Show HN: Pantastic

http://www.pantastic.co/

by thfc06 • 13 years ago

79 73 13 years ago

pantastic.co

foundertips• 13 years ago

Congratulations, looks nice! :)

P.S.On a completely unrelated note.. Is Mr. David Veselka Lithuanian?

thfc0610• 13 years ago

Thanks! haha I'm actually not sure

peapicker• 13 years ago

The body text font looks really bad in Chrome.

thfc0610• 13 years ago

really? what does it look like? I'm using chrome and I thought it was rendering ok..

hvs• 13 years ago

Chrome on Windows looks janky: http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=e7y05l&s=6

Nux• 13 years ago

"The uploader did not make this video available in your country" - Way to go!

thfc0610• 13 years ago

what country? It was a video from CNET...

xemoka• 13 years ago

Not available in Canada at least...

mikeg8• 13 years ago

Chile as well

unemployed• 13 years ago

I'm from the Netherlands, same message.

felipesabino• 13 years ago

does not play here in Brazil either...

huhtenberg• 13 years ago

I spot Comic Sans (probably a fallback font for @font-face styling?)

michaelmior2• 13 years ago

Looks great! One thing I did notice is the background image (http://www.pantastic.co/ggb.png) loads really slow for me and the design feels a little broken without it. Overall love the look though :)

ErikRogneby• 13 years ago

I will second that. when the drop shadow font loaded on top of white I thought to myself, "the HN design geeks are going to slay this."

I am sure it didn't help that we were all hammering the site.

michaelmior2• 13 years ago

Very true. It's not really a fair time to judge performance. It would probably be a good idea to set a dark background colour in that area while the image is loading.

munger• 13 years ago

Nice looking site overall.

As others have mentioned - image optimization will help you a lot. Taking a look at firebug Net profiling, the homepage footprint weighs in at 2MB. 500K is your "studio" image, followed by the bridge bg photo at 370K.

So just optimizing these 2 images will reduce your bandwidth by around 660K or 33%. I'm guessing you can do both in 210K (150K bridge, 60K studio = 210K) possibly better.

EDIT: decided to actually fix it instead of just talking about it.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6653594/pantastic-there-i-fixed-it....

studio.jpg photoshop jpg 70 quality ggb.jpg photoshop jpg 80 quality

old: 494k + 369k = 863k new: 64k + 1k + 70k = 135k

savings = 728K or 36% of your total homepage footprint.

Save more by splitting all your polaroid shadows to png, and the photos to jpg 60-80 quality.

Requires html/css change to layout studio image as 2 images stacked on top (separate shadow png)

thfc0610• 13 years ago

thanks so much! I didn't realize load time would be such a problem

callmeed2• 13 years ago

Hey, great work. We're adding panoramas at http://cheergram.com very soon. I like the niche printing business and I think there's definitely demand.

3 Things:

My biggest issue with the site is that you don't show the final product anywhere. It should really be the hero of your home page (where that little dude with the chalkboard is). Even if you don't have one printed yet, make a fake print+frame in Photoshop (not hard) and throw it on an istock living room image [1].

Second, your "Buy Now" button should be other places besides the top-right corner. Took me a while to find it. Look at our site or others that sell just 1 thing. You need a big CTA button middle-left. A/B Test it for sure.

Third, consider offering a frame as an add-on. I don't think you can walk in to Target and get a frame that fits an 8x36 print and most people won't go through the additional step of finding one or having it made. You want repeat customers and the best way to get them is to make sure they use/see the product the first time they buy. At the very least, tell them where they can find frames to fit your prints and put that on your site and email receipts.

That's all I got for now. Good job.

[1] http://www.istockphoto.com/search/text/blank%20living%20room...

thfc0610• 13 years ago

Thanks for the feedback! I really appreciate it!

jonahx• 13 years ago

Congrats, and I'll add one nitty comment. I think the main email address should be "help@" or "support@". I get that you are trying to be whimsical with the "hi@", but I think you should stick to using your site design as your branding tool and keep the email address standard -- it just threw me a little.

beggi• 13 years ago

Hey, one advise for you at Cheergram. It would be great to be able to pick pictures from other users than myself. I want to make a print with both my photos and my girlfriend's mixed together but couldn't.

callmeed2• 13 years ago

Thanks, it's good to know people want that.

We have that feature ready to go but I'm trying to clear some legal/copyright questions first. For most people who want to just combine their images with friends/family, it's fine. But there are people on Instagram who wouldn't want me making money from their images being hung on other people's walls.

alphakappa3• 13 years ago

On Pantastic, I can click on 'Pay Now' without filling out any of my contact information, or uploading an image. You (Pantastic) may want to validate all that before sending the user to the payment page to avoid headaches later on.

ryanglasgow• 13 years ago

Great start here, I like what you've done.

