Looking for a cheapest place to print off your digital holiday pictures? Here's a round-up of the different photo-printing websites and how much they cost.
Digital cameras mean you can view your holiday snaps instantly, delete any dodgy poolside poses and download photos to your PC at the click of a mouse.
But what about printing? Printers designed to work with a home PC are pretty slow and don't always produce the best quality. Even if you've got a top-of-the-range printer, ink and photographic paper can be expensive, especially when you’ve merrily snapped away several hundred frames within the space of a week.
Online printing services provide the answer. Services such as Snapfish allow users to upload digital photos from a camera or mobile phone and then order prints which arrive in the post. If a simple photo is not enough they will put your favourite shots on to a calendar, t-shirt, mouse-mat, mug or any other ‘photo gift’ format.
Online services typically use the same minilab machines as high-street labs, thereby offering identical print quality. They are generally quick and convenient to use but you will need a broadband connection to upload the files.
I discovered the delights of online printing a couple of years ago after a month-long trip backpacking round Australia. I uploaded photos from my camera to kodakgallery.co.uk, ordered a few snaps which soon arrived in the post, stuck them on the wall and duly forgot all about it.
However the service came into its own a few months later when my PC broke down and I lost everything on the hard drive. When I’d stopped crying over the loss of my music collection and back catalogue of articles, I remembered that my holiday memories were securely saved on the internet and I could log in and see them any time I wanted from any PC.
How much does it cost?
Kodak is similar to its rivals in that the cost per print goes down the more you order. Prices for 6x4” prints range from 5p to 15p and collages -- where a selection of photos are grouped together in one display -- start at £1.29 for a 7x5” collage and go up to £20.99 for a 30x20” size.
Photobox.co.uk came out as the best site in recent research by What Digital Camera Magazine. Prices start at 10p for a 6x4” photo but cost 8p/print if you order more than 150 at one time and go down to just 5p if you order 500 or more photos. The cost of postage depends on weight but starts at £1.50. You can also get £4 off your first order by joining a cashback site like Quidco.
If you plan to order more than 250 photos, Bonusprint.co.uk also works out pretty cheap. The company made its name with high street stores and a postal development service but its website is now big business. Like the other sites it offers range of print sizes and 6x4” prints cost just 5p each if you order more than 250. It also offers photo books for between £3.99 and £29.99 depending on the size, canvass prints from £29 and photo mugs from £4.50.
Snapfish is worth a look too. After uploading your pictures you can order poster prints, photo books, mugs and stationary – and you get 20 prints totally free.
As well as being convenient, you should find online printing also works out cheaper than using a high street store or kiosk to print snaps. For example, to produce prints from a memory card or CD within the hour Boots charges 30p per photo or 15p if you order 150 or more. The store’s 24 hour service is slightly cheaper at 20p per photo but this is still roughly twice as much as the websites charge.
Supermarkets
Asda, Boots and Tesco all provide online printing services backed by Pixology software. Generally the supermarkets are more expensive than the other websites if you just want a handful of prints, but Asda and Tesco work out the best value if you want to order 150 or more pictures as the price drops to just 5p per print.
However, Boots is quite expensive compared to other services. Standard 6x4-inch prints are 20p if you order between one and 50, although after that the price goes down the more you order.
Finally, here’s a nifty table of costs so you can see it all at a glance:
Site or store | Cost of printing one 6x4” photos | Cost of printing 150 6x4” photos |
|---|
Snapfish | 9p | £13.50 (9p each) |
Photobox.co.uk | 10p | £12 (8p each) |
Kodak Gallery.co.uk | 15p | £13.50 (9p each) |
Bonusprint.co.uk | 10p | £10.50 (7p each) |
Asda.com | 15p | £7.50 (5p each) |
Boots.com | 20p | £9 (6p each) |
Tescophoto.com | 15p | £7.50 (5p each) |
Happy snapping!
