Do you currently make, or plan to make, repeat print orders that use the same files each time?

If so, we can store a library of your files on our internal server at Image Science.  This can make the print ordering process much faster and more convenient. Please see below for how this works and best practices.   

But first - some scary warnings!  There is (quite deliberately) no cost for this service - but it's very important to understand the limitations of what we offer and that this is..

Absolutely no promises are made or implied by us offering this service.  

Never rely on us having the only copy of your files.

This is purely a convenience for both of you and for us, so you don't have to keep re-uploading the same files over and over.

To be clear:

• This is NOT a backup service - please backup your files properly!
• You should never rely on these files being available.
• Our copy of these files should never be your only copy of these files.
• For a variety of reasons, we may lose or misplace or delete your files - at any time.
• Such storage is provided only to facilitate regular, ongoing print orders.  
   

If you don't order from us for a substantial amount of time (over 12 months) to reduce our risk and expense, you should assume we will remove your files from our system, without notice.

Storing a Client Library of your work at Image Science can make the whole print ordering process very simple and ideal for limited or open edition printing.

There are no fees for this service, but it's important to understand it's also a 'best effort but no promises' service - that is, we're very happy to store your files on an ongoing basis, as long as you're making at least semi-regular print orders with us. This is very convenient as it means you don't have to upload files with each order, and in theory it provides a handy additional off site backup for your work in case you have a hardware failure at your end (see scary notes above, though!).

Once we have a nice, print ready library of your file(s), you can then simply process orders using our print order form,  and refer to using the files in your library. Here's an example of how you might fill out the form to order 4 prints of your 'Elephant' image, stored at Image Science in your client library, at two sizes - 2 prints at A4, 2 prints at A2:

Then, click 'Save Prints to Cart' and check out as normal

(Note you can choose 'Pick Up' at the shipping section, if you want to do this). 

We will then proceed to process your order, make the prints as instructed, and let you know as soon as they are done - thus ordering prints can become a process that really only takes a few seconds. (Customers who embrace this system tell us they love it, and many of them use it nearly every day for their ordering).

If you would like us to Blind Ship (AKA Dropship, White-label ship) - your prints to your customers, this is also possible - see Drop Shipping for information about that.

A Library of Print Ready Files...

In  short, we make a folder with your name, on a very big hard drive - and in that folder we store your files in fully 'Ready To Print' form.

These 'Ready To Print' files are either prepared by us (e.g. when doing a Ready To Print Art Reproduction job for you), or supplied by you, fully setup as per our file preparation notes. These files should be completely ready to be sent to the printer 'as is' with no further preparation required.

For example, if you plan to print an image at two sizes with us, we would have a folder structure that looks like this:

Your Name/Elephant/Elephant_A4.tiff
Your Name/Elephant/Elephant_A2.tiff

To make this work easily for both you and us, good file names are very important - and of course we have a guide for best practise file naming.

New Files Are -NOT- Added By Default

You must explicitly tell us, at the time of each job/supply of each file, if you want the file(s) to be added to your library.

Because  we take Copyright very seriously here, and because we therefore do not keep copies of every job we work on after the job is done (we do, for a short term, of course, but such files are cleaned up every few months) - we never add files to your Client Library automatically.

Do not assume we will remember and do this automatically, even if you are a regular - we have over 10000 active clients, and multiple people might work on your job at any point in time - so we really do need to be told each and every time you do want a file to be added to your library, just to be sure.

No Direct Access Is Available

Our Client Library storage area is large and contains many very valuable files - thus for safety and to protect Copyrights, we do not store this on the cloud.

Thus, you will not have direct access to our local copies of your files. If you need changes (e.g. old files removed, new files added, files renamed, a list of files we have with thumbnails etc.) - please just get in touch and we can help you with this manually.

(If you need to do more extensive work on your library, you can visit our office and work on your library here (by prior arrangement with us) - but a better option would be to re-prepare the library in full at your end, and then ask us to replace your entire library with a new one).

Repeat: This is -NOT- a Backup Service!!

This side effect of this being an off-site backup side of things is not the main intention of this service and must not be relied upon by you - i.e. you must continue to have your own sensible backup strategy (involving multiple copies of your files stored in multiple places - e.g. on your computer, with a second copy in 'the cloud' for example).

Whilst we _might_ be able to retrieve your files if you have a total failure (and indeed we have done this for several very very grateful people over the years), you should NEVER count on this as any significant part of your backup strategy.

We might, perhaps, have had our own hardware failure somewhere along the way, or we might have tidied up (i.e. deleted) files that have not been used in a considerable time.

To be clear, again, this is purely a convenience service and we make no actual promises that we will be a permanent repository for your files.