Some feedback for improvement:

1) I would break the page up into multiple pages. Keep the homepage simple and let the user click ancillary links if they need to.

2) It says the printing is done in the founders basement, but shows a picture of a printing warehouse. Is your basement a printing warehouse? Honestly not sure here.

3) The textures are distracting, I'd tone them down.

4) A blurred picture of the Golden Gate Bridge is cliche, I'd try something else.

5) The 'What is Pantastic' doesn't really say anything. Statements like "Delivered to your doorstep" (assumed), and #1 quality around (a relative statement with no comparison) don't progress the sale.

thfc0610• 13 years ago

Thanks for the feedback!

kaliblack• 13 years ago

I second the textures. I think the single page is fine though.

The FAQs are hard to read because the line height is the same for everything.

Agree with another comment that says the end product needs to be shown. I don't care how you create the product or what printer you use, just that the end product looks great.

Great idea and good luck.

shrig94• 13 years ago

Hey great job,

the images load quite slowly, so I'd compress them, but it looks great nevertheless!

orangethirty2• 13 years ago

Good product. Has potential in the right markets. This is something I've touched before, and it makes a fair amount of money. Which market are you aiming for?

Also, publish an API for this. You can get a lot of business with a photo printing API. Don't ask how I know... ;)

thfc0610• 13 years ago

Thanks! I'm going for the mass consumer market. I think this product will definitely be aimed best at the young professional who wants to decorate a living space and who is somewhat tech-savvy. What markets did you have success with out of curiosity?

Also I have no clue how to do an api lol

alphakappa3• 13 years ago

Drew, Good job with launching this. I'm curious to know how you are printing this - Do you have access to an existing printer (that's shown in the image), or did you actually build up those facilities yourself?

orangethirty2• 13 years ago

What you need to do is get in touch with wedding and special events people. Also what kind of proter do oh have? Mine was a prototype shitty photo printer from Walmart.

spontaneus• 13 years ago

It took a while to find the price. You should probably make it stand out more so people feel more comfortable when they click "Buy Now"

nkuttler• 13 years ago

Looks nice but uh oh it's sloooow. You probably want to hook into a CDN if you stay on the frontpage for more than a few minutes.

wsr• 13 years ago

Why would you not make this video viewable outside of US?

tsk tsk...

bdcravens2• 13 years ago

I think the video is from elsewhere.

greenyoda• 13 years ago

The photo of the "studio" at the bottom looks like a large industrial space, not the "founder's basement". If that's not really a picture of this company, it's a bit misleading to have it on the web site.

Also, a single-person operation isn't usually called a "team". And while it's impressive that a college student can run a successful business, it's possible that emphasizing this on the web site might scare away potential customers who are businesses with deadlines to meet. Why limit your market unnecessarily?

wiredfool• 13 years ago

And, it looks like you Really Like Chuck Close.

jeblair• 13 years ago

I think that is one of the Pace Prints workshops where a number of Chuck Close works were made. Check out this time-lapse video of one of his pulp pieces: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9R7BzJMxfs

darkchasma• 13 years ago

Looks great! A little issue with the menu hovering over other text when zoomed @ around 200%. Nicely done though.

inovator• 13 years ago

Awesome idea! Maybe have a section on your site to show some of your printed canvas?

iscrewyou• 13 years ago

You are selling. Pricing should be the biggest thing someone wants to look at. I had to revisit the page to find it at the very bottom in FAQ. For a second I thought I had to register my name, email and photo to get the pricing. Definitely something you don't want a user to think.

All in all, like the images and like the fact that you show how it all really works down to the printer and toner.

de90• 13 years ago

There is a price for it right at the top. Granted, the page took ages to load (could just be the HN load though).

danalmeida• 13 years ago

optimize your background images

buffportion• 13 years ago

There's nothing wrong with being the only employee - if it's just you, say so. Talking in the third person and using 'us' and 'we' is irritating.

sergiotapia• 13 years ago

Irritating to you - reassuring to his/her actual target demographic.

stg• 13 years ago

1) I'm in the UK and can't view the video.

2) Do you ship internationally? You should answer this in the FAQ.

3) Show me an example of the finished product.

gus_massa• 13 years ago

Same problem (1) in Argentina.

hnriot3• 13 years ago

I don't get people asking to see an example of the finished product? What do you hope to see? It will look like your panoramic photo, obviously. How would showing a photo of a photo print be any use?

richforrester• 13 years ago

A lot of people are complaining about the speed of the site.

