Printing Pictures

“Sense I went digital I have printed a grand total of one picture. I'd like to print snapshots every trip. What does everyone use? I have a nice Canon printer/fax/copier unit and I have some Kodak paper. Is it worth the cost of buying the special photo ink cartridges?

Doesn anyone have one of the little HP photo printer things made just for pictures? Am I better off just using the special paper and ink in my present printer or are the HPs worth it?”

“I got a HP psc750 (Printer, Copier, Scanner). I just use the ink carterages that came with it but I use High resalution paper to print on. I'm happy with the results.”

“same here, WD. It's amazing what you can get with a fairly cheap printer and some good paper.”

“I've heard its cheaper in the long run to have them developed professionally. After purchasing a quality printer and ink cart.'s, that dry out and can be costly, and then to the paper which ain't that cheap either.

I would check out the cost of the pro's. You will probably get a better quality pic from the pro.'s then what you might achieve at home. Every mistake you make while home printing will cost you, mistakes at the photo lab don't.”

“I've never tried digital prints from a professional place. I print at home. That said, all you say is true.

Something else to think about is that your inkjets in most instances will fade.”

“I hardly ever make prints, I look at my pics on the computer, email them or put them on a web page. That said, I make plain paper prints with a HP 895 sometimes for my office bulletin board or on the garage wall. The plain paper looks ok, the special photo paper looks a little better, but can look streaky. A friend of mine has an Epson for his graphics arts that is awesome. It prints up to 11 X 17, I believe. The quality is stunning. I don't know about longevity.”

“I use a Epson Sytlus Photo 825 with Epson paper and it ROCKS. Excellant quality. Another thought is that you might want to try OFOTO or one of those other services on the net. I use OFOTO as it is owned by Kodak. My recent test confinced me they are the best quality and they process your order quickly. My test was that I chose a picture from my vacation. Uploaded it to several of these sites, had them print them, send them to me and I compared quality, service etc. Ofoto was by far the best quality. The other two were SNAPFISH and SHutterfly. They all have software that you can upload to edit, store your pics, aand share on-line. Very cheap. Good if you go on a trip and you want to share the same pic with the entire group. Good on multiple prints. Hope this helps.”

“FYI, the photo paper should not subjected to sunlight. I think longevity is an issue with printing pictures yourself. I use a regular HP inkjet and the picture are great. I would hang them on a wall that is not in direct sun light.”

“I use a Canon i950 photo printer. If you wait for sales, you can get the paper 2 for 1 but it is still kind of expensive. The results are hard to tell from a photo lab. My local photo guy prints from digital for 69 cents. I use him if I plan to frame something because ink does fad with time.

Of course you can't read this because my liberal opinions are too much for your sensitive disposition.”

“I used to have a dye sublimation printer at work. Zowie! I think it was 600 dpi, the color and resolution were impeccable. 8 x 10's were professional color dark room quality.”

“Sounds like I may be best off sticking to what I have. If I happen to take a really great photo by accident I may have it sent out to be done.

Thanks for the great advice.”

“I take my memory card to Wal-Mart and they're printed on the same equipment as the 1 hr photo. I couldn't tell they were digital photos. A 4x6 cost less than $0.30. It's much easier than fooling with a printer, paper, and ink.”

“So is the digital prints more than 35mm? I took my pictures into CVS and had them put on disk and they sucked so bad it looked like someone's child had done them.”

“My prints from Wal-Mart were fantastic. I think the resolution was set to about a 3 Mp pic.”

“I print on a HP7350 photo printer. So far, I've only done the 4x6's and they come out great. I only print photos that I want to hang on the wall or whatnot. I have my "rouges gallery" in my bedroom. These are pictures of hike that I have been on that include you lunatic TT'ers. You all are there. There scariest one is a group shot of Bitpusher, Opie, Packrat, Walkindude and me and DFB (Khatru). Its nice to see all the TT'ers that I have met...the purtiest photos are of Lizs and Tarabull...LOL...those 2 photos, I blew up to 20x18, and hang above my bed.”

“Last Christmas, the Wifey bought me a $400 HP Photo Printer with all the gadgets (led display for editing, slots for various memory cards, 4x6 photo paper slot). I tested it compared to my $99 Epson C60 stylus printer with a couple of my scanned slides that showed alot of contrast. Half a box of premium photo paper later and the HP could not compete with the cheap-o Epson. I played with every option and feature to try and match image quality, but the Epson won out every time.”

“I do most all my prints using the Sam's Club one-hour in-store lab.

I'll edit/crop the pics as I want them, then write to a memory card or burn a CD-RW and take it over. Put it in the Aladdin kiosk, select what I want, and that's it.

