How to contact FLAAR

How to Contact FLAAR

If you have found an error or mistake in a web page, especially a bad link (that does not function) or bad spelling or impossible grammar, please contact the webmaster.

If you have a suggestion for improvement in graphic design, or reader friendliness, please contact the webmaster. We very much value your pointing out errors of graphic design, usability, and reader-friendliness. We especially appreciate your telling us about reader-unfriendliness, so we can improve the site. It helps when you point out what is wrong, to also suggest specifically how it should be improved, and why. Being a non-profit institute limits our budget but within our capabilities we do wish to provide an educational experience on the FLAAR websites.

If you like a particular aspect of the web site, or educational material, naturally we like to hear this too. Contact is via the webmaster who is in-house working directly for FLAAR. We do not use outside web design or commercial web maintenance services.

If you wish help deciding what UV-curable flatbed, UV-cured roll-to-roll or solvent inkjet printer to buy, there are several routes to follow:

order the FLAAR reports on the kinds of printers you are thinking about
after you read the reports ask Nicholas Hellmuth directly what he recommends. If you ordered 5 series (or any quantity of reports of $500 or more) there is no charge for 30 minutes on the phone or e-mail with him.

Companies of all sizes come to FLAAR for assistance. We are equally accessible to family-owned and one-person companies. So whether you are already a multi-million dollar screen-printing company or a new start-up sign shop, or a modest company that wants to grow by acquiring a UV-curable inkjet printer, or you want to add a solvent, eco-solvent, or mild-solvent printer, we can help. Probably a third of the people who ask for help will use their printer at home or as a retirement business or second-business. Many sign franchise owners write us for guidance too.

We respond to requests by providing you with either free publications (when you fill out the Wide Format Inkjet Printer Survey/Inquiry Form). Or you may opt to skip the free-reports via Survey Form and go straight to the selection of over 200 premium FLAAR Reports which you can access via credit card. Or FLAAR’s Latin American office in beautiful Guatemala.

If at any time you purchase any five or more series of FLAAR Reports, then you can receive 30 minutes discussion directly with Nicholas Hellmuth by telephone or direct e-mail for him to personally answer your remaining questions. You can buy all five series at once (any themes, can be unrelated), or buy them series by series. As soon as your purchase totals 5 complete series (or a total sum of over $500), then contact CustomerSupport@FLAAR.org, tell them what series you purchased and roughly when, and ask for how to contact Nicholas directly. Once you have bought the series, there is no extra charge for FLAAR to answer your questions personally. If you need more than 30 minutes help, however, then you want a full consulting session (see next option).

Consulting: If you as an individual, or you as a company, wish to hire Dr Hellmuth or other of the FLAAR or university staff as a consultant in color management, digital photography, inkjet printing (including RIP software, inks, media), applications, business opportunities, giclee, UV-curable inkjet technology, marketing assistance, or on any reasonable matters related to digital imaging and/or digital printing, contact us to ReaderService@FLAAR.org. In case you receive no answer, write CustomerSupport@FLAAR.org. We prefer all initial contact to be by e-mail, but if you are unsure whether your e-mail has gone through, use our VoIP / Vonage telephone #, 419 823-9218.

If you wish to visit FLAAR, this is usually treated as a consultation; please see above. If you are a regular purchaser of FLAAR Reports (five series or miscellaneous PDFs totally over $500), there is no extra consulting fee for 30 minutes.

If you wish to discuss possible consulting in the future, the initial visit to the FLAAR facilities, or meeting Dr Hellmuth at a trade show for his summaries of which are the most appropriate printers at the trade show for your needs, has a basic consulting fee of $1000. If you have already purchased FLAAR Reports of this sum, then there is no additional fee for an initial one hour meeting.

Training: if you wish to come to FLAAR to be trained in person in digital photography, color management, scanning, inkjet printing, giclee, décor, fine art photography, we offer this service, both in Ohio, in Guatemala, or we can travel to your location anywhere in the world. We can train and provide consulting services simultaneously. Contact us to ReaderService@FLAAR.org. In case you receive no answer, write CustomerSupport@FLAAR.org. We prefer all initial contact to be by e-mail, but if you are unsure whether your e-mail has gone through, use our VoIP / Vonage telephone #, 419 823-9218.

If you wish to bring Dr Hellmuth to your city to present a public or private lecture in a local university, college, museum, organization, alumni association, seminar, or other event such as a trade show or exhibit, or at your company, contact ReaderService@FLAAR.org. Nicholas lectures in three languages at venues all around the world. He has lectured in Japan, Switzerland, Dubai, India, throughout Europe, Latin America, and across the USA and Canada. He lectures on digital photography, panoramic photography, photography of art and architecture, lighting for digital photography, UV-curable inkjet printers, giclee, fine art photography (and printing), as well as architectural history, archaeology, ethno-botany of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations (Maya, Olmec, Teotihuacan especially).

