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Ink2 and SharedBook make printing online content a snap

Erica Ogg Former Staff writer, CNET News
Erica Ogg is a CNET News reporter who covers Apple, HP, Dell, and other PC makers, as well as the consumer electronics industry. She's also one of the hosts of CNET News' Daily Podcast. In her non-work life, she's a history geek, a loyal Dodgers fan, and a mac-and-cheese connoisseur.
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Erica Ogg

PALM DESERT, Calif.--The series of tubes is rife with rich content, but a few companies are finding ways to let us print it on-demand.

Do you skip right to the blank-inside greeting cards like I do? It's not just that I hate the contrived sentiments pre-chosen for me, but I want the power to customize. Ink2 could be a good option for extreme customization.

Any content you find on the Web is game. Choose an image, slap it on a card, calendar or postcard. Fiddle with the layout however you want, pick your text, font, color, size, style and position. Add a photo if you feel like it. Fill out the envelope and $3 plus postage later you're done. The card is printed using digital offset photo printing, and is then sent off directly to its destination within 24 hours.

My favorite feature: there's no minimum order requirement. Send one card, or--if you can afford it--100. Sweet.

And remember books? SharedBook helps you pull content from around the Net and publish as a Web flipbook or hard-copy manuscript.

Using SharedBook's reverse-publishing platform, an online flipbook can be shared with anyone via e-mail. Your recipient can follow the e-mail link and add to the book or buy it as is. SharedBook now offers a suite of APIs that enables any Web site to integrate its content into ShareBook, thereby giving any site another way to monetize its content beyond advertising.