Print of The Month: "Lighthouse, Light Patches"
📍 Shetland, UK
https://dariosoleraphotography.it/2025/04/potm-lighthouse-light-patches/
#landscapePhotography #landscape #photography #potm #print #photoPrint #photoPrinting #theProofIsInThePrint #shetland #seascape #landscapePrint
Print of The Month: Red Remnants
https://dariosoleraphotography.it/2025/03/potm-red-remnants/
#shetland #photography #photoPrinting #printing #theProofIsInThePrint #potm
Well, I'm quite happy with these 😁 as pricey as this was, I've missed having a printer and now that I'm more into photography I want to have physical versions of my favorite memories.
Btw the printer in the corner of this photo is a black and white laser printer that barely functions. It may just need new toner, but I'm not sure if that would fix whatever's wrong with it. If anyone has had a Brother HL-2280DW that prints very patchy and streaky, lmk
"Early Dawning": Print of The Month, Jan 2025. Taken in London, UK.
https://dariosoleraphotography.it/2025/01/potm-early-dawning/
#photography #printing #photoPrinting #prints #london #sunrise #dawn
I'm showing some of my pictures this weekend and next as part of #BrightonOpenHouses at Chimera House in Kemptown. I don't do this often, and I am quite excited to talk to people and be alongside some other really great art. #brightonartist #brighton #photoprinting #artshow
If you try and sell your prints, which print-on--demand service do you use / prefer?
I’ve been doing some test prints for a #BrightonOpenHouses show in a month. This Batyta paper is really easy to get a nice print out of, but picks up surface damage too easily - which then shows on the semi gloss surface. Something matte, with a subtle texture next. #photoprinting #photopaper #artprints
If you've never printed your photos, give it a try. It's very satisfying! I bought a Canon G620 to print at home, but you can get 4x6s printed cheaply online.
@alper try reposting with keywords like #giclee #archivist #PhotographyArchivist #PhotoPrinting and #PhotographyPrinting. I’m sure there are some others who can add to that list, but those are some of the same keywords that they might put on a resume
Finding a server (if there is one) that hosts photographers and archivists and @-ing them (a thing?) to the post couldn’t hurt
Good luck out there!✌🏼
Spent way too much money on Luster photo paper in 13x19” but it was so worth it. So beautiful. Get your own work printed at some point.
#photography #photo #photog #printing #photoprinting #photog #art #luster
Ladies & gents, start your xmas shopping engines now at https://prints.miemo.net – the brand new online store for my hand-picked, personally crafted and signed fine-art photo prints!
#fineart #fineartphotography #prints #photoprinting #giftideas #xmasshopping #onlinestore #supportyourlocal
Photographer’s Jackdaw Cyanotype Series Helped Her Cope with Grief
#inspiration #postprocessing #spotlight #cyanotype #deborahparkin #nature #paper #photoprinting #printing #traditional #wildlife
Why Inkjet Photo Printers Are So Bad (And What You Can Do About It)
Remember those halcyon film days? You mailed off that little black cartridge in an envelope and then about a week later negatives and prints were magically returned. With the rise of digital, the inkjet printer promised instant gratification at low per print prices. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, as it turned out, plenty of things to the point that the industry is now seen as the proverbial used car salesman who sells you a thoroughbred on a promise and then delivers a turkey. Is it time to bin the inkjet before it metaphorically burns a hole in your pocket?
The rise of digital decimated the photo print industry. The Fujix DS-1P arrived in 1988 and ushered in a true end-to-end digital shooting experience however it took another decade for prices to tumble to the point that cameras became genuine mass-market products.
The Fujix DS-1P. Photo by Fujifilm.
The 2000s were all about compact camera sales, peaking at a lofty 120 million units by 2010. And with the rise of the digital camera came digital printing. While consumers were used to receiving C-type prints from a lab, you couldn’t fit one of these in your home office; the humble inkjet printer stepped in to the breach as a low-cost, high-quality solution for the print-at-home community.
Inkjet printing technology actually dates back to the 1950s where it was actively developed by both Canon and Hewlett Packard. By the 1970s digital printers were widely available, but the SOHO (small office / home office) market didn’t kick off until the late 1980s.