They'd be complaining less if they could read the texts before the images were loaded.

A simple way to do this, is to give the areas containing background-images a background-color that's close to the color of the image. This way, if there's text on top (white text for example) it'll be readable BEFORE the image loads.

They'll notice the wait time less.

acido303• 13 years ago

Thanks for blocking the video on my zone ...

bdcravens2• 13 years ago

Awesome. I see you're from Houston, which makes me smile. In a world of high speed Internet and amazing cloud options, it's funny that there's a handful of "startup epicenters".

TallboyOne• 13 years ago

I like that you have a picture of your studio. great work my man.

vytasgd• 13 years ago

Clean. Very clean and easy.

Quick Bug: (Chrome on OS X, haven't checked elsewhere)for your modal (specifically modal.fade.in in bootstrap.css line 5004) you have "top:50%", which causes the very top of the modal to be cut off. Simply bumping it to 60% fixed it. Don't know if anybody else is having this same problem.

Best of luck to you!

ruswick2• 13 years ago

The actual page has several conspicuous issues. First, the typeface is consistently too thin. You really ought to be using more robust type weights. Second, there are too many textures that are too profligate. They distract from the actual content and the variations in texture from block to block create a somewhat grating reading experience. Moreover, the texture feels sort of perfunctory: it seems as though you just pulled five gaudy textures from Subtle Patterns.

The actual idea is novel, but I'm not sure how large the demand will be: panorama software (especially on mobile phones) tends to be inconsistant and produces rendering errors, and most everything my iPhone produces isn't fit for large-format display. Moreover, the price is somewhat high. I acknowledge that printing large images is expensive, but this is a non-essential service and is somewhat of a gimmick. It will be hard to convince prospective customers to drop $25 on something like this.

However, the idea is novel and the name is great.

Vindexus• 13 years ago

The "What is Pantastic?" section doesn't really answer the question. Those three points could be applied to almost any decorative item sold online; they don't tell me that you print panoramas that I upload.

I'd also really like some pictures of the finished product.

tsieling• 13 years ago

Congratulations. The photo of your physical printing space is a big plus, it shows that you're for real. You could look for ways to highlight that more, and have real people with the final printed product to show its scale and quality.

epa2• 13 years ago

Interesting concept, unfortunate design.. Sorry. In this day and age of web design, you need to be at a different level than this.

whatshisface• 13 years ago

Yes, if only craigslist had better design, then maybe people would use it...

ruswick2• 13 years ago

Craigslist's elegance exists in it's utter simplicity. This site does not attempt to be visually simple; it intends to be conspicuous and eye-catching, and does so in a way that might come off as annoying or excessive.

hnriot3• 13 years ago

Really that's it? You just say it sucks but can't offer anything substantive or actionable or even remotely helpful?

epa2• 13 years ago

Yes in fact that is the only thing I have to say. While the concept is interesting, the lack of well done design detracts me from the page and service, leaving me uninterested. You can't tell someone how to design well, its not one specific thing that needs to be changed.

hnriot3• 13 years ago

I put two together in photoshop and print them at Costco. The Fuji crystal archive paper is fantastic and works out at $4.50 each panorama. They are also more durable, more archival and have the best color matching due to the profiles being downloadable.

apunic• 13 years ago

Amazing: a landing page full of information but not one single picture of the final product.

Terretta• 13 years ago

Your site makes it look like you keep your Epson printer[1] at Magnolia Editions' studio[2,3] in Oakland, CA.

That's a long way from St. Louis, and a long way from your basement.

1. Your pic: http://i.imgur.com/Ub3FVCy.jpg

2. Studio: http://www.magnoliaeditions.com/exhibitions/magnolia-edition...

3. Same pic: http://www.artltdmag.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id...;

stevewilhelm• 13 years ago

I hope Pantastic licensed that photo from Magnolia Editions.

Photographers don't take to kindly to companies using their work without permission.

alphakappa3• 13 years ago

This makes me re-evaluate the whole website. I was impressed at first, but now it seems to be tall talk from a guy with a printer in his basement.

To Pantastic: Without credibility, you have nothing. Be honest in your product description.

thfc0610• 13 years ago

This was a big mistake on my part, and I'd like to thank you for pointing out how stupid it was for me to do such a thing. I have now replaced that entire section. I am very sorry for anyone I may have offended by doing such a thing.

scott_hardy• 13 years ago

Great idea! One suggestion in terms of design--the FAQs are difficult to quickly scan/read because the line heights are the same for questions and answers. Consider adding additional spacing between Q/A groups for better hinting at where an answer ends and a question begins. Great idea though, and best of luck!

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