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There are many sites out there that offer printing services. I am not interested in photo hosting websites such as SmugMug.
What is the best in reference to the following criteria:
I highly recommend Mpix. They produce great quality prints at very reasonable prices, and have a variety of products available
They're not the cheapest, but the quality is superb, so I'm a fan of WHCC.
Also... the account setup isn't exactly quick, but that's a one time process including a test print job, which helps ensure that you get accurate printing.
www.AdoramaPix.com Reasonably priced and I've always found the quality to be top notch.
I'm a big fan of photobox who operate in the UK and across Europe (but not the USA). They are
Standard prints have a very quick turn around - arriving the next day is not unusual.
I've read the occasional review, and most seem to reckon they don't apply post-processing to your images, so if you've got your image just right it should come out right without extra sharpening being applied. For large prints there is some support for colour profiles but they "prefer to provide customers with a free calibration print to use". (More on the technical details.)
I've recently done a survey of the cheap ~€0.10 per 3:2 photo sites in Europe, and selected 10 photo's with different difficulties, than used 2 persons to each select the best print of every photo.
The results, 90% of the selected pictures were the SnapFish prints, so that made it easy for me, for €0.09 per photo, and the ability to disable any on site photo editing (print original as supplied) SnapFish is a very nice way to print your pictures.
But off course you should try this yourself, most sites have a introduction offer like 25 prints for 3 euro and no shipping, just select some good pictures with color, sharpness and detail. And create a blind test to compare them.
I've been happy with Shutterfly but never thought about in that kind of detail. They do well with color though you have to opt out of their magic process.
Update 1/9/2011:
Unfortunately, I'm not longer all that happy with Shutterfly. My last batch of prints (the first in a long time) came out poorly, so I sent this (excerpted) inquiry to try to figure out where the screw-up happened:
I have a question about the prints in my order [number]. Specifically, the color is wrong; they are a bit too dark. I have a calibrated workflow and I turned off VividPics on everything. I'm trying to figure out whether I did something wrong or the problem is on your end. [...]
... which resulted in this (excerpted) response:
On checking your order number [number], I see that you have turned off vivid pics for this order. The images will be printed as you have uploaded to the site. Please edit the image using an image editing software and place a new order for the prints. We do value your Business and have credited your account with 6 free 5x7 prints and 2 8x10 prints so that you can place a new order for the prints. Please note that this offer expires on 2011/1/31. [...]
If you are a member of Costco, their prints are great. The prints, with ICC, match my calibrated monitor.
Depending on the location, you can get prints in Lustre, which is the professional cross between Glossy and Matte. I much prefer Lustre to either.
They also supply you with ICC color profiles you can apply before uploading. They use Dry Creek Photo. Make sure to turn off their auto-correction.
At mine, they use a Noritsu QSS-3411 with Fuji Crystal Archive paper, and a Epson 7880 with Fujifilm Papers for posters.
Here are their current prices:
I've used West Coast Imaging with good success (they are incredible) but they aren't set up for cheap, high-volume, smallish prints. But, they have a sister company, Aspen Creek Photo, that's closer to what you're looking for. I haven't used them yet but if my experience with WCI is any indication, ACP is probably very, very good.
Hmmm... looking at SnapFish prices, ACP is quite a bit more expensive (25¢ per print and up), and it's likely they're not as easy to use. I think it depends on what you need. Lots of fast, cheap prints that are pretty darn good-> SnapFish. Lost of quick, reasonably-priced, but high-end quality prints-> ACP. Some ultra-high-end but kind of pricey prints with top-shelf service-> WCI.
I strongly recommend Whitewall
A bit pricey for routine printing of snaps - but excellent value for those times you want a really good quality result.
They are particularly good for larger format prints and I was very impressed with a recent print mounted on Aluminum and under acrylic.
A nice feature is that you are not confined to the standard dimensions for prints - you can crop to any aspect ratio.
The big downside to snapfish is they really hammer you on the shipping. If you are a member then you are sure to get emails of special promotions like the one going on now that sells 99 4x6 prints for 99 cents.
I will take them on on that. I expect to pay about $6.00 in total but even with this it comes out to under 7 cents per print.
A more concrete example is I placed an order with snapfish where i was to get 365 prints for free after spending 10$. So I bought 10$ of prints at 9 cents each (that is about 110 prints). The total was in the ball park of 35$ because they claimed to have to pay a lot to ship almost 500 pictures. Indeed the package was heavy, but even still that came out to be about 7 cents a picture.
I found with snapfish if you get a great deal or promotion it makes sense to order with them otherwise they will break the bank.
I have been very happy with Photo Pipe. The print quality (in my opinion) is much higher than SnapFish or Shutterfly. I never did try to opt out of SnapFish's "color correction" or whatever it's called, though, so maybe that was the problem. Photo Pipe runs specials all the time for free shipping, % discounts on certain sizes, etc. once you sign up to receive their emails.
In the Netherlands I've always used profotonet.
Decent prices, great quality prints, quick delivery times, and most importantly: the least hassle with payment ever. You don't need a credit card or paypall or similar for payment. all that's required is a valid email address, mailing address and optionally a different billing address. They'll send you the bill digitally, and also a paper copy with the photo's and ask that you'll pay them through your banking account.
They immediately start printing after you've uploaded your photo's. Usually you'll have them within two working days, sometimes even one (depends on time of ordering (before or after noon) and size; packages take longer than envelopes). Of course, they only deliver within the Netherlands, so I guess that's how they minimise their risk (you can be tracked down if you don't pay).
You can upload via the browser (they even a plain old HTML 4 website for dire situations), or through a downloaded little program. Paper types that can be chosen are: glossy, matte, "Fuji Digital Professional DP II Glossy Pearl", and for the black & white fans: Ilford glossy or lustre.
You could give RedBubble a try. Their site is very easy to use, and creating an account takes minutes. When you upload your work, you can configure it for prints of a wide variety. You set your own markup on each print for third-party sales, if that is your goal. You can also keep prints private if you wish to purchase them yourself. Additionally, you can purchase your own prints at a discount (wholesale cost, as far as I gather).
Probably a bit pricey if you're just looking for a few prints, but if it's high quality you're after and unique printing and mounting options (they do awesome face mounted acrylic prints) then Bumblejax has been awesome. Fast turn around and the best customer service.
In India, I have been using Zoomin.com from quite a few years. They have almost cheapest rates of all and their quality is commendable. Their shipping partners are Fedex and Bluedart who are known to deliver stuff in a day after shipping to all major cities in India. (Yes Fedex is really competent in India, trust me).
Other than quality and fast shipping, they have photo retouching options which are basic but work well. They haven't ever gotten the colors wrong even in cheapest of the prints for me. They have great tools to create photo gifts online. Their customer service has been great for me so far. Any issue or question I raised got answered in less than a day (within few hours to be precise).
I think they ship internationally as well and allow you to pay in USD. I just checked and their shipping rate is around $4.50 for photo prints.
P.S. It would be a good idea to search for discount coupon codes for Zoomin as they always have some offer going on. Always.
Edit: I once ordered the free flipbook they offer after sign up and I loved it. It is the best thing I have printed so far.
