Back in the days when 35mm film was the photo medium of choice, you had one and only one option for getting those birthday party pics into your hands: The local photo counter. But now that you're shooting digital photos, you have options. Do you print photos at home? At a store kiosk? Through an online photo print service? Here's our medium of choice, and how we came to the decision.
Despite taking literally thousands of photos each month, I rarely need to print them out. But recently, when going through some group shots from a college friend's wedding, I found myself wanting to get some images off my hard drive and into some frames.
There are several options for someone wanting to print a small stack of photos to line the frames of a gallery hallway. Each one has it's pros and cons:
Printing Photos at Home
+ Instant gratification.
- Sometimes poor photo quality.
- Need extra software to edit photos.
- Most expensive, thanks to ink and paper costs.
Printing Photos at a Store Kiosk or Counter
+ Same-day photos.
+ Lowest cost, overall.
+ Good photo quality.
+ Editing photos is made easy.
- Can't be done from home.
Printing Photos from an Online Service
+ Can be done completely from home.
+ Superior photo quality.
+ Make photo edits easily.
+ Low-cost...
- ...but you pay for shipping.
+ ...but you can easily find coupon codes for most sites.
In the end, I decided to go with the online service.
It surprised me to discover that printing photos at home wasn't the most cost-effective method. And while online printing came out to be a bit more per photo than heading to my local Target's photo kiosk, I appreciated the fact that I didn't have to add a trip to the store to my "to-do" list.
What about you? How do you print personal photos? Why? Tell us in the comments!
(Images: Flickr member ianturton licensed for use under Creative Commons, Flickr member lukemontague licensed for use under Creative Commons)
Tina Wilson's Striking Style 
Before & After: A Bathroom Goes From Pinky Peach to Sleek and Chic
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Hose Jockey Wall Mount
20 Scrumptious Brunch Recipes 
Magic One-Ingredient Ice Cream 5 Ways: Peanut Butter, Nutella, and More
Comments (4)
I print 4x6 photos at home using my Canon Selphy. The quality is great and I get instant gratification. I think the cost evens out compared to online once you factor in shipping costs. I order all of my larger prints online.
if i want high quality prints I use Adorama. They have great quality, a good turn around and often run specials to get deals on prints. You get choices of many different papers to achieve the look you want, and their shipping is a flat $5 rate. If you are printing a few it doesn't make sense, but if you are printing a lot, it does. You can also imprint the back with whatever you want. So if you are a photographer you could imprint a copyright on it etc. or if it was from a friends wedding put their name and date on the back.
If i just need some prints. i use whoever has a deal going on, often walgreens. Recently I think I used snapfish and got 121 photos for $1.07 shipped. Can't beat that anywhere and the quality was pretty good.
No matter what I can't see how printing at home will ever be cost effective (we used to do it back in the day before digital cameras were the norm, we have had one for forever). Plus the time it actually takes you to do it if you are maximizing a sheet (not using 4x6 paper) you have to cut them all out too. If you are using 4x6 paper and you use a point and shoot rather then a SLR your photos are actually 4x5.3, not 4x6, so just another thing to think about.
Then to get into archive quality of printing at home, I just don't see it happening. And the cost of your printer (nicer printers cost more $$)... I got rid of my inkjet and just have a laser b/w now since i don't need to print anything else really.
As a real life example. I help out a local non profit here with a golf outing. The year before I did it the photographer brought along her own little photo printer. That thing chugged away the entire time the golfers were out since you need 4 copies of each. I think she just barely got them done. I am guessing it used a lot of ink too... When I started doing it, I take the photos, drive over to CVS, I have the photos 20 min later and it costs about $9. Too easy, especially when you factor in the cost of your time to print that many yourself.
when i print at home, i'm usually only printing a few, and since i use photoshop, it helps me to be able to print at home so i can tweak the photo and see instantly if that improved the picture. ordering online or at the drugstore is impractical unless you are printing a lot or printing large sizes.
I'm not sure why you list "Can't be done from home" for in-store prints -- nearly all of the store options will allow you to upload your order online and simply pick it up in store.
Costco is a great bet for this -- $0.13 a print for 4x6, and no minimum order.