F.A.Q.

Pigment fine art prints and minilab c-prints have a lifespan of up to 50 years or even more, depending on the specifications of each paper (OBA percentage, acid free, etc.).

Solvent and UV prints have a maximum lifespan of up to 3 years outdoors, depending on the exposure to sunlight.

ChromaLuxe Metal Prints have a lifetime of up to 64 years, as defined by the certifications provided by the manufacturing company ChromaLuxe and Wilhelm Imaging Research.

Acryluxe and Face mount prints have a lifespan of up to 10 years or even more.

All of the above are defined by the certifications provided by the manufacturing companies, without these being at the same time a lifetime guarantee and this because there can be no control as to the conditions in which the prints are exposed at the end.

These certifications tests have been carried out under specific exposure conditions, such as indoor use, no sunlight or uv radiation, 20˚C – 28˚C temperature, 60% humidity and absence of environmental or other air pollution. Any deviation from the above can reduce the lifespan and affect the quality of the prints. Under normal conditions of sun exposure (direct or even reflected), the lifespan can be reduced to less than 5 years. Photolab Athens informs about the certifications of each method by the manufacturing companies, but does not guarantee the lifetime of the prints.

You may easily upload your files through our wetransfer.com channel through the main menu, select “File Upload”. Note your full name and a phone number of yours at the “title” filed of wetransfer.com, and at the “message” field, all the necessary information regarding your files. As soon as we receive your files, a download confirmation message will automatically be delivered to your email account. Before we proceed with your project, we will inform you about the process and the total cost.

Photolab supports the following payment methods:

• bank transfer
• PayPal
• cash (up to 500€)
• credit or prepaid cards (in case of a credit card and if the net cost is over than 300€+taxes, there is an option of payment with up to 6 interest free instalments)*
You may find our bank accounts as well as our PayPal account details on the bottom of our home page.

* payment with credit or prepaid card is only available at our headquarters in Holargos, because our branch in Aharnes, doesn’t have a POS.

Every domestic transaction has an extra value added tax of 24% for invoices or simple retail receipts.

Customers abroad within the E.E. are excluded VAT, only if we issue an invoice to a company’s headquarters in that country of E.E. (intra community trade), while the shipment of the order abroad along with the invoice is mandatory. The invoice will be the declaration of the shipment and we are obliged to included on the package in case we add a shipment insurance. In case we have to send the order to a third recipient and our client doesn’t want them to receive our invoice, we will have to included a consignment note instead, but in that case, we are not able to add a shipment insurance.

Customers abroad in Third Countries are excluded from VAT, only if we will issue an invoice to a company with headquarters in that country, while the shipment of the order is mandatory to be arranged to their headquarters and the invoice will have to be included on the package, because this will be the declaration of the export.

Private citizens abroad, will have to be charged with the VAT, because the simple receipts always include the country’s VAT in which the purchase and the payment take place.

All paper prints are delivered via courier, in extra safe hard tubes.

Rigid materials (mountings, metal prints, acrylics, etc), are always protected with special foam corners and bubble wrap, in case the client collects them from our offices. An extra thick cardboard is used for maximum protection in case a private transport company undertakes the delivery in Greece, for areas outside Attica.

In case of shipment abroad but within E.E., all* the rigid materials are packed into wooden boxes for maximum protection.

We are only able to send paper prints in extra safe hard tubes to Third Countries, because we cannot prepare wooden box with a specific label of disinfestation, which is mandatory in order the parcel to be released from the Third Country’s customs while importing.

*only some small sizes can be sent in a different way by agreement.

If your prints are protected by blue foam corners, don’t remove them until the final mounting on the wall.

Don’t place your prints vertical without any protection because there is a high risk of edge damaging.

For maximum safety, place your prints flat on a soft surface.

Don’t use sharp tools during the unpacking.

Always use cotton gloves to avoid fingerprints.

Although Metal Prints are absolutely durable in most conditions, they need special care while handling. We suggest you not to remove the blue protection foam corners, until the final hanging on the wall. Don’t place Metal Prints vertical without the blue protection foam corners. For maximum safety, place Metal Prints flat on a soft surface until the final hanging.

To find our price go to the main menu, select “Services” – “Downloads/Price List”. Prices don’t include VAT. For some services and sizes less than 0.7m², prices are calculated by a special algorithm and they contain a quantitative increment. Some extra large Metal Print sizes may contain a quantitative increment of 30%. Always consider to contact us in order to be informed about the cost of your order.

Photolab uses custom icc profiles to achieve an excellent print result. Customers may see differences if their monitor is not professionally calibrated by appropriate instruments. The print result is usually at 90% close to the file. Check the next paragraphs for more information on how to setup your working flow and your monitor closer to our production.

You can check your monitor condition by following the next steps:

Download the “Monitor Test” file from the section “Services” > “Downloads/Price List” on our main menu.

Contact us in order to send you a free* print reference of this file.

When you receive it, compare what you see on your monitor with the printed one. Note that your lighting conditions should be native (5000K to 5500K light temperature and 80-120cd/m² luminance).

If there are minor differences, your monitor is in an acceptable condition. If there are major differences you should require for a monitor calibration with a professional instrument. Photolab offers monitor calibration service for domestic customers.

*free print reference is available only for domestic customers. Customers abroad have to contact us for delivery cost.

We share with our customers the icc profile of each available paper. When you download the desired icc profile, right click on the file icon and select “Install”. Then go to the Adobe Photoshop, open your files and choose “Edit” – “Convert to profile”. At the drop down menu, choose the downloaded icc profile and press ok.

While collecting the order from our offices, we always suggest you to see it in order to confirm that it will be given to you in excellent condition, without any damage. As soon as you collect the order, our company bears no further responsibility.

Our company manages with absolute care the prototypes that are delivered to us in order to be mounted on a rigid material or in order to be scanned.

While giving us your prototypes, you will be asked to sign a document with which you declare that you deliver them by your own responsibility, knowing that there is a minor possibility of failure during the process of mounting or scanning, because of a technical issue or of a external factor (e.g. power outage), which might affect the process and partially the integrity of the prototype.