Opal Loc: Southwest Michigan

I am getting frustrated with photo printing services in my area. I want prints made but they (walmart and meijer and walgreens) always auto crop. Even when I speak to the person working they tell me they can not change it. I do tweak them in Photoshop and sometimes I crop in post production but I resize it so it is not some odd ball size. I have considered just printing from home but I know inkjet prints do not have a long life span like old school developed photos. Any advice on being able to have my prints the proper size without the "professionals" messing them up??

TREBOR77 Loc: Winchester Kentucky

Canon makes the Pro series that is just awesome....I have one and it does an excellent job

Bill_de Loc: US

HP & Epson have inks/dyes that are archival for, I believe, 200 + years. While you look very young in your photo, they will still out live you. :)

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/jsp/designed-for-excellence.do

I've been using Epson for a while now and like the results. I have a couple of large prints (20x30) on my wall for over 10 years that still look great.

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GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

Regarding sizing, have you tried the following:
After you crop the image the way you want, go to "Image Size" and change the canvas dimension to the next largest standard size.
You wind up with a border that you can cut off later.
Works for me at Costco.

Ol' Frank Loc: Orlando,

So does the HP pro series. I love my Photosmart Plus. Drinks expensive in though. I have matted photos over ten years old that has not faded that I can tell.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

The current Canon and Epson "photo" printers are a joy to use. You can tell a "photo" printer if the description focuses on photo use and if it has at least six ink tanks, including a few shades of black/grey.

Both companies make models that use either dye inks or pigment inks. Everything I read suggests that the pigment ink models produce prints that will last as long or longer than what you get from consumer print services.

The pigment ink printers are a little more expensive than the dye ink models. As near as I can tell, the two current pigment printer leaders are the Canon Pixma Pro-10 and the Epson SureColor P400. They both print up to 13x19. I don't think there are any "desktop" consumer printers using pigment ink that print smaller. There are a few that print larger.

GC likes NIKON Loc: East Greenwich, Rhode Island

If she is re-sizing to an 8 x 10, shouldn't she be getting an exact copy 8 x 10 back from her printer ???

Opal Loc: Southwest Michigan

You have not had issues with fading?

Opal Loc: Southwest Michigan

I think I have been avoiding inkjet prints for a long time on misinformation. I was always under the impression they would fade in the first few years ... Thank you for the link

Opal Loc: Southwest Michigan

Thank you everyone ... I have been under the wrong impression of inkjets for a long time now ... I will start printing my own work from now on and save myself the hassle of taking them in...

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

The Canon Pro series has the Pro-1 and Pro-10 that use pigment inks. The primary difference is the Pro-1 uses much bigger tanks and is aimed at higher volume printing than the Pro-10. The (usually) much cheaper Pro-100 uses dye inks.

All color prints can fade, depending on display or storage conditions. You can ruin any print if displayed where UV from sunlight or inappropriate bulbs reach the print.

The Canon pigment ink prints are expected to have 100 year, or more, life. The dye ink prints are expected to be 30 or more years. Nobody knows for sure, because nobody has had their prints that long.

I've had a Pro-100, that makes the shorter life prints for a few years, maybe four. None of the prints have shown any fading and they are displayed in various places. One is in my son's office where the light is anything but conducive to long print life. There has been no fading issues.

Opal Loc: Southwest Michigan

Thank you so much for the info :)

tainkc Loc: Kansas City

I have been using Epson printers exclusively since the mid 90's at home. I just check a drawer full of photos from that far back. They are just as good looking as the day I printed them. I have some on a wall that are that old also. There is no fading on them either. Both Canon and Epson make home printers that are excellent. They can use either pigment or dye inks in them. The cool thing about pigment inks is that besides last 100+ years, is that you can run them under water and the colors stay put. Like you ever have the need to do that.

In addition, it has also been since the mid 90's that I have been buying my ink from a 3rd party supplier in Long Island and I refill my cartridges myself. It only costs me about 33 cents per cartridge. I usually print only 4x6 and a refill lasts a long, long time and I do a lot of of printing. I can also print at 13x19 with superior results; and that printer (Epson Artisan 1430) only cost me $200.00 on sale about a month ago. I just checked and they are now selling refurbished units at that price. Their refurbished units carry the same warranty. Brand new in a fancy box are only $300.00, which is still not bad.

In other words, do your homework and pick one that suits your needs and you will do just fine. No more Walgreen's.

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

Yes.

If you are referring to 4 x 6 prints mostly then do one of two things or both:

1.) Get a Canon Selphy C910. It's a dye sub printer (no ink to dry up or clog) and it makes nice prints quickly. The paper/ribbon come as a unit so you never run out of one and have some of the other left over.

The paper is slightly expensive but for the occasional print, it's great to have that ability. The printer is about $75.00 or so new.


2.) Get your pics printed at a good print house; I use AdoramaPix or Nations Photo Lab.

They both have sales all of the time and getting prints done is cheap. The ONLY thing that's bad is the shipping, so I wait until there is a print sale, and then get a lot printed at one time. Even 5 x 7 or 8 x 10's or even 16 x 20 or 20 x 30's are inexpensive when they have sales. Example: 16 x 20's are $6.00 right now. 8 X 10's are $1.00 and 4 x 6's are .27cents



That will cover you for your print needs and it's not expensive and you won't have to maintain an inkjet printer.


BUT: if you are just having issues with cropping but are happy with everything else with Walmart or wherever you are going, then just figure out why the cropping issue is happening. It's EASY to think you've done the crop right when you haven't and when you go to get prints made...they don't match the crop you've chosen to print. Every online printer (Walmart and Walgreens included) allow you to choose the crop type (either you lose some or there is some white space on several sides of the images)

Sheila Loc: Arizona or New York

The best way to avoid having some of picture cut off is to size your picture before you go to the store. For example, do you want to print a 4X6, a 5X7, an 8x10 or some other size. When you prepare your file either crop your picture using a 4x6 or other aspect ratio before you save that file and transfer to you thumb drive or disc that you take to the store or before you send your files to the store.

On some circumstances there may be reason to copy a file to a Photoshop blank layer to get what you want.