We talk about this topic many times here at HelpMeRick.com, but too few people are reaping the benefits (and cost savings) of printing their digital photos via a print shop instead of at home. Printing pictures at home costs a lot of money and takes up way too much time. And unless you spring for the more expensive printers, inks, and paper, the results of home printing are sub-par at best.
I prefer to save my money and valuable time by sending my digital photos to an online photo processing service like Shutterfly. Services like Shutterfly make uploading my photos fast and easy and then I put together my own coffee-table book that gets used over and over. If I just want prints, I like to either copy them to a CD and take them to a local developer or use Picasa and upload them to a local store development center like Walgreens, WalMart, etc.
Remember that the bottom line for our computer is that they are supposed to save us time, not waste it. Printing your digital photos using your local and online resources will save you time and money!
Related articles:
Loading ...
HelpMeRick.com started as a monthly tip site for beginners in 1996, and now supports our popular call-in computer show, and hosts thousands of useful computer tips and links.
I also was surprised to find photo processing by Walgreens was FAR cheaper and better than printing my own, and they mailed a large bunch of prints, (photo quality)to a distant city relative for little more than just my cost of postage. Now I only print pictures (1 or 2 at a time) as needed for my own family’s use. The cost of ink in the stores is very high, and if they would lower it to a much more reasonable price, printing your own would be more practicle. I dont see that happening anytime soon.
Couldn’t agree more.
I, too, was one of the legion wasting money printing my digital photos on my printer and not being satisfied with the results. I was a photo major in college and am a bit picky about my images.
I’ve tried some of the online services, and some of the local ones like you mention, but my absolute favorite is Winkflash. Their quality is outstanding and their prices are among the best anywhere. Being able to drive to the store and pick up my prints is nice, but I’ll gladly wait a couple of days if I can get better quality and better prices online.
My latest thing is making my own postcards to send all over the world as postcrossings.com member!