RPI Print

RPI Print, Inc. is a digital print manufacturer that prints, packs and ships personalized books, photo books, wall calendars and greeting cards on demand for other businesses. It sells through two routes: a self-service print API that manufactures in the United States and ships to the US and Canada, and custom programs with global manufacturing and shipping for companies at scale. The customers it names are platforms and brands such as StoryWorth, We Can Books and Blurb, which sell to their own customers under their own names while RPI prints behind them.

What a seller actually gets

The homepage opens with "Any project. Any scale. Anytime." and describes the company as helping "businesses of all sizes, across all industries" with digital printing services "that reach customers all over the world". It then lays out four parts of the offer: global personalized print at scale with "white-label fulfillment", custom print solutions for "complex, high-volume personalized orders", print APIs "for any size business", and an automated workflow that "integrates with your platform so orders flow directly to production".

The self-service RPI Print API is the entry point for a smaller business. The API page promises "No minimums, no fees as you grow, and industry-leading turnaround time", and describes the technical side plainly: printing, shipping and order-fulfillment infrastructure behind an API that is "RESTful, over HTTPS, and JSON/XML formatted". It is "Currently available for US and Canada shipping". The order flow is spelled out in one sentence: "Your customers' orders go directly to our RPI Print facilities then we drop-ship directly to your customer." The homepage adds that the APIs automate print on demand, shipping and order tracking, and connect to "your app or ecommerce store".

Custom solutions are the route for programs at scale. Here RPI integrates into the customer's own API or builds to the customer's workflow, fees are quoted with the program, and the product range extends beyond the standard catalog to "customer-specific SKUs". The pitch on the homepage is to "Offload complex, high-volume personalized orders to a partner that prints, packages, and ships your branded products exactly as you design them."

The API page also leaves a door open between the two: if an organization already has its own API, or does not see what it needs in the product catalog, RPI asks it to get in touch to find the right solution.

The comparison table

The API page sets the two routes side by side, and the table is the most useful single block of terms on the site:

• Integration: RESTful API and developer sandbox, against RPI integrating into your API or building to your workflow.
• Setup and monthly fees: none, against quoted with your program.
• Volume minimum: none, against "Typically suits programs at scale".
• Products: standard catalog, against standard catalog plus customer-specific SKUs.
• Packaging: standard unbranded packaging, against custom packaging, labeling and inserts.
• Manufacturing: United States, against global.
• Shipping: United States and Canada, against global.
• Production SLA: "4 days standard", against tailored to your program.
• Support: documentation, sandbox and support team, against dedicated project and account support.

For a seller this answers the basic questions. On the self-service route there is no fee to start and no minimum, orders ship in plain unbranded packaging from US production, and the standard production time is four days. Branded packaging, inserts, custom products and worldwide manufacturing belong to the custom route and its quoted terms.

Products and production

The API page describes the range as running "From beautifully bound photo books to wall calendars and greeting cards", made "with the latest in digital print technologies and the highest quality paper and binding materials". The StoryWorth case study adds a standard tradebook format, and the We Can Books study describes one-of-a-kind children's books. The homepage points to a site index that covers book formats, pricing, shipping and API documentation.

On where things are printed, the custom route uses what the page calls RPI's "cloud-based print network", in which "orders print in the most cost-effective location to reduce turnaround times, carbon footprint, and shipping costs". The contact block lists two offices, RPI Print North America and RPI Print Europe, with the phone numbers U.S. +1 206.905.5999 and Europe +31 (0)40 286 36 57, alongside a contact form.

The white-label point runs through the pages: "Your company's brand, ecommerce platform, and design shine through every project your customer prints." RPI also offers to "oversee orders and provide customer support when needed", which it calls premium customer support.

Key facts from the company

The case studies show the kinds of businesses using RPI.

StoryWorth emails its customers a question about their lives every week for a year, collects the stories they write back, and uses RPI's Custom API to print the collection "in a beautiful, bookstore-quality book" in the standard tradebook format.

We Can Books helps parents and grandparents of children aged 3 to 5 with early reading, blending a phonics system with photos from the child's own world. It uses the Self Service API so its users can create "heirloom-quality, one-of-a-kind books".

The Fox Factory, a creative studio founded by photographer Cheryl Fox, publishes fine-art photography, children's books and illustrated memoirs, and the page presents her as a blueprint for photographers and small businesses using RPI Print and Blurb to turn their work into books.

The homepage adds two short stories. Blurb, it says, needed a print partner able to "handle multiple one-off orders and product customization". A B2B brand management platform came to RPI for a partner that "prints, assembles, and ships more complex orders", and RPI says it helped with transit times, risk and seasonal demand.

On sustainability, the homepage says the company respects "our commitment to sustainability" and measures success by its environmental footprint and employee wellbeing as well as its finances; it names no certification.

The site publishes no per-item prices on these pages.

Who it suits and who it does not

RPI Print suits a business that sells personalized books or photo products through its own site or app and has the development resources to connect an API: a memoir or family-story service, a personalized children's book brand, a photo book platform. The self-service API, with no setup fee, no monthly fee and no minimum, lets such a business start small with US and Canada orders and a four-day standard production time. A larger program that needs branded packaging, custom products or worldwide production fits the custom route.

It does not suit a seller without technical help who wants to connect a store in a few clicks: the self-service route is a developer API with a sandbox, not an app. It also does not cover apparel, mugs or the other merchandise most POD sellers start with; the range is books, calendars and cards. Sellers outside the US and Canada need the custom route.