7 ms·

Picplum launches Photo Printing API

92 points by lyime 14y ago

rabidsnail 14y ago
Add an affiliate program, and then you have something.
- lyime 14y ago
  It's coming.
khangtoh 14y ago
So my users have to get a Picplum account before they can print?
pearkes 14y ago
What do you think made Picplum go the route of the consumer needing an account? As apposed to me just sending Picplum the customer's information, and having the hard work (printing, mailing, etc.) be handled for me.
- khangtoh 14y ago
  Same thoughts. I feel my users would really be confused.
- strickland 14y ago
  +1
- robryan 14y ago
  Definitely, white labeling this is the way to go. Plenty of apps could use a feature like this, but would be much more ideal if it appeared to be all a part of that app to the end user.
- melvinmt 14y ago
  Billing. I can imagine if you incur costs for physical manufacture (printing photos), you would want to be very sure that you're going to get paid.
  - dchuk 14y ago
    that risk can be mitigated by having the API customer (say, an iPhone app developer) buy API credits that are exchanged at the time of API call between the app and picplum. Then it's the app developer's job to collect payment from their app user and PicPlum won't get burned.
    - jurre 14y ago
      Or when a user signs up for our app we have them sign up for Picplum in the background, when they buy credits it goes through picplum in the background and the same for when they use the credits?
      - dchuk 14y ago
        It'd be best to be transparent about that handoff rather than just silently doing it in the background, but yeah, that would also work.
- wcarss 14y ago
  You've upset my entire worldview by using the phrase "as apposed to". I started off planning to say that 'apposed' is not a word, and that you've made some sort of grievous error. I opened up multiple tabs, firing off google searches looking for a "common errors" page or at least a definition of "opposed" and the google page redirecting a search for "apposed" to it -- but then your counterstroke hit. Google returned "apposed" just fine, and gave its definition as "Place (something) in proximity to or juxtaposition with something else." Didn't faze me. "Google must just be reporting the error because it's crept into common usage", I told myself. I went deeper. Brian's corner of common errors speaks to this briefly[1], but in the context of saying "I appose your decision", not in the context of the idiom. It also mentions "as a pose to" where "as opposed to" is intended, and assumes "opposed" instead of "apposed"[2]. I wandered into english-usage-debate forums and found that 'apposed' is disliked for being rare, but not disallowed[3], and an interesting bit of discussion came up about intentionally chosen differences[7] -- which do seem detectable in the modern definitions: "place beside", versus "place against". I also found discussion about british/american meanings for "as opposed to" [4]. The online etymology dictionary ([5] and [6]) says that since the 14th and 15th century, these have been marginally separately derived words of ... roughly identical meaning. To sum up, through redundancy 'apposed' seems to have fallen out of favour in contemporary english and taken on a nuanced definition to some of those who still use it. If there were something for me to criticize about your usage it would be that you've chosen a sentence that leans more toward "place against" than "place beside", so the contemporary idiom to use "oppose" would likely apply. But I think you could justify it if you want to. :) [1] http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/appose.html http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/appose.html [2] http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/more.html http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/more.html [3] http://www.essayforum.com/grammar-usage-13/as-opposed-as-apposed-as-apposed-19245/ http://www.essayforum.com/grammar-usage-13/as-opposed-as-app... [4] http://www.englishforums.com/English/AsOpposedTo/hkvbq/post.htm http://www.englishforums.com/English/AsOpposedTo/hkvbq/post.... [5] http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=oppose http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=oppose [6] http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=appose http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=appose [7] http://www.englishforums.com/English/AsOpposedToOrAsApposedTo/ncvpk/post.htm http://www.englishforums.com/English/AsOpposedToOrAsApposedT... edit: I messed up the references pretty badly on my initial take.
jarcoal 14y ago
Nice work, but I think that a white-label API like Pwinty.com would be more profitable.
Jun8 14y ago
Do people order prints anymore? Judging from various online services and service standsis at Costco, Walgteens, etc. they must be, but I don't see many recent phptos and photo albums is definitely a thing of the past. Maybe there's a small market fpr nicely produced photobooks. I haven't used my photo printer in ages. Am I totally off?
- andyjsong 14y ago
  My guess is older people who discovered that they have a camera on their smart phone and know how to use it or hipsters that want to be ironic and "print film" in their instagram filters.
- aik 14y ago
  I do think there's still a lot of demand. Very many people still prefer physical paper photos over just viewing them online. As you say, the pervasiveness of photo printing services should speak to this. An article I just found [1] from 2008 said 18 billion photos were printed in 2007 from services, and grew to 19.7 billion by 2008. Even if it has decreased since then, even with these very limited two data points (19.7 billion, and existing pervasiveness of photo printing services), I would assume the market is very lucrative. PicPlum is attempting to simplify the process significantly. If they can capture even a respectable part of the market, I think it's sounds like a very viable business. [1]http://www.digitalcamerainfo.com/content/InfoTrends-Online-Photo-Printing-Market-Needs-Innovation-17549.htm http://www.digitalcamerainfo.com/content/InfoTrends-Online-P...
- w1ntermute 14y ago
  > Do people order prints anymore? That's exactly what I'm wondering. I mean, if you'd told me about the basic concept behind Picplum, I would've rejected it in a split second as entirely absurd. But they've been live since August 2011 and still going. Makes me wonder how many other good ideas like that I've rejected off hand.
- alanh 14y ago
  > Do people order prints anymore? I haven’t in a decade or more, but I am personally stoked to do this when it’s absurdly easy — and share with people in my life, too. Also consider that digital photos are probably lost a lot more often than physical photos.
jansen 14y ago
Great!! I've been googling for a printing api a couple months back. We're going to play with it as well!

