In an age dominated by digital photography, the desire to hold tangible memories in our hands remains strong. While smartphones have made capturing photos easier than ever, printing those precious moments requires navigating a landscape of online photo printing services. Choosing the right service can be the difference between treasured prints and disappointment. Services like Mpix, though popular, have shown limitations, particularly with smartphone photos and cropping issues. This guide dives into the best options for Where To Get Photos Printed, ensuring your memories are beautifully preserved without unwanted surprises.
When considering where to get photos printed, several key factors come into play. Print quality, of course, is paramount. You want vibrant colors, sharp details, and accurate skin tones. Beyond quality, convenience and user-friendliness are crucial, especially when ordering from your smartphone. Cropping options, or the lack thereof, can significantly impact your satisfaction, particularly if you pay close attention to image composition. Finally, packaging and shipping reliability ensure your prints arrive in pristine condition, ready to be displayed or gifted.
Several online photo printing services cater to different needs and priorities. Let’s explore some of the popular contenders and their strengths and weaknesses.
Services That Offer Smartphone-Friendly Options
For those primarily printing photos taken on their smartphones, services that understand and accommodate 4:3 aspect ratios are essential. Forcing a smartphone photo into a standard 4×6 print can lead to unwanted cropping, cutting off important parts of your image.
EZprints and RitzPix stand out by offering smartphone-friendly print sizes with a 4:3 aspect ratio. This means your photos are printed without automatic cropping, preserving your original composition. Printique and Nations Photo Lab take it a step further by giving you the option to print your image uncropped, regardless of the aspect ratio mismatch. This flexibility is ideal for photographers who are meticulous about their framing and composition. Unfortunately, Mpix, despite its popularity, currently lacks these crucial options, making it less suitable for smartphone photographers who dislike forced cropping.
Considering Print Quality and Packaging
Beyond cropping, the actual print quality and how your photos are packaged for shipping are critical aspects of choosing where to get photos printed. Bay Photo, while offering small print sizes optimized for smartphone photos and sturdy packaging, received middling reviews for its print output in tests. Participants in blind tests often ranked Bay Photo as a reasonable second choice, but not a standout. This suggests Bay Photo offers decent quality but might not be the top choice for those seeking exceptional prints.
On the other end of the spectrum, Snapfish, despite its incredibly low prices, delivered some of the most disappointing print results. Harsh contrast, leading to loss of detail in shadows and highlights, and noticeably orangish skin tones in portraits were significant drawbacks. Furthermore, Snapfish’s packaging was subpar. Smaller prints arrived in thin cardboard envelopes with no padding, while larger 11×14 prints, though shipped in tubes, lacked internal padding, resulting in bent edges during transit, as shown below.
A close-up of the edge of a rolled-up print from Snapfish that was damaged during transport, highlighting the crease and damage from inadequate packaging.
Snapfish’s inadequate packaging led to damage during shipping, demonstrating the importance of protective measures.
RitzPix also faced packaging issues. An 11×14 print arrived damaged due to being shipped in a flat envelope with flimsy backing boards. The envelope was barely larger than the print, offering minimal protection against crushing. This resulted in a corner ding, highlighting a significant oversight, especially considering RitzPix charged a hefty $14.95 for shipping.
A close-up of the corner of a photo print from RitzPix that has been damaged, showcasing the corner ding and the green background.
Damaged corners from RitzPix due to poor packaging, emphasizing the need for robust shipping materials.
EZprints shared some quality issues with Snapfish, producing prints described as hazy and washed-out, lacking sharpness and exhibiting mottled tones in clear areas. These services demonstrate that prioritizing the lowest price can sometimes come at the cost of print quality.
Shutterfly, while being the second most expensive service tested, delivered only average print quality. The primary complaint with Shutterfly was packaging. Small prints arrived in thin envelopes, and 11×14 prints were shipped in tubes, causing significant curling that required flattening before display.
A large photo print that was shipped in a shipping tube and now has a very defined curvature, illustrating the curling issue from tube packaging.
Curled prints from Shutterfly due to tube packaging, indicating a need for flattening before display.
User Experience and Other Considerations
Beyond print quality and packaging, user experience and additional service features play a role in choosing where to get photos printed. Zazzle, while offering photo prints, is designed for single-order jobs and has limited paper options. The ordering process, involving dragging each image individually onto a print-size template, is tedious for larger orders.
Two large coffee table books, placed on top of a couple pieces of cardboard that are being used to flatten an unseen photo print, demonstrating a method to flatten curled prints.
Flattening prints with weights, a common solution for prints shipped in tubes, showcasing a practical tip for users.
Winkflash faces serious concerns regarding customer service and reliability. Numerous negative reviews highlight issues with customer service accessibility (web form only, no phone or email) and even customers losing access to their hosted photos due to ownership changes. These issues make Winkflash a service to approach with extreme caution.
FreePrints offers a tempting proposition: up to 1,000 free 4×6 prints per year (excluding shipping costs). However, the service operates primarily through a phone app and provides minimal online information. This lack of transparency and the “too good to be true” offer raise questions about the service’s long-term sustainability and print quality.
Amazon Prints offers reasonably priced 4×6 prints and a straightforward ordering process, especially for Amazon Prime members already using Prime Photos. Print quality is described as middle-of-the-road, with skin tones leaning towards orange, and packaging, similar to Snapfish, is basic and prone to damage.
Walmart Photo 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 specialized online photo printing services.
Conclusion: Choosing the Right Service for Your Needs
Deciding where to get photos printed depends on your individual priorities. If smartphone photo printing and avoiding cropping are paramount, EZprints, RitzPix, Printique, and Nations Photo Lab are strong contenders. For the absolute best print quality and packaging, Printique and Nations Photo Lab are often recommended, though they may come at a higher price point. If budget is the primary concern and you are willing to potentially compromise on quality and packaging, services like Snapfish and Amazon Prints are options, but be aware of their limitations. Carefully consider what matters most to you – quality, price, convenience, or specific features like uncropped smartphone prints – to make the best choice for preserving your photographic memories.
