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At PMA 2010, the trade event for “everything photo,” Mohawk Fine Papers announced the acquisition of LabPrints, a developer of workflow software and services for professional photographers and photo labs. “Wait,” you say, “a paper company bought a software company?” In search of clarification, I spoke to Bart Robinson, Mohawk's VP Marketing and Customer Service, and Bill Gamble, LabPrints' CEO.

What might look like a diversion from a core strategy is actually well-planned diversification to develop a creative ecosystem that extends through the supply chain from the user and creator of content to the provider of the substrate on which the image is printed.

In the late 1990s, recognizing that digital printing would be evolving and taking hold, Mohawk launched a line of digital print papers. Working closely with production partners like HP influenced Mohawk to become much more technology driven. Today digital papers are an important part of Mohawk’s paper sales, for both converted products sold through distributors and under the Mohawk name. As photobooks became more popular, a Preferred Partner relationship with HP helped drive sales until Mohawk now claims a significant share of photo book pages produced.

Looking at the changing face of the print world - with volumes changing and printers evolving or closing – Mohawk looked at their experience as a supplier of media to the photo segment as adjacent to their core market.

In 2009, Mohawk made several moves along the supply chain including a strategic investment in liveBooks and the launch of Felt & Wire Shop.

liveBooks is a provider of website development and hosting services for creative professionals, including photographers, architects, and graphic designers, that need graphics-intensive websites and search optimization services.

A “curated collection,” Felt & Wire Shop offers graphic designers a site to promote and sell their products, including framed posters, greeting and post cards, gift wrap, and other paper-based printed items.

Located just a little over a mile apart since 2002 – a left turn and a right turn - Mohawk and LabPrints operated in their own universes until recently, when it became clear that those universes were overlapping.

Bill Gamble launched his company to provide tools to photographers and add value to the workflow as more photographers moved from film to digital. Gamble partnered with photo labs that were fulfilling orders for professional photographers and leveraged the lab to reach the photographer.

The business grew and adapted to the change in the photographer’s market too. Photographers began selling photo greeting cards, photobooks and other products printed on digital presses rather than traditional photo finishing equipment. It was at that point that LabPrint recognized the overlap with Mohawk.

Similar to the current offering of VDP/Web to Print/Workflow Integration tools available to printers who produce custom printed documents through web portals and store fronts, LabPrints facilitates the content creation by giving the photographer the means to organize, edit, order, design, post and sell images online with a single desktop application. In other words, a web-to-print solution for a photographer and lab or digital printer, much like those sold for document production.

• The proPhotographer suite comes with a free core product, LP Digital Studio, and nine separately priced modules that allow the photographer to “custom fit” the solution. The modules also integrate with Adobe applications and other desktop workflow tools.


• The proLab solution is a workflow solution for photo labs and digital printers that can be integrated with photo production applications and accounting programs.


• The third element is the Online Services option that provides a storefront site with album presentation and online ordering.

The technology also allows for an ecommerce website to give the photographer an online retail presence. For example, Pinhole Press offers a web stationery boutique featuring clean, contemporary design templates for custom photo greeting cards. Pinhole Press notes, "You can choose from our collection of unique card designs, easily upload photos, and create a personal message." LabPrints is the “man behind the curtain” letting this group of designers reach a new audience and sell their products online.

Are there more of these deals in the works? According to Robinson, “We at Mohawk are committed to being more than just a paper company. We’re always looking at new opportunities as they come forward. They don’t have to be in our core market, just related. And we are going to bring Bill’s successful toolset for photo finishers to the digital print community, both printers and photo labs.”