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If there's one thing that the digital era has provided in spades it's the luxury of choice, and nowhere is this more evident than in the realm of photography. Today's happy snappers are presented with a dazzling array of options as to what to do with their photographs but, when it comes down to it, you often simply can't beat a good, old fashioned print.
There are so many ways of getting prints from digital photo files that the breadth of choice can actually get slightly confusing. Photos can still be developed in-store on the high street, for example, but here you may be confronted either by a real, live assistant or an automated kiosk.
Meanwhile, the advent of broadband internet access has meant that it's possible to zap your photos directly to an online photo-printing service over the web as digital data and receive the resulting prints through your letterbox a couple of days later.
And if none of these options appeal, you could simply use a photo-quality inkjet printer and set up your very own photo lab at home.
The high-street lab
The process of getting digital photos printed works in exactly the same way as getting prints developed from 35mm film, except that instead of handing over a roll of film to the smiling employee behind the counter, you'll need to take in the camera's memory card.
Unlike a roll of exposed film, however, a memory card is reusable and is probably worth quite a bit of cash. So, rather than leaving your card at the shop overnight, most high-street mini-labs have a system of copying the digital image files from the card to the hard disk of the lab's computer so the card can be handed back to you straight away.
In some cases, as with Snappy Snaps stores, customers can use special in-store kiosks to manually upload the images they wish to have printed themselves. Once you're done you can remove your card and return to the shop later to pick up your prints.
Many Boots stores, for example, feature special Kodak kiosks that work in a similar way to that we've just described, except that instead of coming back to pick up your prints from the counter, your finished prints simply drop out of the bottom of the machine after a few seconds in a similar fashion to passport photo booths.
Both varieties of kiosk also allow for a certain amount of image-editing (cropping, zooming, red-eye correction and the like), which can be pretty useful, but the 'instant' kiosks get top marks for convenience and speed. According to Kodak, there are now more than 2,000 kiosks in stores nationwide.
As part of the research for this feature, we tried out each method of photo printing, assessing each for both quality and value using a standard set of 6x4in glossy prints. On the high street, both the Snappy Snaps and Boots 24-hour mini-lab services we tested provided amazing-looking prints full of colour and detail.
The Boots image was warmer than the Snappy Snaps print, although colours in the Snappy Snaps photo were closer to the original. Ultimately, personal preference will decide the issue but there's not a great deal in it.
We also tested the Boots instant kiosk service and found that, while the print displayed a commendable level of detail, the paper quality seemed slightly lower than that of the over-the-counter digital service, with a dull coating rather than a nice glossy sheen.
Paying for your prints
In terms of value for money, the two over-the-counter services worked out reasonably well. At Snappy Snaps, order between six and 50 6x4in mini-lab digital prints and you will pay just 20p per print. If you order five prints or less, it's more expensive at 79p per print, while an order of 51-99 prints works out at 18p per print and more than 100 will cost just 15p each.
The pricing structure for 6x4in mini-lab digital prints at Boots is a little more complicated but if you opt for the cheapest 24-hour turnaround service, prints cost 30p each for nine or less, 20p for between 20-49 prints and a very thrifty 10p for upwards of 50 prints.
Pricing of prints using a Kodak instant kiosk in-store at Boots proves to be a touch more expensive than the labs services but is not scaled according to turnaround time, at 49p per print for 1-9 prints, 39p per print for 20-50 prints and 29p for each print for orders of 50 prints or more at a time.
Larger print sizes are available from most high-street labs, usually at enlarged costs. As with any kind of digital photo printing, however, the quality of enlargements will suffer if you haven't taken your snap at a high enough resolution to begin with.
Kodak recommends setting your digital camera to a minimum resolution of 1600x1200 pixels for an A4 print but, generally speaking, the higher the resolution the better.
Often you can also ask for your photos to be burned to a CD at the same time as you order your prints, which is useful if you don't have a CD burner at home and want an instant backup copy of your snaps; this is the digital equivalent of a set of negatives.
The next generation
One of digital photography's biggest benefits is that shots can be stored, shared and emailed with ease. You can now send your photos over the web to an online photo lab and get the prints delivered to your door within a day or two.
One of the frontrunners here is Bonusprint. Other big photographic names, such as Canon, Fuji and Kodak are also getting in on the act, as are many lesser-known newcomers.
In fact, there are now dozens of similar services. Some have a few more features than others, such as online galleries for displaying your snaps, but most work in much the same way. Some, such as Bonusprint or Fuji's FDIprint service require you to download a special utility to organise and upload your pictures to the company's server.
Others, such as Canon's Fotango, Kodak's Ofoto (soon to be rebranded as Kodak Easyshare Gallery) and Photobox let you upload photo files directly from within your browser window. Some online labs even accept images via email attachments or through the post on a CD.
The first time you use an online photo service, you'll have to fill out a few online forms to set up your account but once this is done you can access any of the features on offer, upload more files and order prints simply by logging on with your username and password.
Photos by mail
On the whole, most online services are easy to use and efficient. Added extras, such as the ability to create web-based photo albums to share with others (as provided by Fotango, Ofoto and Photobox) are a useful bonus. Ofoto and Fotango generously offer unlimited storage space for their online albums, which may also appeal to those looking for an alternative to traditional backup methods.
