Where do you get prints from?

[Homemaker5]

So my little men would like me to print out my pages to put in a book for them. They love books and they love looking at the pictures. Their books are 12x12 which is the size of my pages.

Are there any places online that will print 12x12? I saw the post for Sam's but that is sort of far for me. Any other places print this size?

[BrendaC]

I'm not sure but what about mpix?

[kimh]

I think Michelle (msbrad) used Shutterfly. I here hers came out awesome. Not positive if it was Shutterfly though. Someone will be along with some great advice.
kimh

[DBradley]

I use AdoramaPix (awesome metallic paper) and Shutterfly...both do great jobs on printing but sometimes they crop out things in the tops of photos. Also, Shutterfly photos can be picked up at Target's Photo dept.

[Homemaker5]

Really! I didn't know that. That would be very convenient to be able to order and pick up at Target! Thanks!

[deedeeO]

I'm not sure but what about mpix?

I use them all the time for my big orders, proofs, gallery wraps, and now will venture into their proof portfolios and photo books. Otherwise, I go through my website hosted by smugmug or another local vendor, Photoworks San Francisco (awesome giclee prints!!).

[troush]

I've heard of people using www.sbtoshare.com or Costco (got rave reviews).

Option 2: print it out at home using 8x8 and then use those left over 12 x 12 background pages that you bought when you were a paper scrapper and mount the 8x8 on the 12x12 and add cool embellishments.

-Trish

[mom to 4]

I use costco!!!! LOVE THEM!!!!!!! Certain Costco's (mine included) are now offering 12x12, 12x24 and 12x36's. But on those, you cannot order them on-line, I believe. You need to take your CD into Costco and give them the file name. Now, if your local costco doesn't do those sizes (they only gave those sizes to certain stores - high volume - I believe) but you could always do a 12 x 18 and that would give a place to put 3 4x6's, right?? did I do that math right????

I love costco for my printing!

[Homemaker5]

I never thought of printing in 8x8 and using leftover scrap paper as a background. That is such a cool idea and it sure would use up a big stack of paper I have collecting dust.

I wondered about giclee. I never heard of it before but I saw it on Winkflash and it says they use archival ink and such. I wondered what it would look like.

Thanks for all the great ideas!

[cats4jan]

Bought my first scrapbook album.

I found an 8.5 by 8.5 album. I wanted the extra size so when I print my pages sized at 7.9 x 7.9 on my 8.5 x 11 paper - at home - I will have a border around the page. I crop the bottom off so my finished page is 8.5 x 8.5.

I want the border so I can really see the edges of my scrapbook page. Sometimes I have borders that get lost if I crop right to the edge of my printing.

Now, to decide whether semi-gloss or high gloss looks better behind the plastic sleeves.

Oh oh - I told you it was a slippery slope to digi-madness...:eek:

[deedeeO]

I never thought of printing in 8x8 and using leftover scrap paper as a background. That is such a cool idea and it sure would use up a big stack of paper I have collecting dust.

I wondered about giclee. I never heard of it before but I saw it on Winkflash and it says they use archival ink and such. I wondered what it would look like.

Thanks for all the great ideas!

Usually giclees' are for fine art portraiture, almost looking like a digital painting printed on canvas, velvet or other fine art paper....a high class print so to say....I'll be printing some in September...I'll let you know and take pictures of the giclee prints...

[Homemaker5]

Thanks! That be great!

[Ric Cisson]

Since I walked away from the lab, I have uploaded and picked up my orders at Costco in Prescott, AZ. After one test, and snyc of the profile for their Frontier, every batch that I have passed to them for printing, has been as near to a perfect match as you could possibly want. What I like about their service, as a Pro, they are shipping my finished orders back to me at no additional cost so I don't have to drive over the hill through Jerome to Prescott. I like that, not that I dislike driving through Jerome, it is so entertaining and the drive is scenic, though not for the faint of heart.:D

[mom to 4]

Ric:

I am so glad you are happy with costco. I basically use them because 1.) I am always in a rush; 2.) they are so close to me; 3.) I have always been happy with their quality, but I certainly don't have the best eye for that.....you on the other hand do!

They will even ship you your order?????? Wow!!! I will pass that info on to people who don't live close to their costco.

