Photo Printing: Should You DIY?
The availability of all-in-one printers at increasingly affordable prices has lead to the proliferation of the “do-it-yourself” (DIY) craze. And one of the arguments and the source of attraction for going DIY is cost. The general impression is that if I did it myself, in the comfort of my home, then I am saving myself a few extra dollars.
But is that always the case? The answer to that question is rather vague, as the costs associated with DIY printing is vague and highly volatile. There are a number of factors that go into printing costs, and if you are someone who cares enough to go into the nitty-gritty, then you might be surprised at what you can find. This is especially true in the case of photo printing. Among the things that we can now print at home, this is perhaps one of the last things that saw the DIY-route. For the most part, we are probably more used to driving over to the nearest Walmart or Walgreens to have our photos – both in the 138-mm films of old and in the digital form – printed out.
So what are the factors that affect cost? For one, the type of paper that you use will have something to do with it. Generally, if you do not use the right type of paper for a printing job, then you stand to waste printer ink. When you are printing photos, then it is best to spring for actual photo paper over ordinary paper, unless you fully intend to just let your ink get soaked up.
As far as quality is concerned, however, one might find that higher cost or paper quality does not necessarily translate to better photo quality, as shared by Robert Mitchell, who did tests on the Kodak ESP using various papers and shared the results on a post on Computerworld.
Bottom line, one might eventually find that as far as total cost of printing goes, it is still cheaper to have your photos printed at the nearest drug store as opposed to printing them yourself – at least if one looks at cost per photo. But if you were just to print a couple of photos to put on your night stand, then, by all means, doing it yourself is the cheaper way to go. Basically, as in anything, one should consider all the factors before making a choice.
Tags: cheap photo printing, DIY photo printing, DIY printing, photo printing, print photoRelated posts
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Loading ...Posted by PrintFriendly on October 20th, 2009
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November 6, 2009 @ 5:06 am
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