This service is run by the people who created and run the LoveFromTheArtist programme.
LFTA is a volunteer-run not-for-profit programme that helps artists in Britain and the UK. Everything you create here as a user of this system is produced in the UK by our long-standing professional print company partners.
This service is run by just three people: Ian Lacey, Anne Lacey and Lynda Harvey. Our main production centre is based in England's smallest city - Wells, Somerset.
Please understand who we are – we are not a big corporate entity, we are just three people trying to give UK artists and creatives the opportunity of creating printed products easily.
This service is principally focused on creating greetings cards, but it also allows the creation of many other printed products. These include Notebooks, Diaries, Calendars and labels/stickers.
Users of this system can also create Art Prints at SRA3 (450mm x 320mm) size using sinterescent printing on acid-free Permanent grade textured and smooth papers, pearlescent paper and Bockingford watercolour paper sourced locally from St. Cuthbert's Mill, Somerset. Users can also create prints up to SRA2 (640mm x 450mm) using traditional Giclée printing on Archival grade paper.
Users of this system can also create many general print items such as posters, flyers, business cards and information cards (postcards).
We are also working on new product offerings all the time. Gift wrap on rolled paper is something we continue to develop in 2023.
Our pricing depends on the type of membership you have. For each type of member a full pricing plan is available on this website upon registering.
Our members typically sell their products via our LoveFromTheArtist.com sales platform or through their own outlets and activities. For this reason we do not publically list our members' source prices.
This service is about being able to design and create your own print-based items, at low cost, so you can sell these onward to earn income and develop your business as an artist or creative.
It is a self-publishing process though, so you are responsible for how well your artworks come out in their printed forms. We provide a lot of help and advice on this, but it is ultimately down to how good your images are when creating items on this system.
Our service can also offer a good sales platform for your work, especially representing you to the very large number of shops and outlets we supply in the UK and many other countries. Accessing this facility is by individual application and is only sustained by sales success once on the sales programme.
What is unique to this service is that you can order tiny quantities of items, or combinations of designs and products in ways that other print services cannot provide. You can, for example, order a small square card of one design, two standard squares of another, a letterbox shaped card of a different design, and an A6 rectangle card of a different design again - all as one order - and our system will accept it routinely.
You can put an order on for 20 cards, say, and we don't care what the combination of designs or types/sizes is. There are minimum quantities on most items, but these are very low and they do not restrict how many different designs can make up the minimum amount.
If you expect to get an email from us (e.g. you have asked for help or support) or from the system directly (e.g. for a password reset or an order confirmation etc.) and you have not received anything, please check your spam/junk folder or filter because our emails do often get routed there.
We do answer queries and support requests and we are generally pretty quick in doing this. So do check your spam filters - we are not ignoring you.
We often answer using our LoveFromTheArtist email addresses too, and having the word 'love' in our name can make things go into spam quite a bit.
We generally turn orders around very quickly, but sometimes there can be small delays. For example, if we see any marks or quality issues on your print then we will generally re-run your order, or parts of it, and this can add a day or two of additional delay to our usual service.
For most of the year we print on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in order to have more chance of having large enough print runs to get the best pricing for our members. we buy in our print from external UK printers.
On print days, waiting orders are run between 5.00 and 7.00 a.m. so orders received on say, Monday after 5.00 a.m., will not run until the Wednesday print run.
We send orders by Royal Mail using their Tracked 48 service, or by UPS courier if the order is large enough for courier service. A very rough guide is that orders for more than 100 standard size cards are more likely to be sent by courier. The mix of items on any order will impact on the options. This is mainly because of weight, but there are also items that we do not tyipcally send in the same package - Art prints, for example, are typically sent separately to keep them protected. Some products are sent directly by our printers - e.g. Giclée prints and general print items like flyers and business cards.
We do our best, but we do not provide turn-around or order delivery guarantees.
It is not at all unusual for us to ship part-orders. Some products just don't like to mix in the same packaging because they are either heavy and might damage something else, or light and fragile and might be damaged by something heavier.
Art prints for example, are very typically sent separately. If you order some prints and just a tiny amount of cards then we might put them together, but prints are normally shipped separately.
Notebooks/diaries and bound items like this are also very typically shipped separately.
We are trying to improve your access to tracking info during 2023. You should get notification emails form Royal Mail or from UPS, but we have found these are either disrupted by strikes etc. or can go to spam and are not reliably received. Because of this we are looking to improve the information you can get from your order history page which should help you to understand how things are being sent to you.
