I am FINISHED with printing photos at home!

[pjlla]

I've been printing my digital pictures at home for the past 3 1/2 years. The quality, over time, has varied (mostly depending on the paper), but for the most part I was happy.... until recently. It seems like the ones I have printed most recently (last few months) have been getting worse and worse. I did some head cleaning/deep nozzle cleaning on my printer and tried various types of paper, but lately the pictures STINK (dark, grainy)!!!

DH has been trying to talk me into getting my pictures printed somewhere else (like Walmart) for cost reasons. But I was unwilling to give up the convenience of printing what I want at home. UNTIL NOW!

I printed 115 pictures last night at Target on the Kodak machine (the one where they print them behind the counter, not at the machine that is like a copier). Just for "kicks" I printed a few that I had already printed at home. The difference is ASTRONOMICAL!!! I can't believe what great pictures I have taken! The ones I printed at Target are so sharp and clear and bright!

The only problem it makes me want to re-do MANY of my scrapbook pages I have done recently.... but I won't... no time for that. Onward and upward.

Just sharing.........................P

 

[GC&S]

I print my own photos too. Sometimes I will get them printed other places (especially if they are having a great deal). I have had two photo printers and the differences are night and day. Also, the type of paper makes a huge difference. I will never use Office Max paper again. I print out odd sizes which is why I like printing my own.

 

[Merandab4]

Like you, I have discovered that printing my pics on a Kodak picture maker is far better quality then printing them at home, (even with my photo printer).
The only time I print a pic at home is if I want to print something real quick to show somebody. But I never use those printed pics for scrap booking or framing.

If you like printing your pics at Target, Next you should tru printing them from the internet through a server like winkflash.com. They are only 11 cents a pic where as at target you are paying at least .20cents, right?

 

[goofymom/pop]

I recently had a printer blow out and was so bummed because my normally awesome pics (printed by my printer) were turning out horrible. Then I bought a new printer and they came out dull.....ugh...so then I borrowed my daughters printer and voila back to the quality I love. I think when you print as much as we do then you just wear out the printer. My problem is I am too picky about color, clarity and overall quality. I had my local camera store print some and they were not as good as I print at home. I have however ventured into the online printing world due to cost, time and well mostly TIME again. I am so busy with commitments right now that I need to say print this and have it delivered. to my door without me spending so long on the computer.

By the way I swear by HP premium photo paper glossy. Sams sells it for 29.99 for a 150 sheets. That is by far the best price I have ever seen. Usually this paper is 19.99 for 20 sheets at Office max. Check it out.

 

[LindaBabe]

Even the services are sporadic. I've been using snapfish for several years. Sometimes, I'm not impressed with my pictures, they're good but not great, but this last time, they were extraordinarily good. I still print odd sizes at home occasionally but I've NEVER printed anything as good as these last ones - for 12 cents a print!

 

[tnhillbilly]

I use Wal-Mart. .12 per copy if you upload the picture, and pick up in the store, no shipping. The down side is it usualy takes two days to get them.

 

[Spinning]

I like winkflash. Haven't had one bad picture yet.
Snapfish was fantastic for roll film but I found their digital prints always ended up dark and not a lot of color contrast. Plus their shipping!
I also use the kodak machine. Some are better than others. We have a brand new one in town and I use it all the time. love it.

 

[MissBubbles]

I agree with everyone else here. Tried to print at home - and will do so for a quick photo - but I would rather use Osco, Wal Mart, Target, etc. Quality is much better than I ever got at home. I try to look for coupons & specials whenever I can - every little bit helps.

 

[scrapcreator]

I print very few pics at home because of the same problem - the quality just isn't the same. One of my scrapping friends said that she just made copies at Target and she was very impressed - they even had some "odd" sizes!

