[FYI] Tested Some Online Printers ... ... by .. MacroMan@DSLreports

For those of you who might be considering using the printing services offered online ... also, if you've used any please add your experience to the mix


discuss .. ;o)

Well i use online printing often but i live in Belgium so i use local ones (don't know if they are of much use here )
i like using kruidvat

they offer good (big) prints and since they have a store almost everywhere in Belgium and the Netherlands you don't have to pay online .
spector is the best (imo) for albums
and fnac offers the best print but i was not happy with their service and prices.

I've been using Wal-Mart just 'cause it's handy and I'm lazy. Resizing seems to be an issue...I upload 1600 x 1200 and when ordering 5X7 there seems to be some cropping issues. I sometimes upload my Apop fractals to display at in my office, OK it's really a cubical, anyway when the flame pushes close to the edge more times than not it gets cropped / cut taking away some of my flame. Wal-Marts B&W is not B&W, it's G&W...that's greenish & white and I don't recommend them for B&W at all.

Thanks K, I think I'll check into some of these others, ya know, expand my horizons!! 8~D

I haven't done much printing .. ever .. even back in my film days .. I did a 'moonshot' project and had some 8x12 enlargements done. They were supposed to be 8x10 but, due to aspect ratio, I had to specify how to crop them and I didn't know how to convey that information to them reliably .. so I just went with full frame

that was twenty years ago ... =))

Many places do not really pay attenion to a person's needs-ie. exact measurements as they are always busy ( the staff, that is! lol).also, B/W by a company is hard to get.have to agree with hottrockin...would recommend doing own prints at home...better control....just have abetter quality printer and not one that is under 100.00$..........

I've used Photobox for prints larger than A4. They give you the option of cropping or resizing, which is handy. Not particuarly cheap, but printing never is. You do get 30 free prints when you register though.

For any printing service you may want to use, it is a good idea to make your image as large as you can in the printed aspect ratio and then use the extra space to gang some more stuff on the page. I mean, your paying to print the entire page, so you might as well not leave any blank paper. You can always trim it later.

photobook from photoworks.com .. Praised in this mini review

Order up!!

Just got my first 40 prints from www.dotphoto.com

1st impressions: so-so

Ordered '40' 4x6 prints. The B&W came out wayyyy better the Wal-Mart's!! That's about the only plus I've got...sorry.

Packaging was OK for 1st class mail. Notictied right off, the upper left corner on most all was shall I say bent or nicked...no lose of picture or color, just somewhat crimped...yeah, that's a good word for it, crimped. Fit 'n' finish was below par in my opinion. The overall color seemed slightly over-saturated...they like pushing red, that's for sure...like most tube TV's now days, it's like they can't push enough red on ya!?!?! Cropping once again was an issue...these where all actual photos taken, not Apop renders, uploaded at 16x12...more loss than I thought there'd be!! Service was about the same as Wal-Mart, if you didn't do the 1 hour in store pick-up. The overall web experience was a bit daunting, but that might just be me with a new site...would allow me to upload 10 pics at a time (there might be something I can change about that...I'm not sure)...the Wal-Mart website is more user friendly to me anyway. I hope this helps someone!! I will try dotphoto one more time, especially for B&W.

I'll be sending my bill to KEIFER, hey he's the one who started this...you owe me baby!!

(*opens wallet ... moths fly out*)

*moths, firmly gripping $50 notes, fly into Samatars wallet* Heh heh... works every time...

Hmmm... what do you reward moths with??

=))

~snatches a moth and eats it...yeah, I'm tough and lookin' for the cash~

Man, he's right...nuthin' in his wallet!!

~runs off to corner to cry~

We good dude, as I'm sure you already know!!

Anywho...uploading size for online ordering...???

When I upload my pics from my Canon S2 IS to my PC they're like huge...squeezin' out at 2592 x 1944 at an average rate of...say 2 to 3 MB each. I use PS7 and reduce to 1600x1200. What do you, or anyone else, recommend to aviod cropping? I generall like full frame stuff, ya know, zoooom-in type close-ups. How can I avoid cropping issues? Upload to online photo house at 8x6? Will I lose any integrity in my photo...say if I wanted 4x6 prints? Would the same cropping issue arise?

Stay tuned...Will Rocky travel off to the bigtop circus? Will Bullwinkle finally come outta the closet? Will Boris & Natasha finally stick it to the man? All this and more in our next episode..."Rocky, the 'next' white meat!" or "Bullwinkle decides to "plug-in" a printer port?" Stay tuned...and now, a word from our sponsors'!!

well .. I would think it's an aspect ratio deal .. so .. perhaps somebody here has that knowledge

you like to read .. here ya go

cambridgeincolour.com

graphicssoft.about.com

dgrin.com

docs.info.apple.com

Hotdog!! Some weekend read'un!! Thanks dude!! I'll give it the once over!! Just might learn a thing or three!! 8~D