Expert witness: this is treated as a consultation. Yes, we are constantly asked to be an expert witness in court cases. We prefer the pre-trial research and we need complete details before we can even respond. Yes, naturally we work under NDA, but we don’t have time to go back and forth back and forth. Tell us up front what you need an expert witness for so that we can meaningfully respond.

If you have problems with the e-commerce (with ordering your FLAAR Reports), please contact CustomerSuport@FLAAR.org.

If you wish to comment on a review in any FLAAR Report, the editor will read your observations. We appreciate it when you send constructive critique, and provide details. Just being upset because your favorite printer brand did not do well in a review is probably because either they insinuate some benefit that does not exist, or they skillfully neglected to warn end-uses of glitches or deficiencies. But if a printer has a sterling feature that we missed, yes, we do wish to hear about this. Send your comments to CustomerSuport@FLAAR.org. They will forward your e-mail to Nicholas Hellmuth who will read it, no matter where he is in the world at that moment. If we made a mistake we will eat crow and correct the error, but in 99% of the comments that we received, it was because they worshipped the Macintosh operating system and did not understand why we pointed out its occasional glitches.

Mentioning that PCs were faster than any Mac brought e-mails from many disgruntled Mac owners (who probably did not realize that FLAAR was 75% Mac in the 1990’s until gradually, one by one, our graphics design staff said they preferred a PC). Nicholas still uses a Mac in each of his offices, and carries a 17” Mac Titanium when out on the road. We own stock in Apple as well. But none of this means we accept the ridiculous claims of speed mouthed by Steve Jobs in 2003, 2004, 2005, or 2006. A TIFF file is perfectly content in a PC, and definitely happy in an Intel or AMD processor.

If you disagree with our evaluation about a product, please provide a realistic discussion of the basis of your disagreement. We realize that your experiences may be different, even better, than ours. However, merely because a favorite product, that is touted and praised on 99% of the other websites does poorly in a FLAAR review, is generally the fault of the product design, and should have been noticed in the other glowing, gushing PR releases that are disguised as reviews.

Several companies distinguish themselves by honest advertising. We rate the ads and spec sheets by Mimaki USA as the most honest of any printer manufacturer. But there are two other manufacturers whose ads tend to vary from ridiculous to potentially deliberately misleading.

Fortunately most other manufacturers ads, spec sheets, and claims are more or less okay. But for many years there was a blatantly obvious tendency for companies to take what were their weakest features, and advertise that aspect of their printer as being the best. So if a printer was poor at cyan and magenta, then run ads showing blue and red prints with claims that these are the best colors as reasons to select this printer over others. How did we find out cyan and red were poor? End users told us month after month, and two dealers, who sold the printer, told us quite openly that their printers could not produce a wide range of blues or reds.

If you wish help in deciding what medium format camera or large format camera to purchase, we will have a new Survey/Inquiry Form later this month so that we can assist you. Naturally we also know the pros and cons of Nikon, Canon, and the other 35mm brands, but it is in medium format and large format digital cameras where an independent opinion really helps (because the cameras are costly so you don’t want to make a mistake). To avoid blindly favoring any one particular brand, we have allied with a resource that handles all four major brands of medium format camera: Phase One, Leaf, Imacon-Hasselblad, and Sinar-Jenoptik. However each brand very much has its pros and cons.

Why the FLAAR reviews cover primarily high-end solutions?
There are hundreds of commercial websites that will assist you to buy every imaginable entry-level camera and cheap desktop printer. So there is no need for us to jump into this swamp. We prefer to concentrate on introducing the level of equipment and software that provides an impressive professional level of results.

We too use desktop-sized inkjet printers alongside the wide-format ones. So we can provide assistance in figuring out which brand of printer to consider at all size levels… just that we primarily do evaluations of heavy-duty printers 64” and wider for signage, trade show displays, giclee, photographs, and a dozen other applications. We cover the entire range of inks: solvent, eco-solvent, mild-solvent, UV and traditional water-based. Naturally the solvent and UV printers tend to be 72” or larger.

Water-based printers, of desktop size, and 24”, 36”, 42” and 60” we cover on our sister site, www.wide-format-printers.org.

