Gallery Prints — A Review
Introduction
Metal and canvas prints have been the staple of what I offer for a while. I work with two different vendors and am happy with the quality they offer. A few weeks ago I was offered a 75$ coupon by Saal Digital to review any of their Wall Art products. I’ve been printing some of my photo albums with Saal and am very happy with the quality they offer. Although they are a European company, they offer free shipping to US, and generally have very quick turn-around (even faster than some of my local vendors).
I decided to try a couple of their products and compare them to metal prints I print with Printique. I ordered a panoramic metal print, as well as a glossy and a matte Gallery Print.
Gallery Prints from Saal are a combination of an acrylic print with metal backing.
To make the long story short, I was so impressed with the quality of these prints, that I am now offering a limited number of my images as Gallery Prints. In my view, these offer amazing quality at a reasonable price, with the only downside of mediocre packaging. In fact, I’ve sold two of these amazing prints during the Paradise City Marlborough Art Fair last weekend (which is an excellent event with some amazing artists which I would be happy to return to).
Shipping and Packaging
Once I put the order in, it took about a week (or maybe slightly more) for the products to arrive, which is extremely fast, considering they were shipped from Europe and had to go through customs.
The only way I can describe the packaging is as “ok”, but not great. Gallery prints came with a protective film to prevent scratching, while the metal print didn’t have that. Neither had any sort of protective bag, and were packaged in a relatively flimsy cardboard package, which I struggle to call a box (more like a big envelope). They did have a soft liner to protect the print face, and a rather interesting backing with a cut-out to go around the hanging subframe. There were no additional spacers to protect the print, and no “fragile stickers” on the package.
If I compare this package to the one used by Printique for their metal prints, there is really no comparison. Printique’s is better, albeit bulkier, by leaps and bounds. As a result, I would be perfectly happy with the Printique packaging, but somewhat apprehensive about Saal’s. In fact, the consequence of this mediocre packaging was that my metal print arrived with the package torn, and the print bent at the corner. Saal were very quick to respond to my complain and to rectify the issue, but it is an additional hassle, which could have been avoided with proper packaging.
Comparing packaging from Saal and Printique
Construction and Hanging Hardware
All the prints from Saal are solidly constructed. Metal prints are fairly light and are constructed as a type of composite sandwich structure (I am not sure what the material of the inner layer is). They are very stiff and feel durable, which emphasizes even more just how much abuse my print had to undergo in order to come bent. I would say, that the metal prints are slightly heavier than the ones I print with Printique, though this might be due to the hanging subframe (more on that in a moment).
The Gallery Prints are heavier due to a slab of acrylic attached to the aluminum layer. they come with protective film to prevent scratches to the acrylic. They feel solid and well constructed.
My only complain here is that I would have preferred slightly rounded edges on both metal (similar to the Printique prints) and especially on the Gallery Prints, as the acrylic edge is pretty sharp and needs to be handled with care. This sharper edge was my main concern with the professional line albums from Saal as well. Granted, in this case, once the print is on the wall, there is no need to worry about that edge.
In terms of hanging hardware, I ordered the prints with aluminum subframe. It feels solid and should be easy to hang (though the print doesn’t come with any sort of dedicated hanger as opposed to my usual metal prints from Printique). In this sense Saal prints are similar to my normal metal prints, though their subframe feels somewhat more hefty despite being shallower and smaller. This is most likely due to the way it’s constructed from relatively thick aluminum rails. I had no trouble attaching d-rings to the subframe through the screw holes. So, if this is something you prefer, you can do that too.
All in all, the prints are solidly built, feel premium and come with hanging hardware, which is easy to use
Print Quality
Considering my experience with Saal through their photo albums I was not surprised at the excellent print quality of their wall art. One surprising aspect was just how matte the metal print was. I am used to metal prints being highly contrasty and was not expecting that. This is something to keep in mind when choosing the image you want to print, as this will make a huge difference. I personally prefer the more glossy finish of the Printique prints for a metal print (I used other surfaces for matte finish), but it is still excellent and would look great with an appropriately chosen image.
Gallery Prints come in glossy and matte finishes. For comparison, the Printique metal prints fall somewhere in between the two, although not much glossier than the glossy Gallery Print. Both finishes look amazing. The glossy finish, similarly to my normal metal prints emphasizes the contrast in the image with some added depth from the acrylic. I have to say that I prefer the matte finish. I am not sure what it is exactly about that finish, but the depth created by it is just amazing. Don’t get me wrong, though, both are really, really good, an it is only a matter of personal taste.
Comparison of the matte and glossy finish of Gallery Prints
The quality of the prints was so good, that I decided to offer a selection of my images (that I carefully selected for this), which would, in my view, look amazing in this finish. During the Paradise City Marlborough Art Fair last weekend, a couple purchased a 24”X36” Gallery Print of my “In the Morning Mist at Burford Water Meadows”. The print arrived on Friday and I was anxious to see how it turned out. It didn’t disappoint and looked simply stunning. I hope my customers are just as happy with it as I am.
As an aside, Paradise City Arts Festivals are great events with some amazing artists showcasing their work. I am hoping to be back at their events and highly recommend people to visit even if just to take in the various artworks.
Pricing and Final Thoughts
The pricing aspect of printing services is always tricky. There are plenty of inexpensive printers out there. However, for me, in many cases the quality is not good enough. Especially, for artwork that I offer to my customers. On the other hand, there are several printing services that offer amazing quality products, which I would not hesitate to put on my wall, but they are so expensive that they don’t leave any room for me as an artist to make a reasonable profit.
Consequently, I am very careful choosing the vendors I work with to provide what I consider optimal combination of quality and reasonable price. In this respect, I think the service offered by Saal falls into that category. While at full price, their wall art can be a bit pricey, they generally have running discounts, and you can almost always fins a good offer.
To sum up this review. Saal offers high quality wall art. I was especially impressed with the Gallery Prints, which offer a unique, high quality product at a reasonable price. Saal Digital offers good, quick service with prompt customer service if needed, and fast shipping despite their European location. The only downside, that I wish Saal would work on, is the rather mediocre packaging.
