Finding the right place to print your precious photos can be a challenge. You want to ensure your memories are preserved in the best possible quality, whether for framing, albums, or sharing with loved ones. With numerous online photo printing services available, it’s crucial to know where to get good quality photos without compromising on aspects like color accuracy, paper quality, and secure delivery. This guide dives into a detailed review of popular photo printing services to help you determine Where To Print Good Quality Photos for all your needs.
When it comes to online photo printing, not all services are created equal. Some may lure you in with low prices, but often this comes at the cost of quality. Factors such as color accuracy, sharpness, and the type of paper used significantly impact the final product. Furthermore, packaging and shipping methods play a vital role in ensuring your prints arrive in perfect condition. Let’s examine some well-known services and see how they stack up in delivering quality prints.
Mpix, for instance, is a widely recognized name in photo printing, boasting a user-friendly app that allows ordering directly from your smartphone. However, despite its popularity, customer reviews reveal a significant drawback, particularly for smartphone photographers. Mpix’s standard printing process often involves forced cropping of smartphone photos due to aspect ratio mismatches.
Mpix’s cropping issues can significantly alter carefully composed smartphone photos, a major concern for photographers prioritizing image integrity.
This forced cropping can be a deal-breaker if you meticulously compose your shots. For those seeking services that better accommodate smartphone photos, EZprints and RitzPix offer smartphone-friendly print sizes with a 4:3 aspect ratio, aligning perfectly with most smartphone cameras. Alternatively, services like Printique and Nations Photo Lab provide the flexibility to print your images uncropped, regardless of aspect ratio differences, giving you complete control over the final print. Unfortunately, Mpix currently lacks these crucial options for uncropped smartphone prints.
Bay Photo is another service that offers small print sizes suitable for smartphone photos and is known for its robust packaging. However, print quality tests indicate that Bay Photo’s output is merely average. In blind print quality comparisons, it was rarely chosen as a top pick, generally being considered a satisfactory but not outstanding second choice.
On the other end of the spectrum, Snapfish stands out for its incredibly low prices, but this affordability comes with considerable compromises in print quality. Test prints from Snapfish showed harsh contrast, leading to loss of detail in shadows and highlights. Portrait photos exhibited undesirable orangish skin tones. Adding to the disappointment, Snapfish’s packaging for smaller prints was inadequate, consisting of a thin cardboard envelope without sufficient padding, leaving prints vulnerable to damage during transit.
Inadequate packaging from Snapfish resulted in damaged prints during shipping, demonstrating a critical flaw in their service.
The larger 11-by-14 prints from Snapfish were shipped in a tube, which is a better approach, but even then, the lack of internal padding resulted in bent prints as they bumped against the tube’s end caps during shipping.
RitzPix also faced packaging issues. Their 11-by-14 prints were shipped in a flat envelope with only thin backing boards for protection. The envelope was barely larger than the print itself, and predictably, the print arrived with corner damage due to crushing during shipping. This is particularly concerning given RitzPix’s high shipping fee of $14.95, significantly above the average, suggesting a disconnect between shipping cost and protection quality.
Corner damage on a RitzPix photo print due to insufficient packaging during transit.
RitzPix’s damaged print, shipped in an undersized envelope, underscores the importance of robust packaging for print preservation.
EZprints, similar to Snapfish, was noted for producing prints of subpar quality. Every print exhibited a hazy, washed-out appearance, lacking sharpness. Areas of consistent tone appeared mottled, further detracting from the overall print quality.
Shutterfly, while being one of the more expensive services tested, provided only average print quality. The primary complaint with Shutterfly was packaging. Small prints arrived in flimsy flat envelopes, and 11-by-14 prints were shipped rolled in a tube, leading to curled prints that require flattening before they can be displayed.
Curled photo print from Shutterfly, a common issue with tube-shipped photos requiring flattening.
Shutterfly’s tube packaging, while protective, often leads to curled prints that need extra effort to flatten for display.
Zazzle offers photo printing but seems more geared towards individual, small-batch orders. Their user interface is not optimized for ordering multiple prints efficiently. Selecting print sizes involves a cumbersome drag-and-drop process for each image on its own order page, making it tedious for larger print orders.
Winkflash has garnered a stream of very negative customer reviews. Beyond issues of customers losing access to stored photos due to changes in company ownership, numerous users have reported difficulties with customer service. Customer support is limited to a web form, with no phone or email contact options, making Winkflash a service best avoided.
FreePrints, as the name implies, offers a tempting deal of up to 1,000 free 4-by-6 prints annually, requiring only payment for shipping. However, their website is sparse on information, suggesting all operations are app-based. The lack of transparency and detailed information about print quality and processes raises concerns, echoing the adage, “if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.”
Amazon Prints offers 4-by-6 prints at a competitive price. Amazon Prime members who use Prime Photos can directly order prints from their stored images. The ordering process is straightforward, and print quality is decent, falling in the mid-range – not exceptional, but not the worst either. However, skin tones tended to be slightly orange. Packaging was again a letdown, with prints arriving in a flat mailer with thin cardboard, resulting in some prints sustaining corner damage.
Walmart provides a 4-by-5.3-inch print size option, which is beneficial for printing smartphone 4:3 aspect ratio images without cropping. However, their overall selection of print sizes is less comprehensive compared to top-rated services.
For those prioritizing where to print good quality photos, it’s clear that focusing solely on price can lead to disappointment. While some services offer attractive deals, the trade-offs in print quality, packaging, and customer service can outweigh the savings. Services that prioritize quality paper, accurate colors, and robust packaging, even if slightly more expensive, ultimately provide better value by preserving your photos beautifully and ensuring they arrive undamaged. When choosing where to print good quality photos, consider investing in services known for their commitment to excellence in all aspects of the printing process, ensuring your memories are printed and preserved with the quality they deserve.
Flattening a curled photo print between heavy books for optimal display and preservation.
For tube-shipped prints, flattening between heavy books is a safe method to remove curls without damaging the photo.
