Ask Slashdot: Best Option For Printing Digital Photos?

rrossman2 writes "With the birth of our son (who is now just over two), we have snapped and accumulated a ton of pictures — on Panoramio, Picasa, Facebook, etc. What is the best option for bulk printing the photos to a physical format? We all know how fast technology advances, as well as how fast sites come and go; I want a way to have these pictures for my son when he is older... just like my grandfather has photos of himself from World War II, my parents have photos of me when I was little, etc. Are there any affordable services that you can upload the photos to that print and deliver long-lasting pictures? How well do today's photo ink jets last, and what's the best type of paper? I do have a cheaper Samsung color laser printer, but color lasers don't make the most color-rich prints, and using normal photo paper you can find in big box stores doesn't work out too well, as the laser toner seems to peel off on the rollers and gum things up. (Is there a good long lasting paper that seems to work well with laser printers?) I can see what's going to happen in the future: all of the digital photos people take now are going to either end up on a website that won't be around in 20+ years, or get stuck on disks or flash memory that won't last, or for which interfacing with the media will become difficult or impossible."

Photographic prints!

[NixieBunny]

I get mine done at Costco. Cheaper and better than any printer you can buy.

Re:Photographic prints!

[Anonymous Coward]

I get mine done at Costco. Cheaper and better than any printer you can buy.

Costco (at least in the Chicago area) uses Fuji Frontier photo printers. The system uses three lasers (red, green, blue) to expose photo paper which is then stopped and washed. The end result is stunning.

I have always had my photos printed with a Frontier, and will always default to that mini lab over Kodak's.

I pay my rent by selling photography, and while mine is not the only opinion, it seems to be shared by a fair number of others. Just take a USB stick with your photos over there and have them run it. You won't be disappointed.

Re:Photographic prints!

[Red Flayer]

What about those of us that are nowhere near a Costco?

Walgreen's offers the same service as Costco, as do a few other chains. Here is the link for the Sam's Club service: Sam's Club photo prints [pnimedia.com]; all Sam's Clubs do photos.

Unless you want to drop a few thousand (at least) dollars on equipment, you're not going to get the quality or durability of commercial prints.

Re:Photographic prints!

[spire3661]

IF you dont have a sam's/costco use any of the MULTITUDE of online print services. Personally for big jobs i use White House CC (whcc.com). Been with them for 7 years. In short DO NOT PRINT AT HOME. For the average person its a huge waste for shitty results. The prints you get from real print shops places are REAL photographic prints on real photo paper, just like the pics from old film cameras. IM sure there are technical differences, but the output is pretty much the same. DONT PRINT AT HOME.