All services offered a range of different print sizes, and most (except FDIprint) let you choose from a range of alternative output options, such as greetings cards, mugs, mousemats, calendars and framed prints.
Quality-wise, our 6x4in glossy test prints from online printing services compared favourably with those from Boots and Snappy Snaps. This is largely because online photo printers use the same high-standard photographic transfer methods as high street mini-labs.
Close study of our test prints revealed a tie between Bonusprint, Fotango and Ofoto in terms of detail and richness of colour. Unfortunately, while the level of detail in the Photobox prints was good, the photo paper felt flimsier than the others.
Perhaps the best thing about those old mail-away film processing services was that they tended to be cheaper than high-street developing and, thankfully, this also seems true with most of their online descendants.
Bonusprint's prices, for instance, start at just 9p a print for orders of 100 prints or more. Fotango's otherwise excellent service is let down by a heftier pricing scale that ranges from 49p per print for orders of nine prints or less to a more reasonable 24p per print for orders of 40 prints or more. Remember to include delivery costs in your calculations.
The waiting game
We do have a word of warning about uploading your photos, though, and that is that it definitely helps to be patient. If you use a dial-up internet connection, for example, it could take forever to transfer anything more than a handful of snaps at a time. Even using a broadband connection, the transfer process may seem relatively slow.
Conversely, we were fairly impressed by how quickly our test prints were sent back to us. Choosing the standard first-class delivery option for each order, we found that the speediest services were Photobox and Fotango, which both arrived less than 24 hours after we'd uploaded them to the respective websites.
Home solution
For many people, the greatest thing about digital photography is the fact that it can liberate you from the constraints of third-party printing altogether, allowing you total control over the way photos end up on paper.
For the purposes of our tests, we asked each of the major inkjet printer manufacturers - Canon, Epson, HP and Lexmark - to supply our labs with at least one suitable photo inkjet printer, along with full cartridges and a stack of appropriate 6x4in glossy paper.
To determine the price-per-print value for each printer, we printed out the same image files at top, borderless photo-quality settings until the ink supply began to run dry and image quality dropped. The average number of photos produced was then divided by the combined cost of the ink cartridge and the photo paper used.
Confusing the issue
We'd like to stress at this point that such tests can never be 100 per cent scientific. That's why the International Standards Organisation has taken more than two years to work out a standard for comparing the relative value of inkjet printers and cartridges. Its work still isn't finished but we'll report when we hear more.
The problem is that there are so many factors that can dramatically affect costs, such as the amount of colours and blacks used to make up the photo, how frequently the inkjet is used for printing out documents and any bulk-purchase discounts on ink and paper.
We based our tests on the manufacturer's recommended retail price for own-brand cartridges and paper but you are not tied in to using these. Also bear in mind that it's not always necessary to print on the best-quality photo paper available from a manufacturer.
The figures we reached are only a guide to demonstrate how well the average costs of inkjet printing stand up against other types of photo services. In addition, three of the printers - the Canon IP400 (£129), Epson Photo R300 (£99) and Lexmark P915 (£99) - all use more than one ink cartridge to produce prints.
For the purposes of this test, however, we based our calculations on the cost of an entire set of cartridges so figures for these three printers should be treated more as a guideline to potential print prices.
The diminutive Epson PictureMate came out the cheapest overall, at just 25p per print; even less than the manufacturer's claim of 29p. HP's Photosmart 375 also performed well with a cost of 26p per print, while most expensive of all was Canon's small DS700, which came out at 78p per print in our tests.
The choice is yours
To put all of the costs we have quoted in this feature into better perspective, bear in mind that a 24-exposure roll of film costs about £4.99, and around the same again for 24-hour high street processing for a set of standard 6 x 4in prints. That works out at about 42p per print for a set of 24 traditional film photos. With this in mind, it's plain to see that digital photographers have the potential for a considerable saving.
On average, online printing costs about 29p per print for a set of 24 prints and benefits from the fact that the process can be done from home rather than requiring a trip to the shops, although upload times can be slow.
High-street mini-labs charge roughly 20p per digital print for 24 prints, though you'll have to factor in any costs for transport and parking. Instant kiosks are much dearer (39p per print for the same volume order) but have the bonus of speed and convenience.
Meanwhile, the average cost of an inkjet print, according to our tests, is about 45p regardless of quantity, which is a little more expensive than the other methods but remember to offset this against the fact that home printing also allows you much tighter control over the prints you produce, with the added option of a spot of image-editing along the way.
Then there's the question of quality. None of the 6-megapixel digital photos we took quite matched up to level of detail and colour depth of their equivalents taken on a standard 35mm compact film camera, although they were all considerably better looking than the grainy, poorly focused shots we got from an £8.99 disposable film camera but these aren't necessarily appropriate comparisons.
Indeed, it's also a little unfair to compare like for like within the different digital printing procedures. High-street mini-labs and online printers, for example, have the advantage of thousands of pounds' worth of professional photographic printing equipment, which is likely to be subjected to frequent quality tweaking.
In this respect, such services will always be able to produce prints to a very high standard. That said, both the instant in-store kiosks and the home inkjet printers we tested all produced exceptionally detailed prints, even if they lack the warmer tones and professional gloss of the lab-printed photos.
Whatever printing method you finally choose, your decision should be based on a mixture of factors, including cost and quality along with aspects such as personal preference, proximity to high-street services and the like.
See also:
All Peripheral Devices
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