If you understand how the ability to order small numbers of highly varied designs and types of product makes our service unique, then you will appreciate that compiling your orders to pack and ship them gives us a significant problem. The solution to this problem is mainly through the use of small barcodes on your items.
The little thing on the backs of your cards is a Datamatrix type barcode. It typically contains your order number and item number, and it is used by our systems and processes to bring all the items on your order together for packing.
The little barcodes are what makes our service function and what makes it possible for so few people to process so many distinct orders.
A design can be edited (content/title etc) even if it is already in an order submitted, paid for and waiting to be printed. This does depend on when the order was placed and when a print run is due - but it can be done if you discover an issue with a product. Just Edit the item in Your Products and resave. You cannot however add or remove a product, or increase/reduce the quantities.
For most of the year we print on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in order to have more chance of having large enough print runs to get the best pricing for our members. we buy in our print from external UK printers.
On print days, waiting orders are run between 5.00 and 7.00 a.m. so orders received on say, Monday after 5.00 a.m., will not run until the Wednesday print run.
Our main printer is based in Wells, Somerset - we are based in the same building as well. You can now request to collect your order from this location if it is convenient for you. If you choose to do this our system will charge a much reduced P&P amount - typically reducing your P&P cost to about 1/3 of what it would otherwise be.
To use this option, please specify a delivery address of: Collection, St. Andrew's Press, Wells, BA5 1DA
You may want to source and buy your own envelopes (direct service* orders for cards are sent without envelopes or cellos) or your own cello wraps (we are not supplying these in-line with orders after 1st Feb 2024). If so, here is some information on the sizes of the versions we use:
* - Direct service for cards is not available to all users and is only offered on qualifying orders
Envelopes:
Standard Square => 155mm x 155mm
Standard Rectangle => 184mm x 133mm
Small Square => 130mm x 130mm
Small Rectangle (A6 cards) => 162mm x 113mm
Letterbox/Pillarbox => (Not so easy to get – look for 'invitation' envelopes)
Cellos:
Standard Square => 159mm x 155mm + 26mm self-seal
Standard Rectangle => 137mm x 184mm + 30mm self-seal
Small Square => 135mm x 130mm + 30mm self-seal
Small Rectangle (A6 cards) => 120mm x 162mm + 26mm self-seal
Letterbox/Pillarbox => info to follow
SAA are responsible for uploading and managing their member codes and data on this system. If your code does not validate please refer the issue to SAA directly.
Very often we see SAA members trying to register when they have already registered before. Please note that you do not have to register again if you have registered previously. If your code fails because it has been used already, then use the log-in (and the password reset feature if required) and not the registration process to access the site.
If your code has been used already but not by you, please contact SAA (SAA.co.uk) to explain your problem.
To add commercial content like your own logo etc. to your card backs requires a Professional Artist Gold or Platinum membership level with SAA. Standard level members and members accessing this site through an SAA affiliated art group do not have access to the card backs in the design process.
If you upgrade your SAA membership then make sure we know about it here at SAAPrint.co.uk.
Although it does not directly state 'giclée', the last 4 of the layout options on the Art Prints page are the Giclée layouts (in SRA2, A2, 500mm square and a 2 x A3 option), which are all only for giclée processing.
Please see the help page: About our Art Prints (opens in a new tab or window)- you'll have to log in or be logged in to view this page.
Please note that there is a significant difference in price between the smaller SRA3 'sinterescent' prints and the larger Giclée options. Please also note what the help page tells you about the quality and lightfastness of the lower-cost SRA3 versions. These are much better value for money and are, in our view, a very high quality print option.
You also have a wide choice of papers for the SRA3 size sinterescent prints including textured and smooth bright-white and off-white choices, a 'pearlescent' paper and an option of Bockingford watercolour paper. The giclée option includes just one archival grade, off-white, paper.
A proof is lower-cost version of your item that is intended to show how well, or otherwise, your design fares in its printed form. A
proof is not intended for use as the actual product and it will typically be marked with our diagonal/crossed dashed lines to indicate that it is just a proof copy.
With a proof you can see how your colours are looking on the selected product/paper-type.
With a proof you can see where any cuts will fall and check your bleed/image-alignment, including whether you have content which is very close to cut edges and might therefore be problematic in the actual product (because of variation in the accuracy of any cuts).