I use a color profile for the Fujitsu machine, and the folks behind the counter print my images as-is. Thus all they have to do is make sure the machine is running as it is supposed to (and Fuji built the Frontier systems to be somewhat idiot-proof). See www.drycreekphoto.com

Cost is $0.19 per 4x6 print, and 8x12's are $1.89.

When I'm running off a fifty or a hundred 4x6's, going to Sam's is a no-brainer. Of course it helps that they're not too far out of my way coming home from work. :)”

“I keep thinking I need to get a nice, new nifty inkjet that prints up to 13x19 (either Canon or Epson)... but then I hear these photo prices and ideas!! WOW! How large a shot can you print, say, at Sam's?”

“I don't know lizs, but I'm probably going to drop by Wal-Mart on my way home to print some pics and I'll see how big they can go.”

“Good luck finding a printer that will print 13x19 without spending beaucoup bucks. I was thinking along the same lines, but those large format printers are typically commercial grade and hard to find. For the majority of the printing I do, 8x10 print in an 11x14 frame usually is big enough. I just figured if I need anything larger, I'll take it to my photoguy.

Framed photos make the BEST presents, dontcha think! They're essentially cheap to make, yet they're straight from the heart, the best kind of present you can give (besides money!).”

“The Canon i9100 prints up to 13 x 9 and you can find it for less than $500. Six separate ink tanks (like my i950) mean you only replace empty tanks.”

“Yeah, I was looking at that Canon, which I've seen for somewhere from $300 to $400... and the Epson Stylus 2200. It has 7 "ultrachrome" archival inks. It's around $700. I was about ready to go with the Epson, but then read in some photo forums that at least some people seemed to have big problems running it. I don't want to fight with my printer.”

“The Canon is rated better and I've had no problem with my i950 after thousands of prints.”

“lizs, I didn't make it to Wally World yesterday, but will go this morning. I'll let you know what I find out.

To me, the ease of being able to just plop a card in the machnine and then have great pics is just too easy. You would have to print out thousands to reach the break even point. With your line of work you might print that many, but it's something to consider.”

“Where did you get the rating? I'd like to read it, oh Viol one. :-) Thanks!”

“I just got back from Wal-Mart. The biggest picture size listed on their computer program is 8x10.

Prices:

4x6 $0.29
5x7 $1.46
8x10 $2.84

I understand the 8x10 being that high, but the 4x6 to 5x7 price jump seems a bit high. There 46% more area in a 5x7 yet it cost 5x as much.”

“On a Fuji Frontier the 4x6 prints use either a 4" wide roll or a 6" wide roll. For 8x10's they'll use an 8" wide roll and probably use that for 5x7's as well -- although they could use a 10" wide roll for 8x10's or a 6" roll for 5x7's. Not knowing the price differential between the rolls nor how they account for the personnel cost of trimming the 5x7 prints (gonna be either 6x7 or 5x8 coming out of the machine...), you can't judge pricing based on print area.

Plus cost-based pricing is not what most businesses use anyway -- much better for the bottom line to price stuff according to what folks are willing to pay instead of according to materials cost. You'd soil your trousers if you knew the materials cost of a "32oz" softdrink at your usual fast-food restaurant. :)

My Sam's club will do 8x12's for the same price as 8x10's, I just gotta tell them to run what the machine marks as 8x10's as 8x12. That's a bonus as my camera's files are in a 3:2 format originally instead of the more usual 4:3 format.

As for pricing, here's what I pay at Sam's:

4x6: $0.19
5x7: 0.69
8x10: 1.89
8x12: 1.89

Depending on how many prints you do, ya might make up the cost of the membership in short order! :)”

“Just saw your question...

From the Aladdin kiosk at Sam's I can go as big as 8x12 by telling it to do 8x10 but marking the slip and telling the counter folks to run them as 8x12.

I've seen that they have a 10" paper cartridge for the Frontier, so maybe they can go to 10x15, but I haven't asked.

I have had 11x14's and 16x20's done from ezprints.com and been very pleased. It was $5 for an 11x14 and $15 for a 16x20. Their full pricing list is at EZprints Pricing.

I own an Epson 1200 wide-carriage printer (predecessor to the 1270 and 1280's) and as much as I like it, I still find I outsource virtually all of my prints.”

“Thanks for the info. That all makes sense.”

“we have been thinking of getting a Digital Photo Printer.
Does anyone have one?
what kind?

which ones are the good ones?


http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=674060&sku=H24-Q3015A”

“WalMart will print your digital pics for $0.24/4x6 print. Costco is even cheaper. I don't see how you can beat that with your own printer.”