I distinctly remember buying a dot matrix printer in 1990; laser printers were the top of the tree (the first desktop laser arrived in 1984 for the princely sum of $3,500!), drum printers were great for text (useless for graphics), dot matrix could do both but with marginal quality, while inkjets hit the sweet spot of quality and price. The output genuinely was good and I remember lusting after a Canon Bubblejet at the time, but they were beyond my budget.
The trick to developing a successful desktop inkjet lay in solving the problem of spraying ink from a cartridge onto a sheet of paper. The ink, print head, and paper needed to be precisely controlled so that the droplets ended up in precisely the right part of the sheet, without problems with blocked print heads.
Drop-on-demand systems became the favored solution, using a thermal process to transfer the ink. A heating element in the ink chamber vaporized the ink which formed a bubble; this caused a pressure increase ink-side, which shot a droplet onto the page. The first inkjet, the Hewlett Packard DeskJet, arrived in 1988 and cost $1,000.
Where Did It All Go Wrong?
The inkjet printer offered the fullness of the promised land: a low-cost desktop unit, low per print costs, impeccable photo quality, and (under the right conditions) archive quality output. Were you suckered in by the manufacturer's hyperbole? Did you take marketing at face value? Well, some thirty years later the bubble (of the bubblejet) is well and truly burst: inkjets are not fit for purpose when it comes to photo printing.
The fall from grace is so big that it has shattered the dream, broken the promise. And, perhaps inevitably, it has been driven by greed. So why is the inkjet the bogeyman of photo printing?
Let’s start with the obvious problem: OEM inks are ridiculously expensive. I mean, not just extraordinarily expensive, but inordinately expensive. When it comes to expensive liquids, there are two types: those that are truly eye-watering, such as scorpion venom at $10 million per liter, and then those that will just break the bank, such as printer ink at $720 per liter. Note that this is more expensive than human blood and GHB!
The niggling question is: why is ink so expensive? While undoubtedly some R&D has gone into its formulation, it’s actually because the manufacturer has a near-monopoly and can charge exorbitant amounts. The printers themselves are sold at a loss and the profit is made on the inks. This leads to some odd market behavior as a result.
The printers obviously need to produce good quality output, but after that, anything goes. For example, there is a drive to make the hardware as cheap as possible regardless of the impact on functionality or longevity. They have become unrepairable - disposable - items that are lining landfill sites, sold on the promise of cheap, high quality, printing.
Not only that, but any development that can increase the volume of OEM ink (and paper) use as much as possible appears to be actively pursued. This might be through increasing the throughput of ink or restricting the use of third-party inks.
For example, Hewlett Packard has an Instant Ink subscription program that costs a fixed amount per page regardless of whether you print letters or photos. That can be good value if want to print photos all day every day; you use the HP inks sent to you. However, what is irritating is that the T&Cs block third-party inks forever regardless of your Instant Ink subscription. HP has got form here having previously used firmware “improvements” to block non-HP ink but rolled back after the backlash.
Meanwhile, Brother has taken a different approach to the phrase “limited life” in the form of their MFC-J4410. As with other printers, every time you switch it on, it goes through a clean cycle to ensure the heads are clear which, yes you guessed it, uses up ink at a cost of $720 per liter! That’s kind of them to maintain the printer so meticulously.
The Brother MFC-J4410DW printer.
Now, what happens to the waste ink? It goes for collection to a waste tank which, when full, gives you an error message that prevents you from printing. If the tank isn’t really full (as is often the case), you may have success in using a reset code to switch the message off or might have to resort to third-party software to do the job. If the tank really is full then… you have to throw the printer away! I kid you not!
Now, Brother isn’t the only culpable manufacturer here, but the methods employed are like a sickness or disease among vendors.
Even a common scenario such as this is frustrating: you’ve successfully printed several photos and are embarking on another run of images. This time you get banding on your print so throw it away and start again. The same thing happens, so you run a head cleaning routine to clear a blockage (which uses ink), then print again. There is still a problem, so you run a print head alignment routine, run a test sheet through, and then print it again.
Success… finally.
