“Online photo printing service in India is getting popular these days, and the best part is that you can get it delivered anywhere in India,” says, Ajay Menon, CEO, ZoomIn. Asia’s largest online photo service provider, Mumbai-based ZoomIn offers personalized print across a range of products like calendars, collage posters, greeting cards and metal — a recently added in the product line. Menon explains, “Irrespective of the geographic location of the country, Indians love pomp and pageantry, from their attire to their food and festivals there’s color, energy and a story waiting to be told – the perfect elements for a photo. Photos make for great conversations. That’s when the idea struck us for an online photo service – enabling conversations around engaging, high-quality photo merchandise. There’s something to be said about sifting through a set of photo prints or leafing through someone’s story in pictures, in the form of a photobook. Ethereal yet tangible, connecting you to a stream of emotions no matter how many times you handle the same set of photos. The process of capturing moments of magic, sharing them, celebrating them has come a long way. The deep emotional need to capture a moment, an urge to share that moment and a wish to store it for posterity are what binds us all.” Through its online service and app, ZoomIn ensures easy access to pictures available on social media and encourages the users to use the actual photos and create a book that allows them to add themes, text and clip art.
ZoomIn has a vertically integrated infrastructure in Mumbai – a state-ofthe-art print and production center so that no matter from which corner of the globe the client places an order, the product reaches him or her in sound condition. “We believe that some photos are extra special and deserve to be put to paper — to be enjoyed at home or shared as a gift and kept around for a long time to come.”
The company is committed to using right process and photographic expertise for every order or project and since these vary widely in terms of application and the desired effect, ZoomIn does not shy away from using appropriate print processes or even a combination of processes. These include an HP Indigo 5500 digital press for high quality color photo reproduction. A wide format inkjet printer to reproduce both black and white and color photographs in larger formats on paper as well canvas substrates. More traditional silver halide technology is used for high quality reproductions on photopaper as well. ZoomIn produces two special types of photobooks, the first is a hardcover wrapped in linen with featuring photographs across 32 lay-flat pages, behind a vellum title sheet; and the second is a 6 x 6-inch format photobook with 32 photo reproductions on premium matte paper, with a vividly colored soft cover.
For improving the quality of its lay-flat photobooks, ZoomIn recently installed a Morgana DigiBook PUR 200 in its finishing and book binding department. The DigiBook 200 handles the spine lengths from 110- 320mm with a maximum thickness of 50mm. Retractable spine milling on the new machine allows it to quickly switch between soft- and hard-cover binding. Since the new DigiBook uses only a small amounts of PUR for binding, less adhesive is squeezed out when the cover station and side clinchers attach the cover and from the back.
PUR’s main advantage, a lower freeze point and a higher melting point, has significant advantages, especially for publishers who ship books globally. ZoomIn’s customers desire books where the binding will last securely over the lifetime usage of the book and this is one of the benefits of good PUR binding apart from the lay-flat quality of the open book. “Our services are meant to encourage passionate photography with the right tools and to carry and project the same impact on photographic prints,” says Menon.
Metal is a new substrate and process that ZoomIn has recently added to its product portfolio. Menon says, “Paper prints don’t have the same back-lit look and contrast as they have on cellphones — that’s where metal prints come in! Photos printed on a reflective metal surface show off extra clear, vibrant colors and we use fade-proof inks and add a scratch and water resistant, matte finish.” ZoomIn’s metal photo print clients are currently based in India, the US and Canada but it’s planning to take expand its global reach by offering better quality prints to the Australia, Singapore, UK and New Zealand markets. “To do that, we’ve got offices in San Francisco and India with remote employees and contributors all over. And all of our prints are developed in Mumbai, at our state-of-the-art print shop.” Menon concludes.
