companies offer a variety of customization tools, speedy shipping and high-quality prints. After reviewing many online printing services, we found the best companies are UPrinting, 4Over4 and FedEx Office because they combine flexible solutions with professional quality to allow you to print just about anything. For more information and help finding the right service for you, check out our articles on online printing.
Online Printing Services: What to Look For
Though some companies have similar ordering processes and prices, and may even use similar equipment, online printing services can differ in important ways. With a number of factors to consider, such as price, delivery speed, site usability and selection, it's important to find an online printing service that will provide you consistent quality and timely delivery. To find the best printing services, we evaluated a number of the best online printing services on the following criteria:
Selection
What good is an online printing service that can't print what you need? While several of the printing services we reviewed have just about every print product you could want for your business or holiday needs, some may not offer exactly what you have in mind. Look for a printing company with a broad selection of products to choose from. You should be able to print business cards, menus, fliers and other paper products, as well as designs for non-paper products like mugs and T-shirts.
Design Features
Whether they're creative editing tools or simply upload and preview abilities, design features bridge the gap between your original design and the finished product. Several of the online printers we reviewed include custom creation and editing tools to help you tweak your design or even start from scratch. The best online printing services include a variety of downloadable templates to guide your design, as well as a number of premade designs that you can use. Some sites only accept PDF uploads, while others are compatible with Word, Photoshop, PowerPoint and other file types. You can see a physical or electronic proof of your product with some of the best companies. As you move between designs, some sites have a dynamic price preview that instantly gives you the cost of your current product design.
Shipping
Getting your materials where they need to be is an essential step in the printing process. You can pick up orders from some companies in retail stores, while most ship through FedEx, UPS or USPS. Some of the services even have integrated direct mailing services to help you get your marketing documents to a number of customers or your holiday cards to your employees, using your mailing list.
Although several services offer rush or even overnight shipping, keep in mind that this is only after the actual printer turnaround time, which is usually at least one day. Some printing services also offer refunds and reprints without much trouble, but others require you to send back your items for observation before they agree to grant you a refund or reprint.
Print Options
As well as convenience and advanced options, one reason to use an online printing service is for premium quality. If the end result looks like you printed it off on your home printer, why bother? With the best online printing services, you can expect consistent performance: rich colors, excellent finish, precise cutting and folding, and excellent overall quality. Also consider the breadth of optional formats for your finished product. Gloss and matte finish make your items look more professional. For more elaborate projects like scrapbooks, companies offer binding, covers and hole drilling.
Help & Support
Printing your documents online should be simple and easy, but sometimes you need some extra help. Whether you're having trouble trying to open your files or need a custom price quote, online printing services should offer a variety of solutions as well as a venue to get personalized help. You may find additional support through online resources, phone, email or even live chat, which is usually the fastest way to get in touch with company representatives.
Combining all the right features and excellent quality, online printing services are the ideal way to print your business documents or other projects. Take a look at our in-depth reviews of online printing services to find the right one for your needs.