Now, I don’t wish to appear churlish and restrict all my criticism to inkjet printers, so perhaps the final word can go to Amazon Reviewer Hugh Coles, who commented on his brand new Polaroid Hi-Print dye-sublimation printer:
Straight out of the box the thing didn't work! It got halfway through the first color cycle then jammed with the print half in and half out, breaking a brand new printer cartridge because the ink roll was stuck between two colors. I reset the machine, cleared the paper jam, and installed a new paper and ink cartridge but now it won’t recognize any paper or ink despite resetting/reinstalling numerous times. Now I’m two ink cartridges down and left with a broken device.
This review, more than anything I’ve seen, sums up the frustrations that users have with inkjets. They promise so much and then break that promise, and that’s before we’ve even got to the various nefarious marketing practices that manufacturers indulge in. We’ve all been tempted by the headline per page costs, which are of the order 1-15 cents for color, but really that’s just a finger in the air, best case scenario. In reality, you’ll never actually achieve that.
So what’s the answer? In this digitally connected internet age, it really is simple. Send your photos to a specialist lab to print because they can do a better job at a lower price. Then buy yourself a laser printer for office printing because they produce better output and are cheaper to run.
Image credits: Header photos licensed from Depositphotos
#editorial #equipment #opinion #commentary #critique #educational #industry #inkjet #inkjetprinter #mikesmith #photoprinting #printers #printing
The Best Online Photo Printing Services in 2021
Thanks to the smartphone camera, we can capture any memory we choose, at any time, but they’re more vulnerable -- and temporary -- than ever, but they all feel more temporary than ever. This is the modern paradox.
Recently, a friend offhandedly commented that it was “somewhat mind-blowing” to consider a simple truth: “Thanks to digital cameras, we are creating a larger record of more moments than at any point in our entire history.”
Whatever mental explosions they expected were cut short, however, when another friend rather dryly interjected “Yeah, until an EMP knocks out everyone’s hard drives.”
One may argue that the same progress that led us away from the One Hour Photo kiosk led us to home printing at an even superior level. For many Americans, however, home printing remains a frustrating and expensive endeavor -- even a budget-level photo printer, like the Canon PIXMA iP8720, is financially well out of reach for many people, even before you include the costs of ink and paper.
To guarantee the life of one’s memories, most now turn to an Online Photo Printing Service. But which one is best?
What We’re Looking For:
We have sifted through the sea of options available to the average consumer and identified seven choices that we believe offer the best product for the price depending on the user and their needs. We considered factors such as affordability, accessibility, customization, image fidelity, and strength of packaging when making our picks. The goal is clear: we want you to get the best prints for the best price, with the safest trip to your doorstep.
With that in mind, we have broken our list down into seven distinct categories, with options to satisfy everyone from those seeking bargain-basement pricing to those who demand the best of the best, price be damned.
**
Best Overall Online Printing Service: Printique
Formerly Adoramapix, Printique’s logo itself bolsters its cred, proudly letting you know it is “An Adorama Company." Adorama, the popular New York-based camera and electronics retailer, is a name that holds a lot of weight in the photography community, and Printique does no less than live up to the company’s high and well-earned reputation.
In nearly every category of concern when purchasing online prints, Printique excels. Wide choices in paper type include many high-quality options that will satisfy even the most demanding customers. Even better, these choices are listed by proper names. Whereas some services are vague about their materials, Printique proudly lets you know you are selecting Fujifilm Matte, Kodak Endura Luster, et cetera. While this may be lost on the casual user, those serious about photo printing will appreciate the detail (I know I do).
Printique’s interface is clean, simple, and bolstered by the existence of its very own app. While you cannot use the app to place an order, you can use it to upload your photographs - perfect for the average consumer whose phone serves as their primary camera.
Across the board, Printique makes its case as a top choice, from plentiful sizing options, clean interface, and, crucially, solid packaging. Many printing services stumble on this last metric, delivering beautiful images to your home in the flimsiest, most easily damaged containers. Printique takes great pride in its image quality, among the best of all the services on this list, and they strive to make sure your prints arrive with the least risk of harm.
Cost-conscious customers should know that such effusive praise will always follow with a warning: While by no means exorbitant, Printique is far from the most affordable option on this list. We believe you truly do get what you pay for here, but for those on a budget, other options may be preferable.
