Show HN: Stripe for Printing | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Stripe for Printing

infraprint.com

90 pointsbavidar41 comments

I think it's truly awesome that "stripe for X" now means "X with a sane REST API".

I like how Stripe made it cool to put example curl requests right on the front page. I guess I'm biased in that I love marketing aimed squarely at developers.

It's been a while since I saw something and instantly had a dozen ideas for things I could build with it. Nice!

Has all the makings of a great infrastructure business. Once a startup or SME (or big enterprise) gets something like this integrated, they're often loathe to rip it out, so the cheques keep on coming.

I have two apps that use the Amazingmail API to print and mail postcards on demand. (http://babygra.ms http://lulcards.com). Their prices are extremely competitive compared to Infraprint's and their customer support is excellent.

http://www.amazingmail.com/direct-mail-automation

edit: I'm also pretty sure this is the same service that Sincerely uses for their Ship API. If that's true they are basically a middle-man for the excellent work Amazingmail does.

When I looked into Amazingmail, it cost $2K for an API key. Is this still the case?

Yeah, it's not really for an "API key" though, that oversimplifies things. You are paying for support in setting up your account. For something like printing it takes a few iterations to make sure things are set up properly and you are producing the proper assets for them to print (colors, margins, etc.) This isn't a turnkey thing like Stripe or other APIs, there are a number of practical issues that you need to address when designing something for automated printing. When I set up my account with them they caught a number of issues with my template before I started printing, and then verified physical prints looked acceptable before mailing me some test prints. This support is what you are paying for.

A self-service REST interface like this, for non-trivial jobs, is going to either require the same level of setup/support, which is a cost they are swallowing somehow but won't be sustainable in the long run, or will require you to do a large number of test-runs to get things right before going live, with each test-run taking about a week before you have the physical result in your hands. And even then, there may be issues that you are unaware of, such as cropping, clipping, or color bleeding, that may occur only a small percentage of the time based upon their specific process if you did not design things properly. There's no free lunch.

IMO this is a little premature, I know it has an alpha label but functionally this has catch up to do with a number of existing offerings in what is a fairly competitive space. That said, a sane API on top of a service that works globally would appeal.

Here are some suggestions: 1) add the ISO 216 paper sizes that most of the world uses, 2) integrate to various contact / address book formats, 3) add a templating/mailmerge feature, 4) figure out a capability to print and send in more countries than just the US and 5) imagine what questions a compliance officer will ask about security, privacy, data sharing etc and answer them.

Look forward to seeing it evolve.

Edit: formatting lists. Grr.

Could you list some of the competitors? The space doesn't seem competitive, it seems like crap.

Amazingmail has been awesome. Their actual API isn't really the most elegant thing in the world (XML), but on the list of things that matter when you are dealing with printing and mailing physical products this comes in low on the list of what's important. Their API is reliable and feature complete and my customers have been thrilled with their prints, which is all I care about. Not to mention, their customer support is superb.

I think it's great to see more competition here but people pointing to a REST API and nice website and ignoring the fact that there are no actual examples of their work or any reason to believe they can deliver on their service, nevermind that their pricing is insane, show these people have not done their homework or are focused on the wrong things.

Thanks! I am currently shopping a low-volume on-demand print service... as soon as I went to AmazingMails site and saw "no minimum" I became delighted, will be testing them out this week!

I don't really do postal mail any more. After you've printed it, could you scan it in and email it to me instead? :)

After reading the comments here, I understand that this seems to be US only but would it really be that hard to just point it out on the website? Nowhere I can find something about a country restriction...

I've got a card in my project ideas Trello board titled, "Print on demand postcards API." It's cool to see that someone else had the same idea.

Was on my ideas list as well! I think it's something that's just begging to be done. Good luck!

I'm a photographer, i want to be able to offer 150 limited prints to viewers of my website printed onto very specific paper sizes and qualities. Is this something infraprint can do? How does it integrate into payment systems such as stripe? Ideally i want to offer the user 1 button to print that takes them through the entire ordering and fulfillment process.

Yes we can do this. However, currently they would have to pay you and you would have to pay us.

Hmm ok thanks, maybe something i can customize in the checkout script to make it seamless.

That seems a lot like Peecho (http://www.peecho.com/)

A few questions: - Which area are you able to ship to? - Do you or plan to print posters (80x60cm and larger)? - any notable difference compared to Peecho?

This is something I've wanted for a long time -- Peecho with sane US pricing and distribution would be great. The front page says "Create on demand books and flyers," though, and I don't see any binding options listed elsewhere on the site. Is this in the works?

We offer it to a few customers who use it. Still trying to figure out the best way to offer it publicly. Happy to work with you if this is something you are looking to do. We definitely need more feedback on this one.

You can also check out Infraprint's interactive doc (Mashape) here - https://www.mashape.com/infraprint/infraprint#!documentation

Any details on the stock/colors that you use? Is the stuff coming out at commercial print quality? Digital print? Or are you just a couple guys with a nice inkjet and some fancy API footwork?

Can I choose stock, or finishing stuff? Matte vs. Gloss?

These are printed on high quality printers. Yes you can choose between stock and finishing.

Looks good. I used Sincerely's Ship API for a postcard app a while back. Would be good to see some examples of your past print jobs for a quality comparison (or better yet to request some samples). Will check this out.

I'm curious. At what volume of customers/work does this kind of business change from being a guy who reads the requests, opens files, and prints them to being a more automated solution?

Where can I see examples of the resulting printed product?

This is a great iteration after receiving plenty of useful feedback on the last post (mine included) ... especially on the home page. Keep up the good work

Thanks and good to hear. Keep the feedback coming! Its all about iterating based on what users say.

How do you compare to a service like trypaper.com? They seem to have been around a little longer and have more reasonable pricing?

Do you guys plan to offer greeting-card printing? Realize it may be slightly harder than postcards.

Would love to talk and understand how you imagine this would work. DM me.

The object pricing calculator is not working for Paper Size 6" x 9"

I'd love to use it for Picplum. Do you guys have Lustre prints?

Where to do you ship? Just the states? Canada?

Everywhere. contact me directly if you want international we are piloting this with a few select customers right now.

No clouds over Europe... shame.

Soon. We can work with you to get this started!

Hey, drop me an line (victorbjelkholm@gmail.com) because I'm interested in this in Europe as well.

This needs poster printing

We just started doing poster printing for some customers. Let me know what you are looking to print and we can have it integrated into the API

Awesome! Ideally 11"x17" and 18"x24" in 20 & 100# - I'd love to see pricing for those!

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