Many of you in here are professionals with this kind of thing.
Here's the thing... you have file of some sort, a customer gave you a pic, you scanned it, worked it up in Photoshop, now what? You need to print it, but how? What print services do you use and in what format do you save the file for printing? What size print? Is this all included in your pricing? And, are there a wide variety of prices in printing? Etc. What are some of the problems you encountered early on with this subject matter?

These are some things I'd like to know. Keep it simple, I'm clueless.

thanks, Mig

Is the purpose for printing (initially) to provide proofs (small samples) that customers would use to which "final" images they wanted and at what sizes?

Do you envision doing the final printing yourself or would you outsource it to a private printer?

Mig,
If you're printing with a local printer I would suggest you call them and ask what format they can handle and what storage they can handle also. Some want CDs where others take zip disks or even Photo CDs. They can tell you. On format type, some take jpgs others can handle psds or tiff etc. Also they usually want the file to be the size of the print. So if you want a 5x7 you make your file size 5x7. If I go to print the same image in different sizes I may have more than one file, say a 5x7 file and an 8x10 or 4x6 etc.
Another thing you might ask is their ICC profile or how they match your file colors? I know that caused me alot of grief at this one place but when I went to another printer, the match was alot better. There are also several threads here where members have done comparisons with online printers and their speed and quality service. You might check them out. You can really cut costs with them some times.
As for myself, I print most of my work at home on an Epson 2000P and only if I have an oversize print that I can't handle do I go to the printers. That seems to work fine for me and it cuts my costs alot. Hope that helps.
DJ

DJ,

I think you have the right idea; if you are making small prints quite often, it is better to buy a good printer and do it yourself. For large format, use an outside source. The only exception is when you have a large amount of prints (say 100 or more), in which case it might be more feasible having the job done on large sheets and then you can cut it yourself. We have a few customers who like this system because we charge by the sheet and in the end they save a lot of time and the cost differential is not much. For example you can fit about 36 4X6" in roughly a 30X40. You only are charged for the 30X40.

Fabio Braghi
Fine Art Giclee Printing (http://www.allpconline.com)