Disclosure: PetaPixel has an ongoing affiliate relationship with Adorama, but the links above are not part of that agreement and are not affiliate links. The author is not connected to the affiliate program, was not asked to include Printique in coverage, and the authenticity of his selection is genuine and based on anonymous experience with the brand.
Best Value Online Printing Service: Mpix
Few options on this list are as popular as Mpix, and it's easy to see why. Consumers are always seeking the perfect intersection of price and quality, and this is where Mpix shines. You will find options that lean much harder in either of those directions on this list -- Mpix hits the sweet spot.
Truly a service targeted toward the broadest possible audience, Mpix offers any kind of printing you could want. Calendars, holiday cards, photo books: you name it, Mpix is ready. This “everyone welcome” ethos is on full display when using the company's interface, which is crystal clear. I always ask myself, “Could my dad use this site without calling me ten times?” Mpix answers with a comforting nod.
Color balance is strong, paper selection respectable, and packaging is second only to Printique in terms of durability. Professional photographers should be advised, however, that Mpix is not geared toward them. The printed image is more than acceptable, but better options exist for those truly looking to showcase their talents. More frustrating still is Mpix's inability to handle TIFF files; the service is currently JPEG-only.
For most users, however, Mpix's ceiling is plenty high. Better quality than the budget options, more affordable than the more professional services. “Better than average” sounds damning, but in Mpix's case, it is the perfect selling point.
Best Fine Art Online Printing Service: Whitewall
Whitewall -- winner of the coveted TIPA Award in 2013, 2017, 2020, and 2021 -- is maybe the finest producer of fine art prints on the market. Unlike many of the others listed here, Whitewall is dedicated entirely to prints and prints alone -- no photo books, calendars, or anything of the sort.
Whitewall strives to offer the best quality prints on the market. You’ll pay for it -- it is far from the cheapest option here -- but the quality is utterly undeniable and no one else here offers what it does.
The company offers six types of basic photo prints: Lamba on Fuji Crystal DP II, LightJet (Kodak Pro Endura), ultraHD Photo (Fuji Crystal Archive Maxima), LightJet on Fujiflex High Gloss, Metallic ultraHD, and LightJet Ilford Black and White Paper. But it doesn’t stop there, which is what really brings Whitewall head and shoulders above others on this list. The company also offers canvas printing, acrylic, photo prints under acrylic glass, Giclée Fine Art prints (Hahnemühle Fine Art and UV Poster), photo prints on aluminum backing, multi-panel wall art, round prints and other shapes, and maybe most excitingly, HD metal prints.
I have personal experience with their metal prints -- offered in Glossy or matte Aluminum Dibond, HD Metal, and Brushed Aluminum. The metal prints I have received are absolutely gorgeous. Another PetaPixel staff member has a six-foot by four-foot high-definition print set behind acrylic and reports the quality is spectacular.
WhiteWall also has a variety of framing and wall mount options available: floating frames, solid wood, Aluminum ArtBox, Solid Wood ArtBox, acrylic with slimline case, shadow box frames, pop art frames, and gallery frames.
No, the offerings aren't cheap, especially if you order a large print (a basic metal aluminum dibond print tops out at 40×60-inches and starts at $538.95), but the quality of the results and variety of options are unmatched.
Best Online Printing Service for Portraiture and Weddings: Nations Photo Lab
With impressive quality, solid contrast and detail, and secure packaging, many would argue Nations Photo Lab deserves a top spot on any list. And they would be correct. Almost.
Nations plays in the same space as Printique, both in terms of price and professionalism, so comparisons between the two are natural. While images with stronger highlights from Nations may lag behind Printique’s, Nations closes any gap with its portraiture and darker images. For these types of photographs, Nations is not only a solid choice, but it might also be your first.
By no means opaque or inaccessible, Nations interface is still far less friendly than some others on this list. The issue is not that the service lacks functionality. It is simply buggy, slow, and a little cumbersome compared to its peers. On the plus side, the website offers drag and drop functionality that is surprisingly not the norm. For more eager or advanced consumers, Nations also offers its own downloadable ROES (Remote Online Ordering System) that comes with more options. Wedding and event photographers are familiar with such ordering systems, but the average user should have no trouble navigating as well. In fact, we recommend using this software to all, finding it offers users more clarity in addition to more features.
