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Prang also became a lithographer, color-printer, and publisher, and he printed chromo lithographs after the end of the Civil War. He'd set up his own business in 1860, utilizing a series of metal plates instead of lithographic stone, which resulted in richly colored images surpassing black and white, hand tinted lithographs and engravings of Currier & Ives or Kellogg. He began issuing color reproductions of famous paintings in the 1870's.

The first modern, color printed Christmas cards were produced by Prang in Massachusetts in 1875 and were an immediate success with the public who demanded more. Louis Prang began holding contests with prizes as high as $100 to $300 which was a substantial amount of money in the 1870's and 1880's. Great artists such as Elihu Vedder, Thomas Morgan, and Will H. Low were quick to submit their designs, and cards designed by them are now in great demand by collectors.

Tastes of the Victorian age became more opulent, and so it was that some of Prang's Christmas cards were embellished with silken fringe, cord, tassels, and other rich touches. Prang also remembered those with tight budgets and produced beautiful, affordable cards to the less afluent, labeled as a product of the L. Prang Company, along with the date.

The market became flooded with cheap imitations of Prang's products in 1890 by Marcus Ward, Rapheal Tuck, and other original groups of American and European card producers. German imports impressed the public with mechanical components that folded out or otherwise moved via a paper tab, and where Prang used layers of gold ink and other quality materials, imitators resorted to glitter applied with glue to represent snow. Cards featured cut out areas, were embossed, and became cheap novelties while hardly offering a message of greeting.

Louis refused to lower his standards and compete in the market, and stopped card production soon after 1890. He continued artistic printing and good quality work after joining the Taber company. The Taber-Prang company moved to Springfield in 1892.

During the course of his life, Louis Prang also became a writer, the "Prang Standards of Color", "Prang method of Art Instruction", and the "Prang's Natural History Series", the latter being published in 1873. "Prang's Aids for Objective Teaching", published in 1877, along with "Prang's Natural History Series" greatly effected art instruction throughout the United States.

In 1882 Louis established the Prang Educational Company and began publishing

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