“True in many cases, but if you must print your own get an HP or Epson. Both have been highly rated for print quality and print durability. You don't need to get a "photo" printer for good quality prints. At this point any of the higher-end "regular" printers will do fine. I have an HP 960 and a 970 and both are near-perfect. The 970 is almost perfect until you look reeeeeally close.”

“Bit, at about 9 bucks for a package of, say, 36 pics, it would take about 15 or 16 of those bundles to equal the cost of the printer. Of course, there's the paper and the cartridges, too.”

“um I like to take A LOT of pics.

I do not have time nor a wally world or Costco near me.
There are times when I have a good pic that I would like to print out and maybe give away for present.”

“We have an Epson Stylus Photo RX600 at work. It has a flatbed scanner, printer, slide/film scanner, and media card reader built into it. It prints fast and quiet. But what I like the most about it is that it takes 6 separate ink cartages, so when you run out of a certain color ink, you don’t have to buy a big expensive cartridge that has the color you ran out of as well as others that you didn’t run out of.”

“Good point. If you can get one that takes the multiple color carts, all the better.”

“The paper is nothing to sneeze at. On that page is an ad for HP premium 4x6 photo paper, $25/100 sheets. So, your 15 bundles would cost about $135 just for paper, whereas taking the the same number (540) of pictures to Wal-Mart would only cost $130. Costco (at least here) only charges $0.16/4x6 print, so the price would drop to $86.40.

You could use the non-premium paper and 540 4x6 prints would only cost $108.”

“Depending on the printer, the
epsons are supposed to be some of the best....

Sam's club and Costco are around $0.18 per 4x6 print... :-)

The downside to inkjets is that the ink may fade (unless you get the really nice Epson.)

If you don't need the photos to withstand humidity, or sunlight, the inkjets should be decent....

I have an Olympus P-400 which prints "dye sublimation prints" (i.e. it is a cmyk lamination process) it's nice for printing large A-4 (similar to 8 x 10) photos, but very expensive-- about $2 per paper and each paper can only be used once (so, if you print something smaller than 8 x 10, you need to put more than 1 image on the paper, or you are wasting money....”

“That may be a bt more expensive in New York, too, Bit...”

“Walgreens also has these printers.

My sister-in-law prints a lot of photos at home and I know it costs her a fortune. It is so easy to use these machines at Walgreens. You choose what photos you want to print and you can find coupons for like 15 cents a print.

Some of the color cartridges alone cost over $50.”

“Get an Epson, they are tops for printers and thats all we use in shop.

Epson is recognized by many photographers as top of the line. if you just want snapshots etc. any of the lower end models do a fantastic job.

If you're looking for the longevity, the upper end like the 2200 with archival ink and papers will last up to 100 years and prints up to 11x14 prints I think.

HP and Cannon both make good printers too, but I recommend an Epson.”

“Yup-- I think if I remember correctly, some of the Epsons also do a "full bleed" on their pictures (i.e. no white border.)

All of the professional photographers I've talked to prefer the Epsons with the archival ink.”

“Epson has the patent on Pigmented Photo ink. There ink is fade and water resistant.

I recently bought an Epsone Stylus Pro 4000 so I can print my photos off of roll paper. The size limitation is 17 inches by 100 feet... WooHoo


A much more economical home model if you don't mind spending more than your run of the mill printer is the Espon Stylus 2200.

Same quality as my printer but with smaller media. Worth the look for around $450 to $500 bucks.

Whatever your budget allows I'm sure there can be an Epson in your future if your serious about the quality of your prints!”

“I'd check into cartridge life as well. at $35 each, they're not cheap.

I looked at it too, and when I saw how easy and cheap just taking it to Costco was, I gave up the idea of getting a photo printer.”

“bit, any idea of what they charge for large pictures. All they gave was the price for the 4x6”

“Unless you're scrapbooking everything, you can save money at home cause you're only printing the ones you really want.”

“Costco? The price jump is significant. I think that a 5x7 is like $0.49.”

“IJ, based on what I saw you can upload your pic to Wal Marts site. They only print what you upload.

I have a few I would like to print out as a 8 x 10”

“I think at Sam's club, the 8 x 10 was around $1.49 or something like that. Don't remember what it costs at Costco....

Yes, don't forget... the way they "sucker" people in is by having a cheap printer price and a really expensive print cartridge! (which really sucks if you run out of 1 color and it's a tri-color cartridge!) You can try re-filling the cartridges, but you can't be guaranteed it will work or if the color in the refills is archival...”

“OK, i'm probably not the best one to ask. I'm somewhat anal about my prints. I have my monitor calibrated and sinced with the printer and scanner for the best color. I like to have full control.

Also try Ofoto.comfor online prints.”