Print Your Vacation Photos Now: Comparison of Printing Services

What’s the best service to use for having your vacation digital photos printed? That’s the question that New York Times’ writer Stephanie Rosenbloom put to the test.

She sent the same set of 50 vacation images, which include photos taken during sunset, at night, and under other conditions, to the websites of drugstore-based studios CVS and Wallgreens, online photo services Snapfish and Shutterfly, and professional developers Adoramapix and Mpix to compare the costs and quality of the prints.

From each website, she ordered a set of glossy 4-by-6 prints and two 11-by-14 prints. Her observations are as follows:

CVS – In terms of cost, the 4-by-6 prints come at 29 cents each and the 11-by-14 prints at $9.99. The prints can be ready in about an hour. Quality-wise,the results are vivid, including the night shots. However, according to Rosenbloom, the quality may vary from store to store.

Wallgreens – The 4-by-6 prints cost 29 cents each while the 11-by-14 prints come at $10.99 each. According to Rosenbloom, the color and clarity of the prints, as with the thick paper for the 11-by-14 enlargements, came out better than she expected.

Snapfish – At just 9 cents for a 4-by-6 print and $6.99 for an 11-by-14, the online service has won over many consumers because of its rock-bottom low prices. However, Rosenbloom said that the photos can be slightly oversaturated and was not as sharp as she expected.

Shutterfly – For home delivery, the 4-by-6 prints come at 15 cents each while the 11-by-14 prints, at $7.99. Shutterfly also allows customers to pick up 4-by-6 prints at a CVS, Walgreens or Target store. For purposes of the test, Rosenbloom ordered one set to be mailed to her home and the other set to be sent to a local CVS store for pickup. She said that the prints that arrived in the mail were superior.

Adoramix – In terms of cost, the 4-by-6 prints come at 24 cents each while the 11-by-14 prints, at $3.99 each. Quality-wise, according to Rosenbloom, while sharp, the prints were a bit dark compared with the results from other companies.

Mpix – The 4-by-6 prints cost 29 cents each while the 11-by-14 prints, $7.49 each. With respect to the bottom line on quality, Rosenbloom’s verdict reads: “The prints had excellent depth and gradations of daylight, and the E-surface standard paper was lovely. If you like to pore over the details, this is the way to go.”

Overall, Rosenbloom said that customers can get more consistency, better depth and more detail from a printing job done by professional developers. But she adds, “if you don’t obsess over nuances, you’ll find that some drugstores do just fine.”

The drugstore-based studios CVS and Wallgreens, the online photo services Snapfish and Shutterfly, and the professional developers Adoramapix and Mpix all allow customers to upload images and choose the type of project, the print finish, the paper type and the print size.

As found by Rosenbloom, costs among these photo printing services do differ for the same kind of printing job with exactly the same printing specifications. Also, quality of print can vary from shop to shop, even within the same chain.