Weekly Poll: Print it Yourself or Professional Printer?

[prettytin]

for me, it would be professional printer. it's really a challenge and achievement if you print it yourself. but if you would like to have sure beautiful output, then better to have it printed by professionals

[Gayle]

I would love to print my own photos, but it tends to be a bit costly, not only that, I dont' have the best printer for it. My printer is ok for cards & stuff. I just had some piccies printed & they were done same day & quality is good.

[EricF]

I use my trusty old Epson R200 for proofs and some final prints. It does an amazing job for such an inexpensive printer.

But as some other people have pointed out, ink and media are outrageously expensive, so I tend to send out to a lab to have most things printed.

I would like to print at home sometimes, when I want to use a special media (e.g., canvas) or something I haven't found at a good lab. For that i need to upgrade to a better printer, since my R200 gets cranky when the paper is too heavy (even though the specs claim it should work).

-Eric

[Jargon]

One of the reasons why I print the photos myself is that if I don't use my photo printer at home, the ink could dry up and be wasted due to lack of use. I also have a good photo printer on my desk at the office, which is what I usually use. And my friends and colleagues prefer to have copies of the JPEG files instead of prints.

[Teewinot]

If I had to choose, I'd print myself. I already almost exclusively print my own photos with my Epson r300. It's not a top of the line model, but prints vivid glossies up to 8.5X11 and it's perfect for personal wall hangings and gifts. I also have so much more control...if the photo comes out wrong (color is off or something), I can simply make the changes and re-print.

That said, if I were to start selling more photos professionally in the future, I might have to change my vote.

[SmokedIronMade]

I always take it to a professional printer, I do use an online service.

[Silverfox]

I can't justify the cost of printing at home. Between printing multiple copies to get what I want plus ink and paper, online services make more sense to me

[jdepould]

Just wanted to give a plug for mpix.com. I received two prints from them today that I ordered from the race last weekend. Very quick shipping and the pictures are absolutely gorgeous. In all fairness, they were pretty darn good to begin with but the print quality is absolutely stellar.