[Ric Cisson]

Colleen, after walking away from the lab that I built over 18 years in Sedona, I needed to find a good lab to work with. I spoke with the folks at this particular Costco, and they wanted to work with me. Believe me the first order was less than optimum quality, typical "one hour" stuff. After I spoke with them, not complaining, but explaining my background with their Frontier system, and talking tech with them, they "wanted" to work with me. Yes, I drive 50 miles one way to Prescott, and they offered me free shipping on my orders if I upload them and I have opted for the "free shipping" on the last three orders. After being in the industry for most of my life, I thought I would never live the day that I would say Costco provides a quality product.:eek: I have lived it now.;) But, I will say, I did a good "marketing" pitch to establish a working relationship with them. :)

[sharlmitch]

Ric,

I'm so happy to hear the opinion of a Pro about Costo!

I have been thinking about using them, but have been hesitant. I wonder though if all Costo's are the same in quality for color. I live in CA. If you order online are they all done at one central location?

I guess I'll have to just test my local one out to see. I would love to have them done local because they are so close and we shop there at least twice a month anyway. Besides I'm so impatient picking them up in an hour would be awesome! :D

Sharon

[mom to 4]

I have been using costco for years now. I have ALWAYS been very satisfied with their work. Only one time did I have a color issue and the girl behind the counter told me that in the edit options, I should ALWAYS check TURN AUTO CORRECT OFF!!! i do that every time and they are always excellent prints.

Costco does up to 12 x 18's in house at all locations. They have two larger sizes which are done at some place down in GA I believe. they are then mailed to you and I am told it is about a 1 week turn around.

They have begun starting to offer some 12 x 12's 12x24's and 12 x 36's at SELECTED costco ( the one by me is one). when you desire one of them, you must bring your disk into costco and give it to the girl/guy behind the counter.

No,, I don't work there....:D

Adorama currently has a 16 x 20 on sale for 4.95. I think that is a pretty good price and i understand that their quality is darn good too! i haven't used them yet though, and the sale goes off on 9/6...not sure if I can get one done by then!

[sharlmitch]

Thanks Colleen,

I'm going to give my Costco a try, since it's only 7 minutes from my house.
I "just" need to get a page together first, that's what takes the time for me anyway! I'm so slooooow! :(

Sharon

[mom to 4]

Just in the last screen before you hit "place orderr" look for those "edit options" and turn the auto correct OFF! It's just a little above 1/2 way down the page. sharon, I am sure you will be happy with their performance. I certainly have and I have probably spent over $1,000. with them over the last few years. I had the senior gifts for the football team done there last year. 18 of them. I would not have used them if I thought their quality was poor.

Good luck!!

[ChristineV]

Colleen, thanks for the info on Costco and Adorama! I have not tried Adorama yet. I am looking for a place to print my larger prints (of my fractal art) 16x20's and the special that Adorama is having is perfect to test them out! Do I need to do anything with them as far as color matching goes?

[mom to 4]

Christine:

I personally have never used Adorama for printing, but someone else on the forum did and they were very happy with them. I loved dealing with them when I purchased my lens. they were very nice.

[ChristineV]

Ah ok .. you said you understand the quality to be good :) The 4.95 special is a good deal to try them out anyway!

[ChristineV]

Oh .. Colleen, do you happen to know the cost of a 16x20 at Costco?

[mom to 4]

I want to say it is $9.99, but don't hold me to that! Just keep in mind that is a size that they do NOT do in house. Some outfit in GA does those from what the girl told me.

[pixlbandit]

I have used Adoramapix for printing. I uploaded my photos with Adobe rgb1998 embedded and no special instructions about paper profiles. That is, I let them do their thing with no interference on my part. The colors came out just fine--what I see onscreen other than the inescapable difference between illuminated pixels and print. I don't think they dropped or changed profiles other than using the profiles for their paper. They were very fast (got my prints within 4-5 days of uploading from NYC to SoCal), shipping quite reasonable, prints safely packaged, and have relatively frequent deals, like this one.
Vicki

PS: Unless they have changed their policy since I last checked, when you open a new account with them, your first $25 of printing is free. What can you lose? If you don't like your prints, try someplace else and it hasn't cost you anything up until that point.

[ChristineV]

Vicki .. thank you very much for the info! They have 20 free 4x6 prints for the sign up special. I am going to try them out for some 16x20s I want printed. The price is really good!

I did try another place a couple times and wasn't happy with how they turned out. they had a yellow color cast to them :( so I have been looking for another place.

Christine

[PattyD]

I use Polkadotpotato.com when I don't need my prints yesterday. Their quality is better than any I've found. Their prices are also very good.

When I'm in a hurry I used Costco. I have a Costco close by so I'm lucky in that respect. I always turn off the color correction option (they have now made it a permanent option). My Costco now has 12 x 12 and 8 x 8 sizes available. The 12 x 12 and the 12 x 18 are both the same price so I try to get the 12 x 18 and add 2 6 x 6 pages or 3 4 x 6 photos on the side to save a little bit of money and use my paper cutter to cut them off.

