About RootsOnPrint
A small studio in Ahrensburg near Hamburg. Its two founders turn genealogy data into family tree posters for framing.
RootsOnPrint started with a practical problem. After years of research in Ancestry and MyHeritage, our own family trees existed only on screen. We could not show them around at a family dinner or give one to a grandmother. The “print” buttons produced tiny PDFs or very long banners, and fill-in templates meant typing every name again by hand. We wanted to upload the file, see the finished poster and order it framed.
That is how RootsOnPrint works today. A GEDCOM file, or the names you type into our wizard, becomes a poster in one of three designs, from A4 to A1, printed at 300 dpi on 250gsm museum paper, or on 200 gsm matte paper inside a frame. Our print partner produces it at the site closest to your delivery address. You order directly online without asking for a quote, and the layout is done by software we wrote for this purpose.
Who we are
RootsOnPrint is built and run by Evgeny Nekhamkin and Maxim Klenski, the two founders and managing directors of RootTwoLabs UG (haftungsbeschränkt) in Ahrensburg, Schleswig-Holstein. Evgeny writes the rendering engine and the infrastructure; Maxim looks after product, design and printing.
We finance RootsOnPrint ourselves, without investors. The business works when a poster turns out well enough that someone orders a second one for a relative.
How a poster is made
Your GEDCOM file is read on our servers and turned into a tree model. The layout engine then applies rules we worked on for months. Generations stay aligned and cards keep a fixed 5:3 proportion. Long names are shortened by fixed rules so the type is never squeezed, branches without data are left out instead of showing placeholders, and connectors are drawn as curved branches that never cross an unrelated card. Finally the tree is scaled to fill at least 85 % of the sheet.
The same code renders your live preview and the 300 dpi print file, so the poster you approve on screen is the one that gets printed. Printing and shipping are handled by Gelato, a print-on-demand network with production sites in Germany and the USA. That keeps shipping distances short.
Quality
Unframed posters are printed on 250 gsm museum paper, framed ones on 200 gsm matte paper, always with fade-resistant inks. Frames are pine wood in black, white or natural, with shatterproof plexiglass and a hanging kit. Before a template goes live, we test it with many test families: long double-barrelled names, missing dates, five generations on A4. The renderer makes sure no text runs over the edge of a card.
Privacy
Family data is personal. Everything runs on servers in Nuremberg, Germany (Hetzner). Uploads are deleted 24 hours after you upload them, print files 48 hours after payment and share links after 90 days. The print partner receives only what is on the poster, never the GEDCOM file. We use no tracking cookies and no third-party analytics; the only cookie remembers your language.
- Hosting in Germany, GDPR by design
- GEDCOM files deleted automatically after 24 hours
- No tracking cookies or third-party analytics
- The print partner receives the poster file only
Facts
- Company
- RootTwoLabs UG (haftungsbeschränkt), Ahrensburg, Germany
- Founders
- Evgeny Nekhamkin, Maxim Klenski
- Templates
- Heritage Oak, Modern Clean, Heritage Fan
- Sizes
- A4, A3, A2, A1 · framed or unframed
- Paper
- museum paper, 250 gsm (framed: 200 gsm matte), 300 dpi, fade-resistant inks
- Ships to
- Germany, Switzerland, the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand
Questions people ask us
Do you do the genealogy research?
No. We print what you have researched, from your GEDCOM file or from the names you type in. Ancestry, MyHeritage and FamilySearch are good places to start your research, and our free blank charts help with the first generations.
Can I get a custom design?
Not as a service. The three templates have many options (tree species, wall colours, palettes, generations, photos, title), and the preview shows every change as you make it.
Where are the posters printed?
Our print partner Gelato prints each poster at the production site closest to the delivery address: in Germany for European orders, in the USA for North American ones.
How can I reach you?
Use the contact form or send us an e-mail. We answer within two business days, usually sooner. Please do not send GEDCOM files by e-mail; the order number is enough.