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Ask Slashdot: Best Option For Printing Digital Photos?

Posted by timothy on from the making-that-a-literal-ton dept.

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."

6 of 350 comments (clear)

  1. Photographic prints! by NixieBunny · · Score: 5, Informative

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

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    1. Re:Photographic prints! by clickclickdrone · · Score: 5, Interesting

      My friend does pro portraits and he gets all his stuff up to poster sized done via Costco. Having tried a few, he reckons they're the best and the cheapest too which is a bonus.

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    2. Re:Photographic prints! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's simply a different medium. Paintings aren't always true to the original and can be done with oil, acrylic, watercolor, etc. Likewise, not every picture should be on glossy paper.

  2. Don't by Egg+Sniper · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If your son is two now the first thing they'd do as an adult presented with these old pictures is get online to find out what scanner to use to best get them into digital format where they belong.

  3. Re:Expressing the wrong concern? by Relayman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Many services compress the photos when uploaded. It's important to preserve a minimally-compressed version before uploading.

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  4. Witnessing History by OakDragon · · Score: 5, Funny

    This may be the first and only Slashdot story where Costco and Walmart are mentioned in positive light.

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