Despite these small hassles, Nations makes its case as a top printing service in the prosumer space with its pleasing images, top-of-the-line packaging, and quick turnaround on orders. For those who need an added sweetener before checking Nations out, take note: the company accepts TIFF files!
Best Online Printing Service for the Social Shutterbug: Snapfish
Listen, not everyone is out to hang their work over the mantle -- most consumers just want decent prints of the pics they have loaded on their phones and social media, something to put on the nightstand or give grandma for her birthday. There is no shame in that. For them, Snapfish is the answer.
With the ability to link social media or any other site where your pictures reside and a user-friendly app to make the process seamless, Snapfish is really the cheap, easy answer a lot of folks are looking for. With more powerful editing options than the bulk of competitors -- again as a result of being geared toward the average consumer who lacks Photoshop or other high-powered editing software of their own -- Snapfish is practically built for the Instagram-to-Print pipeline many younger people crave.
Will your photos come back vaguely washed out, without the pixel-perfect rendering of some other options on the list? Yes. Will you risk damage due to flimsy packaging? Yes. Will you spend less than a third of what you would through one of the most professional sites? You bet. Is this what the average person is looking for? If Snapfish’s popularity is anything to go by, absolutely.
Best Accessible and Affordable Online Printing Service: Walmart Photo
If you miss the old days of the One Hour Photo, why not relive them? Walmart remains as omnipresent as ever, and though the times (and formats) may change, its utility refuses to wane. Want your prints the day you order them? No other service here can boast that feature. This is the benefit of dealing with a big box store with a hundred times as many locations as this country has states.
How are the prints themselves, though? It depends. To make use of the in-store option, you accept that you are also making use of the in-store equipment. Everything is automated and there is little hands-on expertise or examination of the results. Maintenance and attention vary wildly from location to location, and subsequent quality naturally follows from that. Regardless, Walmart has been in the photo game for decades, and some trust is justified. Maybe the company's work will fail to wow you, but it will also very likely fail to enrage you.
One surprising upside of the Walmart experience is, while it does not accept TIFF files, it does welcome PNGs. The interface is one of the cleanest and easiest to understand in the whole industry, and just the right amount of final minor image tweaking is available. If you do use shipping, it is pleasingly speedy and reliable. The packaging will win no awards, but it is a significant step up from the flat envelopes many competitors use.
The goal of Walmart has always been to be most things to most people, and that holds true here. Most people do not need limitless photo sizes to choose from and are happy with a standard, limited selection. Most people do not need eye-popping recreations of their images. You could do worse than a consistent, 70% across all categories. Those deficits are what give you that 100% convenience, and your wallet that trademark smiley face.
The Online Printing Service to Keep an Eye On: Bay Photo/Aspen Creek
This is an interesting entry because both Bay Photo and Aspen Creek Photo have made numerous “best of” lists for years as individual companies. On September 1st of this year, however, Aspen Creek announced the two companies had merged. At present, both still retain individual sites, but behind the scenes, the marriage is well underway.
One exciting element of this union is how perfectly each company answers the weaknesses of the other. Where Bay Photo has been dinged for so-so fidelity, Aspen Creek has been praised for the best color accuracy in the business. While Aspen Creek Photo consumers have groused about long shipping and turnaround times, Bay Photo users are accustomed to speedy delivery. Aspen is known for its “white glove” care for high-resolution prints, while Bay has been a personal favorite for smartphone photographers due to its small print sizes perfectly suited to those types of photos.
For immediate needs, there are other companies on this list worthy of higher consideration, but we included this "hybrid" entry out of pure fascination for what the future holds. We will have our eye on how this synergy plays out, and we recommend you do as well.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Shutterstock.
#guides #acrylic #adorama #canvas #canvasprint #epson #fujifilm #kodak #metal #photoprint #photoprinting #walmart
Google Photos Expands Print Service with More Sizes, Unlimited Volumes
Google is expanding on its photo printing service by not only continuing its 10-print monthly subscription service but also allowing photos to be ordered in any volume and increasing the print sizes and types that are available.