[mom to 4]

Oatty:

Looks like you and I think alike!!! I have never heard of pokadotpotato.com, but I use costco all the time, and mine has those new size options also!

[deedeeO]

I use Polkadotpotato.com when I don't need my prints yesterday. Their quality is better than any I've found. Their prices are also very good.

When I'm in a hurry I used Costco. I have a Costco close by so I'm lucky in that respect. I always turn off the color correction option (they have now made it a permanent option). My Costco now has 12 x 12 and 8 x 8 sizes available. The 12 x 12 and the 12 x 18 are both the same price so I try to get the 12 x 18 and add 2 6 x 6 pages or 3 4 x 6 photos on the side to save a little bit of money and use my paper cutter to cut them off.

Thanks for sharing the link, Patty.. Polkadotpotato is so cute!!! and some good stuff too.

[Wags374]

Just thought I'd throw Viovio's name into the ring. :)

In a nutshell here is what they offer: 100 Year archival prints (http://www.viovio.com/wiki/Archival+Photo+Printing) in a variety of sizes including a couple of square format ones.

Available Print Sizes: 12"x18", 11"x14", 12"x12", and 8"x8"

I haven't ordered any yet, and I believe they are just finishing up beta testing, so I know exactly what prices are.

[msbrad]

I'm chomping at the bit to use Costco. At present-it is too far of a drive.
I was very pleased with Sam's club, when I recently had 2 - 12x12 printed. They printed them on a larger size paper, and I cropped off the excess. Prices was 3.26-I think.
I've been happy with Shutterfly. Just ordered a 2nd book.
m

[mom to 4]

Good Morning Michelle!!

I am planning on doing some note cards through shutterfly. They did a great job on my last batch. I might even check, costco may offer them now, they have really added a ton to their photo center! I took a great picture of Maryellens college that has the name on a building and I am going to do them up for her. She'll probably give me some strange look like: "Mom, I only do IM-ing":eek::D;)

[msbrad]

Yup- count on that reply Colleen. The other is "i'm too busy"
m

[deedeeO]

I'm chomping at the bit to use Costco. At present-it is too far of a drive.
I was very pleased with Sam's club, when I recently had 2 - 12x12 printed. They printed them on a larger size paper, and I cropped off the excess. Prices was 3.26-I think.
I've been happy with Shutterfly. Just ordered a 2nd book.
m

Michelle,
how was the photo quality of the photo book compared to just printed images? And the layout design....were you able to do some customization?

[Ham1]

I use costco!!!! LOVE THEM!!!!!!! Certain Costco's (mine included) are now offering 12x12, 12x24 and 12x36's. But on those, you cannot order them on-line, I believe. You need to take your CD into Costco and give them the file name. Now, if your local costco doesn't do those sizes (they only gave those sizes to certain stores - high volume - I believe) but you could always do a 12 x 18 and that would give a place to put 3 4x6's, right?? did I do that math right????

I love costco for my printing!

Hi Colleen,

I just saw your post and I was wondering why you don't use SmugMug for your prints? You know that we have integrated to EZ Prints and we offer all the sizes you list and we have a 100% guarantee for all prints & gifts.
http://www.smugmug.com/prints/our-guarantee.mg

Just curious about your feedback. We love feedback on this and would like to better the process in anyway possible.

Thanks,
Markham

[ChristineV]

Hi everyone!

I was trying to catch up on the 10+ pages of posts that I have missed :eek: and saw this one and thought I would update.

I tried Adorama for 16x20's when they were running the 4.95 special ... Fabulous job!!! I am so happy with the job they did!

[ChristineV]

I'm chomping at the bit to use Costco. At present-it is too far of a drive.
I was very pleased with Sam's club, when I recently had 2 - 12x12 printed. They printed them on a larger size paper, and I cropped off the excess. Prices was 3.26-I think.
I've been happy with Shutterfly. Just ordered a 2nd book.
m

Michelle .. Sam's club is now doing printing? Was the paper large enough for a 16x20?

[Wags374]

Hey I saw over on http://www.digiscrapinfo.com/wordpress/ that Costco is now printing 12x12's for $2.99. (Same price as there 12x18's - just saves you having to crop.)

[mom to 4]

I don't know that all costco's are doing the 12x12's. Mine does 12X12, 12x24 and 12x36's. They told me that only the "high volume" photo costco's are doing them. I have had WONDERFUL experiences with costco's printing. Just turn that AUTO CORRECT OFF!!!