What to compare, and how to check it
The answer
Leave taste aside and compare seven things: the size of the sheet, the paper, the colour that will actually arrive, which size suits your wall, who is selling, how long delivery takes, and what happens if you send it back. A shop should publish an answer to each. Ours are below, each with a link to the details.
What should you compare between art print shops?
These, and in roughly this order. The first four decide whether the sheet is the one you want on the wall. The last three decide what buying it is like, and they are the ones easiest to leave until after the order.
| What to compare | The question, and the answer here |
|---|---|
| The sheet | Is the size one a frame is already made to? 70×100 cm, 50×70 cm and 30×40 cm, and the border a larger frame leaves if one is already on the wall. |
| What it is printed on | What weight, and is the surface coated? 200 gsm, uncoated. The paper page goes down to what each sheet weighs. |
| The colour | Is the colour published as a value, or given in a word? Sampled off the printed file, piece by piece: every colour, measured. |
| The wall | Which size does the wall take? That is a question about the furniture under it: which size fits which wall. |
| Who is selling | Is there a name behind it, and somewhere a reply comes from? Both on the legal notice, and at info@martiandrok.com. |
| The wait | How much of the wait is making, and how much is post? 1–3 working days to make, then 2–7 in the post. |
| Sending it back | What is the window, where does it apply, and who pays the postage? The refund policy names the countries the change-of-mind window covers, and what a return costs. |
Is a smaller shop a sensible alternative?
It depends on which of the seven matter most to you. A small shop has fewer pictures to choose from, and that is a real cost. What a small shop can do is publish every figure in the table above, measured from the sheet, the paper, the file and the delivery times. This one does.
How do you check a size claim?
Check it against standard frame sizes. The sizes here are 70×100 cm, 50×70 cm and 30×40 cm, and ready-made frames are sold in all of them, so a sheet goes straight in without trimming. If you already own a larger frame, the frames page gives the border a mount would leave around each size.
How do you know what colour will arrive?
Look for a measured value. Here, the dominant colour of each print is read from the file that goes to the press and published on the colours page. A word like teal covers a wide spread of greens and blues, and a value is exact. The print will still look a shade quieter than on a lit screen, because paper reflects light and a screen gives it off.
Who are you buying from?
One person, named in full on the legal notice with the business form and the VAT number beside the name, and writing back from info@martiandrok.com. Where the work is printed, and what happens between the order and the parcel, is on the page about how these are made.
What does buying from a shop that prints to order change?
Two things: the wait, and where the sheet comes from. A print here is made after you order it, so the 1–3 working days of production in the table are spent printing it, followed by 2–7 in the post. It is printed at the press nearest the delivery address, so a European order stays inside Europe.
Which pieces show the spread of what is here?
One print from each colour family: the one closest to the middle of its family by brightness. The rest are in the catalogue.
| Colour family | A piece measured into it | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Blue | Rise | Impressions |
| Green | Blur | Ceramics |
| Neutral | Veil | Glacier |
| Purple | Ridge | Patina |
| Teal | Tangle | Impressions |
| Warm | Gravel | Impressions |
| Yellow | Grain | Botanics |