92 points by lyime 14y ago

rabidsnail 14y ago

Add an affiliate program, and then you have something.

lyime 14y ago
It's coming.

khangtoh 14y ago

So my users have to get a Picplum account before they can print?

pearkes 14y ago

What do you think made Picplum go the route of the consumer needing an account? As apposed to me just sending Picplum the customer's information, and having the hard work (printing, mailing, etc.) be handled for me.

khangtoh 14y ago
Same thoughts. I feel my users would really be confused.
strickland 14y ago
+1
robryan 14y ago
Definitely, white labeling this is the way to go. Plenty of apps could use a feature like this, but would be much more ideal if it appeared to be all a part of that app to the end user.
melvinmt 14y ago
Billing. I can imagine if you incur costs for physical manufacture (printing photos), you would want to be very sure that you're going to get paid.
- dchuk 14y ago
  that risk can be mitigated by having the API customer (say, an iPhone app developer) buy API credits that are exchanged at the time of API call between the app and picplum. Then it's the app developer's job to collect payment from their app user and PicPlum won't get burned.
  - jurre 14y ago
    Or when a user signs up for our app we have them sign up for Picplum in the background, when they buy credits it goes through picplum in the background and the same for when they use the credits?
    - dchuk 14y ago
      It'd be best to be transparent about that handoff rather than just silently doing it in the background, but yeah, that would also work.
wcarss 14y ago
You've upset my entire worldview by using the phrase "as apposed to". I started off planning to say that 'apposed' is not a word, and that you've made some sort of grievous error. I opened up multiple tabs, firing off google searches looking for a "common errors" page or at least a definition of "opposed" and the google page redirecting a search for "apposed" to it -- but then your counterstroke hit. Google returned "apposed" just fine, and gave its definition as "Place (something) in proximity to or juxtaposition with something else." Didn't faze me. "Google must just be reporting the error because it's crept into common usage", I told myself. I went deeper. Brian's corner of common errors speaks to this briefly[1], but in the context of saying "I appose your decision", not in the context of the idiom. It also mentions "as a pose to" where "as opposed to" is intended, and assumes "opposed" instead of "apposed"[2]. I wandered into english-usage-debate forums and found that 'apposed' is disliked for being rare, but not disallowed[3], and an interesting bit of discussion came up about intentionally chosen differences[7] -- which do seem detectable in the modern definitions: "place beside", versus "place against". I also found discussion about british/american meanings for "as opposed to" [4]. The online etymology dictionary ([5] and [6]) says that since the 14th and 15th century, these have been marginally separately derived words of ... roughly identical meaning. To sum up, through redundancy 'apposed' seems to have fallen out of favour in contemporary english and taken on a nuanced definition to some of those who still use it. If there were something for me to criticize about your usage it would be that you've chosen a sentence that leans more toward "place against" than "place beside", so the contemporary idiom to use "oppose" would likely apply. But I think you could justify it if you want to. :) [1] http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/appose.html http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/appose.html [2] http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/more.html http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/more.html [3] http://www.essayforum.com/grammar-usage-13/as-opposed-as-apposed-as-apposed-19245/ http://www.essayforum.com/grammar-usage-13/as-opposed-as-app... [4] http://www.englishforums.com/English/AsOpposedTo/hkvbq/post.htm http://www.englishforums.com/English/AsOpposedTo/hkvbq/post.... [5] http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=oppose http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=oppose [6] http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=appose http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=appose [7] http://www.englishforums.com/English/AsOpposedToOrAsApposedTo/ncvpk/post.htm http://www.englishforums.com/English/AsOpposedToOrAsApposedT... edit: I messed up the references pretty badly on my initial take.

jarcoal 14y ago

Nice work, but I think that a white-label API like Pwinty.com would be more profitable.

Jun8 14y ago

Do people order prints anymore? Judging from various online services and service standsis at Costco, Walgteens, etc. they must be, but I don't see many recent phptos and photo albums is definitely a thing of the past. Maybe there's a small market fpr nicely produced photobooks. I haven't used my photo printer in ages. Am I totally off?

andyjsong 14y ago
My guess is older people who discovered that they have a camera on their smart phone and know how to use it or hipsters that want to be ironic and "print film" in their instagram filters.
aik 14y ago
I do think there's still a lot of demand. Very many people still prefer physical paper photos over just viewing them online. As you say, the pervasiveness of photo printing services should speak to this. An article I just found [1] from 2008 said 18 billion photos were printed in 2007 from services, and grew to 19.7 billion by 2008. Even if it has decreased since then, even with these very limited two data points (19.7 billion, and existing pervasiveness of photo printing services), I would assume the market is very lucrative. PicPlum is attempting to simplify the process significantly. If they can capture even a respectable part of the market, I think it's sounds like a very viable business. [1]http://www.digitalcamerainfo.com/content/InfoTrends-Online-Photo-Printing-Market-Needs-Innovation-17549.htm http://www.digitalcamerainfo.com/content/InfoTrends-Online-P...
w1ntermute 14y ago
> Do people order prints anymore? That's exactly what I'm wondering. I mean, if you'd told me about the basic concept behind Picplum, I would've rejected it in a split second as entirely absurd. But they've been live since August 2011 and still going. Makes me wonder how many other good ideas like that I've rejected off hand.
alanh 14y ago
> Do people order prints anymore? I haven’t in a decade or more, but I am personally stoked to do this when it’s absurdly easy — and share with people in my life, too. Also consider that digital photos are probably lost a lot more often than physical photos.

jansen 14y ago

Great!! I've been googling for a printing api a couple months back. We're going to play with it as well!