Positive Prints vs Skoma

Positive Prints and similar services turn a route into wall art. The course is drawn on a map in a choice of designs, with your name and a few stats. As a memento of one race it looks good on a wall. It is a real alternative to Skoma’s race poster.

Skoma’s race poster starts from the race itself. You pick it from your Strava races, or upload a GPX or FIT file. Skoma draws the course on the city’s street map with your photo, finish time and name, in three layouts.

Because Skoma started as a book maker, the same account can also turn the whole training season into a photo book. That helps when one race on the wall isn’t the whole story.

How they compare

How each poster gets made

With a route-print service you bring the route. That usually means exporting a GPX file from your watch app or the race website, then choosing a design, colours and the text.

With Skoma you can skip the export. Sign in with Strava and your races are listed; pick one and the course is drawn on that city’s street map. You choose the layout, map style and course colour. Then you add a photo and check your name and result. A GPX or FIT upload works too, for races that never reached Strava.

A worked example: framing a marathon

Say you want your first marathon on the hallway wall. On Skoma you choose A3, A2 or 50 × 70 cm. Unframed prints start at $38.99 in the US. You can add a black, white or natural frame, and shipping is included. Books and posters arrive in about 7–14 business days.

On a route-print service, price the same size with the same frame and shipping before you compare. Their designs and paper options differ from Skoma’s, so line up like with like.

Then think about where it will hang. A2 and 50 × 70 cm read well from across a room. A3 suits a desk wall or a narrow hallway, where you stand close.

What Positive Prints offers that Skoma doesn’t

More designs and more kinds of map gifts. Their range goes beyond running: star maps, city maps and other personalised prints. They also offer canvas and a digital download. Skoma’s poster is a race poster only, in three layouts.

One race, or the season behind it

A poster shows the course and the result. It can’t show the 16 weeks that got you there. If that matters, the same Skoma account turns the training block into a hardcover book, with the race as its last chapter.

What goes on a Skoma race poster

The course line, drawn from your recorded GPS track, on the street map of the city. The race name, your name and your finish time. A photo of you, if you add one.

You pick one of three layouts, a map style and the colour of the course line. You can check every word before you order, so a misspelt name or a wrong time never reaches print.

Use your chip time from the results page rather than your watch time. The two often differ by a few seconds, and the poster is the one place people will read it.

Where Skoma’s poster falls short

Fewer designs. Three layouts is a small choice next to a dedicated map-art shop.

It needs a recorded course. If your watch died at 30 km, the line stops there. Uploading the official course as a GPX file is the fix.

And it only does races. For a star map of the night you met, or a map of your home town, a shop like Positive Prints is the place to look.

Which should you choose?

Details reflect each provider’s publicly available information and may change; brand names are trademarks of their respective owners.