Jeanne

 

[Marypoppinsiam]

Another great place is Costco. I compared my Target prints to my Costco prints and the Costco prints are 100% better than the Target ones! The nice thing about Costco is you just go to their website, download and in an hour you can go pick them up or even have them mailed to you. Our local news did a segment on dig pics and even the professionals pick Costco over many of the others. You can even go and do all the cropping, putting boarders on, texting the pics there is so much you can do.

 

[hilltopfamily]

Just another post saying pretty much the same thing.....I used to print pics out at home on our Canon photo printer. Quality kept going down, despite DH cleaning the heads or jets or whatever they're called.

A fellow scrapper at a CM crop suggested Sam's Club, so I downloaded pics while sitting at home drinking my coffee and listening to music on launch.com. 2 hours later I'm in the store picking them up and they look GREAT!!!!! Only 17 cents a print for the rush 2 hour pickup. More like 11 cents a print if you can wait 2-3 days and pick them up at the store. I also toyed with replacing my bad pictures in the scrapbooks I've done but decided I'm so far behind now that I can't even consider that as an option (just starting scrapbooking in the past year, and I have 3 kids ages 8-15!).

 

[aurora19]

I've found that I can only get good quality prints at home if I spend the $$ to buy the correct printer paper and inks. I bought an Epson photo printer and the quality is only good if I use their paper and their inks. (otherwise they fade or the tint is off)

I have been pleased with the online printers (I've used Snapfish, Winkflash, Ofoto/Kodak, and Shutterfly) - the cost of prints and shipping varies - I will usually try to get discount codes.

I also use the digi card reader at CVS when I need photos quick - even better if I can get a coupon - but generally $0.29/print

 

[Stephres]

My husband recently bought me a digital camera with printer and I've used it a little (the printer, I mean). I downloaded all the pictures to the computer and was ready to send them off to a place like snapfish when he suggested that I take the card to the drug store instead. I spent about 20 minutes at the Kodak machine and was almost done when it malfunctioned and had to be rebooted.

My husband thinks the quality will be compromised if I take the pictures off the card and on the computer and then send them electronically somewhere. Do any of you have opinions regarding that? I just don't have another 20 minutes to waste fighting with that stupid Kodak machine!

 

[tnhillbilly]

My husband recently bought me a digital camera with printer and I've used it a little (the printer, I mean). I downloaded all the pictures to the computer and was ready to send them off to a place like snapfish when he suggested that I take the card to the drug store instead. I spent about 20 minutes at the Kodak machine and was almost done when it malfunctioned and had to be rebooted.

My husband thinks the quality will be compromised if I take the pictures off the card and on the computer and then send them electronically somewhere. Do any of you have opinions regarding that? I just don't have another 20 minutes to waste fighting with that stupid Kodak machine!

I have not had any problems with this. I use wal-mart and they download the software to your computer and my prints look as good as they did when using my SLR.

 

[heather31]

I never did print my pictures at home. I always felt that bringing them to have them processed, the quality was so much better and I didn't have to sit and cut them apart. Sam's is probably the cheapest place to have it done, and our Sam's rivals any professional lab in town. In fact, I know two professionals that have their pictures done at Sam's. They are making a killing on the profits.............and 8 x 10 is a little over $1.

 

[PIRATEGIRL007]

I print almost all of my photos at home and they are so much better quality than our labs in town. All of our Wal-Marts have such a wide variety of quality, might be dark, grainy, greenish, etc, but never acceptable quality. Our drugstores don't seem to be much better. We do have a Ritz photo where I used to get all my pics, but my home printer does so well now that I rarely go, except for 35mm. I print all 4 x 6's at home any other enlargements at Ritz. I have a HP Photosmart 345 (? I think) compact printer and always use HP premuim plus paper and never skimp on general ink refills or anything. We have had the printer for almost 2 years, printed over 1200 pics on it with the same great quality I had on the first pic. We calculated with the amount of pics we get from one ink cartridge (+ price of paper) that I can do 4 x 6's in under $.17. That is a better price here than any local photo processors.