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Google Photos compresses images when you upload them to the cloud, keeping them under 16 megapixels. But on my little 7-inch softcover book, I can’t see any pixelation or digital artifacts in the pictures. About half of my shots were from my Pixel phone with a 12 megapixel sensor, the other half from a nice Ricoh with a 24 megapixel sensor. The photos in my book look nice and sharp, and I can’t tell they are compressed. —Michael Calore
The best way to sell your photos
Starting at $13 per month
If you’re looking for something that goes beyond just printing your snapshots, SmugMug is our top choice. It is popular with professional photographers for its online storefronts, RAW file storage and print sales options. Upload your images, put them in a gallery, and you can show them to customers, and even sell prints directly from those galleries.
SmugMug handles all the details of getting your images online to a print lab. It automatically sends your image to a printer whenever a customer orders a print, which is quite useful if you’re selling your work. Prints in the United States are processed by EZPrint laboratories; in Europe, he works with Loxley. SmugMug is not free though. Access to the basic plan, which gives you unlimited online storage, private galleries and close integration with Adobe Lightroom, among other things, will cost you $13 a month.
Best for printing business cards and postcards
Starting at $21 for business cards and $23 for postcards
I covered SXSW for WIRED in 2006 and one of the weird things I remember is that everyone I met was handing out these clever medium-sized postcards that came from a company called Moo. Moo always offers those cards ($21 for 100 of them), but has also grown into a full-service print shop that can do anything from business cards to personalized postcards to water bottles. Moo wouldn’t be my first choice for photographs, because that’s not really their specialty, but for artwork, invitations, cards, flyers, and pretty much everything else, I was impressed.
I printed some postcards with some custom designs (including photographs and some of my son’s artwork) and was impressed with the color accuracy. All the paper I’ve tried has been of high quality and the color matching is probably the best of all the services I’ve tried. You can upload your own designs for most things or use Moo’s templates, which offer some customization options. That would be my only real criticism – Moo’s online tools don’t offer as many customization options as I’d like. Fortunately, it’s easy to do your own work in free software like GIMP and then upload your files as PDF or JPG.
Printing services to avoid
Amazon photo print: This service produced the worst images, not only out of this particular test, but the worst images I have ever seen. The best I can say is that it is fast. I got my prints in less than 24 hours. The problem is, of the 25 prints I ordered, eight of them had printing errors. Convinced that a failure rate of 30 percent must be some sort of encounter, I shot another round of 25 (different) images, and this time seven of them were misprinted. It’s a kind of progress, I guess, but not one I recommend. I didn’t bother trying again, and I suggest you avoid Amazon’s photo printing service.
Walmart/Target/CVS/Walgreens: Technically, 1-hour photo booths aren’t dead. They were inside the pharmacy chains. There is nothing wrong with these services. They are convenient, and this is always the fastest way to get your images printed as uploaded jobs are usually processed within hours. But the results vary tremendously from store to store. Like the 1 o’clock services of old, the quality of prints you get depends on the shape of the machine and how skilled the technician working that day is. You may be able to get good prints at your local store, and it may be worth checking out if you’re not happy with other options, but for most people, this option is very hit or miss.