Google's subscription photo delivery service was initially announced in February of 2020 before being halted the following June while the company fine-tuned the platform. It then re-launched in October and has been available ever since.
Until today, the service only provided 10 printed photos mailed monthly in one of three size options that were selected by its artificial intelligence system as the "best" shot in that time period. If mail delivery is not an option, Google allowed those photos to be picked up in person thanks to partnerships with CVS, Walgreens, or Walmart. While the service is affordable at $7 per month, it did not provide a lot of customization or additional services.
Today Google announced a series of enhancements to the program that makes it possible to order more prints a la carte and added new print sizes and types.
Google Photos allows users to turn photos into prints from the apps, and today prints users specifically select can be made in unlimited quantities starting at $0.18 per print. Those can be ordered in the previously existing 4×6, 5×7, or 8×10 inch prints, as well as four new sizes: 11×14, 12×18, 16×20, and 20×30 inch prints.
Photos can also be ordered for same-day pickup for those who do not want to wait for the photos to be delivered. Those photos can be retrieved from local CVS, Walgreens, or Walmart locations in the United States or 7-Eleven in Japan. Same-day pickup only supports 4×6, 5×7, or 8×10 prints in the United States or 3.5×5 prints in Japan.
Google has also added a new type of print to its offerings: canvas prints. Google says that over the next few weeks in the United States, it will add six additional canvas print sizes to the Google Photos print store: 8×10, 16×16, 20×30, 24×36, 30×40, and 36×36.
The company also has added photo book printing options, either filled with photos that are selected and arranged automatically or those that users can pick and move around as desired. Photo books are available in softcover and hardcover in the United States, Canada, and select European countries and start at $10.
Image credits: All images via Google.
#culture #news #cloudphotos #cvspharmacy #google #googleai #googlephotos #googlephotosapp #photoprinting #walgreens #walmart
Kodak Moments Now Offers Bigger Range of Same-Day Photo Products
Kodak Moments has announced an improved version of its same-day service with an addition of a larger range of instant products for customers to choose from.
Kodak Moments is part of Kodak Alaris, which was formed as a spin-off from Eastman Kodak in 2013. The company at one point offered photography chemicals, film, and photo paper, but that business was sold to a Hong Kong-based company in July of 2020. This included the sale of many popular films.
Kodak Alaris now focuses on information management and print services under the brand Kodak Moments. The company provides photo products and services to both individuals and businesses worldwide, with over 100,000 consumer touchpoints across 30 countries globally. It has updated its Kodak Moments Retail Software to version 11.0 and introduces an expanded line of instant personalized products in addition to bug fixes and other software improvements.
Through this update, the Self-Service Print station, which can be accessed by customers in numerous stores across the country, now features a brand-new customer workflow that further reduces the need for assistance by store workers.
Customers can create their orders using the Kodak Moments Kiosk -- including a touch-free order experience -- for an instant order pick-up at the Self-Service Print Station, or via mobile app and online for delivery to a local store or shipped to an address. The new addition of instant products includes custom photo gift wrap, acrylic magnets, which come in miniature two by two-inch size, ready-to-hang eight by eight-inch photo wall tiles, canvas, available in gallery or mirror wrap in a variety of sizes, and photo board prints. Kodak Moments also adds that the photo boards will soon be available as collage boards and decor boards, too.
Two years ago, PetaPixel reported that Kodak Moments was trying to bring back photo kiosks to the mass market, with a modern design and a variety of products to appeal to the consumer market. The company appears to have succeeded in this effort as its kiosks can be found in a host of locations like at Target, CVS Pharmacy, Bi-Mart, and Rexall stores, and now it is expanding its offerings. The focus then and now is on smartphone-based orders instead of the more dated SD cards and USB sticks, although those are still compatible.
The new products and features are rolled out to major retailers across the country. All of the Kodak Picture Kiosk store locations within the United States can be found on the Kodak Moments website.
#industry #news #instantprinter #instantprinting #kodak #kodakmoments #photoprinting #printing #printproducts #prints
