RATED: ONLINE PHOTO LABSYou've been thinking about trying an online photo lab. It sounds simple, send your files over the internet and the photos arrive in the mail a few days later. But how good is the quality? What about cost? How long does it take? How good are the poster prints?
Pop Photo to the rescue with another of their fine comparison articles, "Click to Print", in the May 2006 issue (pp. 75-79). They sent photo files to 10 online labs and rated them in six categories: Print Quality, Price, Ease of Use, Turnaround Time, Storage Policy, and Poster Prints (quality). Each lab was given from 1 to 6 stars (6 being best) in each category. I've summarized the results in the following graphic.
There are additional comments in the article about each lab. Do you want to create a photobook, make U.S. postage stamps with your own photos on them, or put your photos on specialty items? How easy or difficult are the sites to navigate? Does a site excel in some unique way? The article will tell all this and more. If you want to try an online photo lab, this article article is well worth reading.
