When you upload images to the cloud Google Photos compresses them, keeping them under 16 megapixels. But in my small, 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 point-and-shoot with a 24-megapixel sensor. The photos look nice and clear in my book, and I can't tell if they're compressed. ,michael calore
Best for selling your photos
Starting at $13 per month
If you're looking for something that goes beyond making prints of your snapshots, SmugMug is our top choice. It is popular among professional photographers for its online showcase, RAW file storage, and print sales options. You upload your images, put them in a gallery, and show them to customers, and even sell prints directly from those galleries.
SmugMug handles all the details of getting your online images to the print lab. This automatically sends your image to the printer whenever a customer orders a print, which is very useful if you're selling your work. Prints in the US are handled through EZPrint Labs; In Europe, it works with Loxley. However SmugMug is not free. Access to the Basic plan, which gives you unlimited online storage, a private gallery, and strong integration with Adobe Lightroom, among other things, will cost you $13 per 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 giving out these clever little half-size business cards from a company called Moo. Had come. Moo still offers those cards ($21 for 100 of them), but it has also evolved into a full-service print shop that can do anything from business cards to custom postcards and water bottles. Moo wouldn't be my top choice for photos, as that's not really its specialty, but for artwork, invitations, postcards, flyers, and just about everything else, I'm impressed.
I printed a few postcards with some custom designs (including photographs and some of my child's artwork) and was impressed with the accuracy of the colors. All the papers I've tried are 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. This would be my only real criticism—Moo's online tools don't offer as many customization options as I'd like. Luckily, it's easy to do the work yourself in free software. reinforced tape And then upload your files as PDF or JPG.
Printing services should be avoided
Amazon Photo Printing: This service produced the worst images – not just from this particular test, but the worst prints I've ever seen. The best thing I can say about it is that it is fast. I had my prints in less than 24 hours. The problem is that out of the 25 prints I ordered, eight had typographic errors. Convinced that the 30 percent failure rate must be some kind of fluke, I ran another round of 25 (different) images, and this time seven of them were misprinted. I believe this is a kind of progress, but not one I would recommend. I didn't bother to try again and I suggest you avoid Amazon's photo printing service.
Walmart/Target/CVS/Walgreens: Technically, the 1-hour photo kiosks didn't go away. They made their way into pharmacy chains. There is nothing wrong with these services. They're convenient, and it's still the fastest way to print your images as uploaded jobs are typically processed within a few hours. But results vary greatly from store to store. Like the old 1-hour services, the quality of prints you get depends on what size the machine is in 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.