In today’s digital age, our smartphones are constantly capturing precious moments. But what happens to those digital memories? While sharing online is convenient, there’s something special about holding a physical photograph. If you’re wondering Where To Have Photos Printed, you’re in the right place. Choosing the right online photo printing service can transform your digital images into beautiful prints, but with so many options available, it can be overwhelming. This guide will help you navigate the best online photo printing services, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses to ensure your cherished memories are printed perfectly.
Top Online Photo Printing Services: A Detailed Look
Finding the ideal place to print your photos depends on your priorities. Are you looking for the highest quality, the best value, or smartphone-friendly options? Let’s delve into some of the most popular services and see where they shine – and where they fall short.
Mpix: Professional Quality with a Catch
Mpix is often touted for its professional-grade quality, and they offer a user-friendly app for ordering directly from your smartphone. However, in evaluations, Mpix photos were surprisingly ranked as less favored by panelists. A significant drawback is its cropping issue with smartphone photos. If you meticulously compose your shots, Mpix’s forced cropping can be a deal-breaker. For those seeking uncropped prints from smartphones, or specific aspect ratios, Mpix might not be the best option for where to have photos printed.
Smartphone-Friendly Alternatives: EZprints and RitzPix
If you primarily print photos directly from your phone, services like EZprints and RitzPix offer more accommodating options. They provide smartphone-friendly print sizes with a 4:3 aspect ratio, perfectly matching typical smartphone camera formats. This means less cropping and a more seamless printing experience for your mobile snapshots. Printique and Nations Photo Lab further enhance flexibility by offering uncropped printing regardless of aspect ratio, giving you complete control over your final prints.
Bay Photo: Solid Mid-Range Choice
Bay Photo provides small print sizes optimized for smartphone photos and boasts robust packaging. In blind print tests, Bay Photo consistently landed as a reasonable second choice, indicating a dependable, if not exceptional, print quality. While not the top pick, Bay Photo represents a solid middle-ground option for where to have photos printed, especially for users prioritizing smartphone compatibility and secure delivery.
Snapfish: Budget-Friendly but Quality Concerns
For those extremely price-conscious, Snapfish is often the cheapest service available. However, the low cost comes with compromises in print quality. Tests revealed harsh contrast in Snapfish prints, leading to loss of detail in shadows and highlights, and portraits exhibited an undesirable orangish skin tone. Packaging is also a concern, with smaller prints shipped in flimsy envelopes lacking padding. While affordable, Snapfish might not be the best answer for where to have photos printed if quality and careful handling are paramount.
A close-up of the edge of a rolled-up print from Snapfish showing damage from shipping.
Damaged photo print edge from Snapfish, highlighting shipping vulnerability due to inadequate packaging.
Snapfish’s packaging issues led to damaged prints, demonstrating that the cheapest option isn’t always the best value, especially when considering the emotional value of printed photos.
RitzPix: Packaging Problems Despite Higher Shipping Costs
RitzPix also faced packaging problems. Despite charging a higher-than-average shipping fee, their 11×14 prints arrived in flat envelopes with minimal protection, resulting in damage during transit. This highlights the importance of packaging, regardless of shipping cost, when choosing where to have photos printed. The damage to RitzPix prints emphasizes that even with higher prices, shipping care isn’t guaranteed.
Damaged corner of a RitzPix photo print, showing poor protection during shipping.
Corner damage on a RitzPix photo print, illustrating insufficient packaging and shipping protection.
EZprints: Consistently Poor Print Quality
Similar to Snapfish in terms of quality concerns, EZprints prints were consistently rated as poor. Prints were described as hazy and washed-out, lacking sharpness and exhibiting mottled tones in clear areas. For those seeking vibrant and sharp photo prints, EZprints is likely not the ideal service for where to have photos printed.
Shutterfly: Average Quality and Packaging Issues
Shutterfly is a well-known name, but their print quality was only average in tests, and they were among the more expensive services. Packaging was a significant issue, with small prints in thin envelopes and larger prints arriving curled from tube packaging. While shipping tubes offer protection, the resulting curl requires extra effort to flatten, making Shutterfly less convenient for immediate display. Considering the price and packaging, Shutterfly may not be the optimal choice for where to have photos printed for everyone.
Curled photo print from Shutterfly, illustrating the inconvenience of tube packaging.
A curved photo print from Shutterfly, demonstrating the curl caused by shipping in a tube.
Zazzle: Tedious for Multiple Prints
Zazzle offers photo printing, but their user interface is geared towards single-item orders. Ordering multiple prints is a cumbersome process involving dragging each image individually onto a print-size template. This tedious process makes Zazzle unsuitable for larger print orders or for users seeking efficient batch printing. For bulk photo printing, Zazzle is not recommended as where to have photos printed.
Coffee table books flattening a photo print, showing a method to uncurl prints from tube packaging.
Flattening a curled photo print under heavy books, demonstrating a common post-shipping task.
Winkflash: Customer Service and Reliability Concerns
Winkflash has received numerous negative reviews, citing issues with customer service and even loss of access to hosted photos due to ownership changes. Limited customer support options, with only a web form available, further contribute to concerns. Due to these reliability and support issues, Winkflash is not a recommended option for where to have photos printed.
FreePrints: Too Good to Be True?
FreePrints offers up to 1,000 free 4×6 prints per year (excluding shipping). However, information about the company, print quality, and ordering process is scarce on their single-page website, and everything is app-based. The lack of transparency and the “too good to be true” offer raise red flags, making FreePrints a risky choice for where to have photos printed without further investigation and user reviews.
Amazon Prints: Decent Quality, Packaging Issues
Amazon Prints provides reasonably priced 4×6 prints and seamless integration for Prime Photos users. Print quality is mid-range, not exceptional but not the worst, with some orange skin tone issues noted. Packaging, however, is again a weak point, with prints arriving in thin cardboard mailers, leading to corner damage. While convenient for Amazon Prime members, the packaging concerns should be considered when deciding where to have photos printed using Amazon.
Walmart: Smartphone-Friendly Size, Limited Selection
Walmart offers a 4×5.3-inch print size that accommodates smartphone 4:3 aspect ratios without cropping. However, their overall selection of print sizes is less extensive compared to other services. While Walmart provides a smartphone-friendly option, their limited size variety might restrict choices for users needing diverse print formats when considering where to have photos printed.
Conclusion: Choosing the Best Place to Print Your Photos
Choosing where to have photos printed requires balancing priorities like print quality, price, convenience, and packaging. While services like Mpix aim for professional quality, they may falter with smartphone photos and user satisfaction. Budget options like Snapfish and EZprints compromise significantly on print quality. Services like RitzPix and Shutterfly struggle with packaging, leading to potential damage.
For smartphone users prioritizing uncropped prints, EZprints and RitzPix offer better aspect ratio support. Bay Photo provides a reliable mid-range option with decent quality and packaging. Amazon Prints is convenient for Prime members, but packaging is a concern. Walmart offers a smartphone-friendly size but limited options. Services like Winkflash and FreePrints raise reliability and transparency questions.
Ultimately, the best place to print your photos depends on your specific needs and preferences. Consider what matters most – quality, price, smartphone compatibility, or secure delivery – and choose a service that aligns with those priorities.
