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There is nothing more valuable than preserving precious memories in your life than having printed photos of these moments. For this reason, many digital photo printing services are available to help you cherish those moments. When choosing the best service for your digital photos, some of the criteria that should be taken into account are print quality, ease of use of their web interface, and of course, the value for money.
This report is a comparison between two renowned digital photo printing services that are available today, SnapFish and Kodak Gallery. This comparison report presents details of the features offered by both services, advantages/disadvantages of using these services, as well as details on pricing for both.
SnapFish is an online digital photo printing service that allows you to upload your photos and print them in various sizes. You are given an unlimited online photo storage, and can create photo slideshows as well as share photos from your library. In addition, SnapFish lets you create and personalize over 100 unique photo gifts including cards, calendars, clothing, mugs and many more. The gifts are available at their online store.
SnapFish is considered one of the best digital printing services due to its impressive features, easy to use interface and high quality photo printing. They also have a comprehensive photo editing tool. Other than the basic editing options such as rotate, crop and add tints, Snapfish also have the color correct, fill flash and add borders options.
SnapFish offers an application called PictureMover that can make uploading a breeze. Once installed, PictureMover will automatically take your selected photos (from your camera or other devices) and transfer them to your Snapfish account. Several things that you can do with your photos include:
Once you finish creating and editing your photos, SnapFish gives you the option to have your order shipped or pick your order from a nearby store (you can choose from their list of over 10,000 stores nationwide). However, one drawback is that although they offer a standard fee for the prints, if you choose to pick your order from a store, the product availability and pricing will vary by retailer.
SnapFish is not only known for their high print quality but also the inexpensive print prices. They only charge 9 cents for each digital photo print. When you initially sign up, SnapFish will let you have 20 free prints. SnapFish also offers free shipping on orders over $20.
Kodak is already an established name in the digital photo industry, and their digital printing service, Kodak Gallery offers easy-to-use and comprehensive features to users.
Kodak Gallery uses an advanced image technology that can eliminate image flaws such as red-eye, blurring, bad pixels and imperfect exposures. They are best known for their intuitive website and easy-to-use interface. Among their digital photo printing features include the ability to enlarge, shrink, rotate, edit backgrounds and layer text on the photos. Another great feature is Smartfit, a tool that can be used to create a customized photo book very easily. However, the choices of backgrounds for photo books are quite limited compared to SnapFish. Kodak Gallery also allows you to download high-resolution photos.
Similar to PictureMover application by SnapFish, Kodak recently introduced their Upload Software v2.0, an applcation that runs on your desktop and lets you upload pictures using the drag and drop feature. This uploader lets you automatically sort images alphabetically, chronologically, or according to the order that you added to the application. You have complete control over your uploads and can pause or resume uploads where you left off (e.g in the case of a network connection problem).
Kodak Gallery also has a decent collection of photo gifts such as blankets, drinkware, iPhone cases and more, although not as many as offered at SnapFish online store. Kodak Gallery provides unlimited online photo storage provided that you make at least one purchase from their Gallery per year.
The price of photo printing at Kodak Gallery ranges from $0.15 for 4 x 6" Matte/Glossy print (higher than SnapFish) to $22.99 (20 x 30" Matte/Glossy print). You can also opt for their Same-Day Pickup Service to get your orders from participating stores. Using this service, however, you are charged the store's prices upon pickup. Kodak Gallery may be a good choice if you want to order your photo prints in bulk since they also offer volume pricing.
Both SnapFish and Kodak Gallery offer great flexibility and creativity to create excellent digital photo prints. Although the differences between these two digital photo printing services may seem minimal, two important factors that cause SnapFish to rank higher than Kodak Gallery are the exceptional print quality and low price. The 20 Free Prints offered by Snapfish is also another attractive deal that can attract many digital photo enthusiasts to use this service. The only feature for SnapFish that I would suggest to be added to their list of web service features is the ability to login through Facebook, since this would definitely make it easier for users who have existing Facebook accounts.
