In an era dominated by smartphone photography, the desire to transform digital memories into tangible prints remains strong. Finding the Best Picture Printing App is crucial for anyone looking to bring their cherished moments to life. While numerous online photo services offer apps, not all deliver exceptional quality, user-friendliness, or value. This review dives into popular photo printing apps, comparing their strengths and weaknesses to help you choose the ideal service for your needs.
Mpix: Popularity Doesn’t Always Equal Perfection
Mpix stands out as a widely recognized name in online photo printing, boasting an app designed for convenient smartphone ordering. Despite its popularity, our expert panel’s evaluation placed Mpix prints as their least preferred. A significant drawback is Mpix’s inability to print smartphone photos without forced cropping.
This mandatory cropping can be a deal-breaker for photographers who meticulously compose their shots. Services like EZprints and RitzPix cater to smartphone users by offering a 4:3 aspect ratio print size, perfectly suited for most phone cameras. Furthermore, Printique and Nations Photo Lab provide the flexibility to print images uncropped, regardless of aspect ratio discrepancies. Currently, Mpix lacks both of these customer-friendly options.
Bay Photo: Middling Quality Despite Smartphone-Friendly Sizes
Bay Photo offers small print sizes optimized for smartphone photographs and commendable sturdy packaging. However, testing revealed only average print quality. In blind comparisons, participants often ranked Bay Photo as a satisfactory second choice, but rarely as a top or bottom pick.
Snapfish: Low Prices Come at a Cost
Snapfish attracts budget-conscious consumers with its incredibly low prices. Unfortunately, this affordability is reflected in the disappointing print quality. Both 8×10 and 4×6 prints exhibited harsh contrast, resulting in lost shadow and highlight detail. Portrait photos displayed noticeably orange skin tones. Packaging also proved inadequate. Smaller prints arrived in flimsy cardboard envelopes lacking padding, while an 11×14 print, though shipped in a tube, suffered damage due to absent internal padding.
Damaged print edge from Snapfish due to inadequate packaging.
Snapfish’s protective tube for larger prints failed due to lack of internal padding, leading to shipping damage.
RitzPix: Damaged Prints and High Shipping Fees
RitzPix also delivered a damaged 11×14 print. Shipped in a flat envelope with thin backing boards, the print’s corner was crushed during transit. This damage was preventable with larger envelopes or boxes, standard practice among competitors. Adding insult to injury, RitzPix charged an exorbitant $14.95 for shipping, double the average cost, for this subpar service.
Damaged corner of a RitzPix photo print due to poor packaging.
RitzPix’s undersized envelope and flimsy packaging resulted in corner damage to this 11×14 print during shipping.
EZprints: Consistently Poor Print Quality
Like Snapfish, EZprints consistently produced underwhelming prints. Every photo exhibited a hazy, washed-out appearance, lacking sharpness. Areas of consistent color appeared mottled and uneven.
Shutterfly: Average Quality and Packaging Issues at a Premium Price
Shutterfly ranked as the second most expensive service tested, yet print quality remained merely average. Packaging was a primary concern. Small prints arrived in thin envelopes, while 11×14 prints, shipped in tubes, were significantly curled, requiring flattening before display.
Curled photo print from Shutterfly due to tube packaging.
Tube packaging from Shutterfly, while protective, resulted in substantial curling of the received print.
While uncurling prints is possible, it requires careful handling to avoid damage. A safer method involves flattening prints under weight for a day or two.
Flattening a curled print with heavy books.
Flattening curled prints safely requires placing them under heavy, flat objects like books for an extended period.
Zazzle: Tedious Ordering Process and Limited Options
Zazzle offers photo printing but focuses on single-order jobs with a cumbersome user interface and limited paper choices. Selecting print sizes involves dragging each image individually onto a template on its order page – an inefficient process for multiple prints.
Winkflash: Customer Service Concerns and Negative Reviews
Winkflash faces numerous negative customer reviews. Beyond reports of customers losing access to hosted photos due to ownership changes, users cite difficulties contacting customer service, which is only accessible via a web form, lacking phone or email support. These issues led to an easy dismissal of Winkflash.
FreePrints: Too Good to Be True?
FreePrints offers up to 1,000 free 4×6 prints annually, requiring only shipping payment. However, its website provides minimal information about the company, prints, or ordering. The adage “if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is” applies here, warranting caution.
Amazon Prints: Decent Quality, Disappointing Packaging
Amazon Prints provides 4×6 prints at a competitive price. Amazon Prime members who utilize Prime Photos can directly order prints of stored images. The ordering process is straightforward, and print quality is average, although skin tones tended towards orange. Delivery took six business days. Packaging, a flat mailer with thin cardboard, proved inadequate, resulting in corner damage to one print.
Walmart: Smartphone-Friendly Size, Limited Selection
Walmart offers a 4×5.3-inch print size, accommodating smartphone 4:3 aspect ratio images without cropping. However, its overall print size selection is less comprehensive than top-rated services.
Conclusion: Choosing the Best Picture Printing App
Selecting the best picture printing app depends on individual priorities. While Mpix is popular, its forced cropping and middling print quality are drawbacks. Snapfish and EZprints offer budget options but compromise significantly on quality. Shutterfly is pricey for average results and packaging issues. RitzPix suffers from damage and high shipping costs. Winkflash and FreePrints raise customer service and reliability concerns. Amazon Prints provides decent quality but inadequate packaging. Walmart offers a smartphone-friendly size but limited options. For users prioritizing print quality and smartphone compatibility, exploring alternatives that offer uncropped printing and better overall performance is advisable.