If you just wish to express your thoughts, opinions, or general concerns, or just say hello, contact us to ReaderService@FLAAR.org. In case you receive no answer, write CustomerSupport@FLAAR.org. We prefer all initial contact to be by e-mail, but if you are unsure whether your e-mail has gone through, use our VoIP / Vonage telephone #, 419 823-9218.

If you wish to volunteer to work with Dr Hellmuth in Guatemala, Include a complete resume with references and a website where we can see your work. Volunteers cover their own expenses through in exceptional cases for students we can negotiate this. German or French speaking volunteers are especially welcome because we need to maintain practice in these languages.

Contact us to ReaderService@FLAAR.org. In case you receive no answer, write CustomerSupport@FLAAR.org. We prefer all initial contact to be by e-mail, but if you are unsure whether your e-mail has gone through, use our VoIP / Vonage telephone #, 419 823-9218.

We read every incoming fax, snail mail, and e-mail. Please realize that with only 12-14 hours in Nicholas’s workday, and the fact that he is often away in foreign countries, lecturing somewhere, or out testing cameras, it is not realistic for him to answer every incoming message. But they are all read and your message will make its point. We then reply to as many as possible. Obviously the more polite, helpful and detailed the message is, the more likely it will be answered. If relative to a website, we need the specific website and actual web page (with over 1000 pages we otherwise don’t know which page needs to be improved).

Although you receive an auto-response when you send the Survey Form, a real human being subsequently reads your e-mail and selects which report(s) to send you or which response is most appropriate.

We are not able to answer faxes, e-mails, or telephone calls for general miscellaneous matters, such as how to update software, where to get something repaired.

We are not able to answer faxes, e-mails, or telephone calls that circumvent the preferred avenue of address for the matter under consideration.

We are not able to discuss inkjet printers on the telephone unless you have a prior professional consulting relationship or are a frequent purchaser of FLAAR Reports or otherwise already have a relationship with FLAAR. The best way to contact us is by fax or e-mail; or in appropriate cases by postal mail.

Summary, for receiving inkjet printer information

Option a: use the Survey/Inquiry form to receive free reports that will answer many of your questions
Option b: use the on-line store to order your reports directly.
Option c: if you buy any 5 series you can get direct phone number of Nicholas Hellmuth and his direct e-mail to receive personal answers to your follow-up questions after you have read the reports. E-mail CustomerSupport@FLAAR.org to obtain the direct e-mail and direct office telephone of Professor Hellmuth.
Option d: you are welcome to visit us in person (fee-based consultation) or bring Dr Hellmuth to your location anywhere in the world, as a consultant and/or speaker.

Summary, for receiving digital camera information

Option a: download any and all free reports.
Option b: sign up for the course. This gives access to Dr Hellmuth for over a month.
Option c: use the on-line store to order your reports directly.
Option d: you are welcome to visit us in person or bring Dr Hellmuth to your location anywhere in the world, as a consultant and/or speaker.
Option e: if specifically for medium format and/or large format digital camera evaluations, you can use the new medium/large format digital camera inquiry form that is in preparation.
Option f: if you want to go photographing personally with Nicholas Hellmuth, either bringing your own cameras, or borrowing his, anywhere in the world, this can be arranged.

If you need help with software, repairs, older equipment, if you are a member of one of the courses, workshops, or seminar programs it is the purpose of these programs to answer your questions. Otherwise, you should be asking these questions of the people who sold you the equipment or software. Please be realistic that our mission is to test, evaluate, and write up reviews of digital imaging hardware and software. This takes all day, every day, even most weekends. If we had tons of money from kickbacks or commissions, then we could afford to have an entire staff to answer each individual. But we prefer not to be dependent on commissions, so thus do not have funding to have a staff large enough to handle the tons of incoming e-mails.

You can write in English, Spanish, German, Italian, French, or Portuguese. We tend to reply in English or Spanish. We are fluent in German; just don’t write it well.

How to meet or speak with Nicholas Hellmuth will be covered on a separate page, though obviously the easiest way is to

Invite Prof Hellmuth to your hometown to give a lecture
Hire Dr Hellmuth as a consultant, at your place or at either FLAAR office
Make an appointment to meet Nicholas Hellmuth at a trade show. This opportunity is open to any frequent purchaser or anyone who has taken a FLAAR course, workshop, or other program. If you have purchased 5 or more Series, contact CustomerSupport@FLAAR.org and ask when is the next trade show where you can meet the FLAAR staff.
Sign up for a FLAAR course (they are held over the internet but as a member of any FLAAR course you can also drop in to visit in person to ask your questions or just to tour the facilities).

Most recently updated November 2011.

First posted July 6 2006, July 5 2007.