We offer low-cost proof options for SRA3 prints and for our calendars. For the prints this is so you can get an idea of how well an image works on a selected paper without having to meet the 5-sheets minimum order level. With calendars this is to see how your images are coming out as they are used in the calendar without having to buy the minimum quantity of more expensive products to find this out.
SRA3 print proofs are sliced in two so that we can send them through the post to you without the otherwise high cost of packing and shipping.
In most cases there is not a lot of need for proofs of your designs because you can view your layouts in detail on the system at any time. If you do want a printed proof, it is generally easy to purchase the design as part of a small order and review it that way.
Some more complex or expensive items like calendars have printed proof versions available. You can see these when you use the 'buy now' button to review the purchase options for your created products.
To better understand the options for paper for our Art Prints you can purchase a 'swatch set' from the Sundry Items page. This shows a printed example on each of our available paper types.
For layout proofing, you can generally see what you need by clicking on the thumbnail of your peoduct in your Products page. This opens a pop-up, and if you scroll down in that and then click the image shown in there, you get a larger view (depending on the screen capabilities of the device you are using to browse the site) which is very good for checking your layouts, bleeds and edges.
For image quality proofing, open your product in the designer and use the local toolset that appears around any image element when you click on it. The top-left 'cog-wheel' will tell you about things like the resolution and colour profiling of your uploaded image asset as used in the design. PDF assets give less useful information and are generally not a good format for use on this system.
Layouts/Bleeds are the most important thing to check when proofing your designs. Look for bad edges that are not adequately 'bled' and watch for making content too close to cut edges or folds.
For image resolution please check the green/amber/red warning levels on the local tools review of images in the designer for a quick guide to how any image is performing as placed and sized in a design.
Make use of the available help information on the site to understand more about bleed, colour and resolution. Remember that this is a self-publishing system and you get results that directly reflect the quality of the images you upload and use in your product designs.
Forget what resolution your image asset says it is - this is not a fixed value at all. Whenever you place an image into a design and size it to your required view, you will find its resolution value will change according to the size it is 'rendered' at (how it is used).
We recommend jpeg files in RGB colour (standard photos of your artwork). You can use a smartphone camera and many people do very successfully, but take care to get a high resolution image from your phone, not one for simply sharing on social media (which will be a low res image typically) and be careful about the colour profiling your phone uses.
Simple file names are important. Some characters are unsuitable for use in web links or have special functions (like %, &, ?, # for example). This system needs to be able to reference any image you upload as a web link, so please keep your file names very simple, ideally quite short, and avoid these more unusual characters or you may get problems.
This website is mainly intended for use with full size screen devices and standard web browsers like Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari.
Phones, tablets/iPads will be more problematic, especially in the design process. Trying to design and lay-out a large print on a tiny phone screen is going to be a pretty tall order, and most stages in our process need you to OK actions and read instructions in pop-ups etc.
Javascript is essential, so don't turn that off, and don't block pop-ups or stop the site from showing dialogue boxes or you will find you can't move from one step to another.
When you buy one of your cards you have the option to buy it as a blank card or with a standard message inside. If it is blank then our system will write this on the back itself. If it has a message then our system will indicate this on the back too. So if you write something yourself it may conflict with what our system adds there.
We write on the card back because this tells a prospective purchaser about the card if it is closed and cello-wrapped or bound. Otherwise the customer will not know what they are buying from you.
If you get to publish your card onto LFTA and it is purchased by a shop for them to sell from their shelves, then they may buy it as blank or with a message inside. Again, if you add that it is blank then your text might conflict with ours once more.
Web browsing devices tend to 'cache' content, particularly image content that takes up a bit of bandwidth to serve across the Internet. This appears to make things faster and more nimble to you as a user, but it does cause problems when you are changing things and we are re-presenting images of your products with the same names/IDs as before.
We do a lot to try to prevent caching so that you see your changes properly, but still some browsers or devices can be stubborn in showing what they think you should see rather than what we are actually serving up.
Similarly, if you use things like the back/forward buttons on a browser you are viewing pages as they were rather than as they are in real-time, so this can be confusing too. Make sure you use our buttons and links to see things so that we can serve up the correct views.
If you think the views you are seeing are not changing when you make changes to your products, try refreshing your page/view on the browser or device you are using. Things generally work as intended, but just be aware that browsers can sometimes try to hoodwink you.
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