futurephoto.ca

blackphoto.com

photolab.ca

thesource.ca



By Andrew Rideout

Online printing

Ordering prints online is much easier than you may think. A number of top Canadian photo-finishers offer thorough Internet-based services that can save time and money. There is no software to download and you don’t require image editing software to make changes to your images, add a border or personalize them even further.

futurephoto.ca
Futureshop’s online photo finishing service is relatively inexpensive and boasts a simple and swift sign-up process. During the photo upload process the system told me there was an error but everything seemed to work well. I recommend the Basic Uploader—it is simpler than the Advanced option. The cropping tool and red-eye reducer are so easy to use you could teach a three-year-old to do it. I opted for standard shipping and my order still showed up in less than 48 hours. The images were of good quality. 

blackphoto.com
Black’s is an effectively organized site but it was significantly more expensive than the others for both printing and shipping. You jump right into the uploading process, which is a smart idea, as the shipping forms and sign up are saved for the final step. You can also get pictures printed onto a T-shirt, mug or calendar and add small adjustments to your pictures. The Black’s site pushes a pre-paid photo-finishing service which does save money for people who will print often. When the order was completed I did not receive a confirmation e-mail but the printed images were sharp and well done. Considering the cost per image is more than twice some of the other sites, you would expect good quality.

photolab.ca
Superstore (or Loblaw’s, depending on your location) uses the same platform as Futurephoto. However, Superstore.ca supports a much wider selection of printing options and also offers gifts, calendars, photo books, greeting cards and DVDs, and you can get your face on a variety of NHL-related products and a wide assortment of themed gifts. The photo editing suite included in the upload process is probably slightly more than the average person is going to use but it doesn’t hurt to give customers more than they expect. The quality of the pictures was acceptable and measures up to the rest. Superstore boasts Canada’s cheapest 8x10 photo and was the only site that asked for a credit card verification number during the ordering process. (That’s a plus: online security is a good thing.)

thesource.ca
The online photo-finishing arm of The Source shows the company is interested in being more than its predecessor Radioshack ever was. I was disappointed after my attempt to upload 20 pictures from a CD took way too long. I retried with five images and it worked significantly better. This was the only site that showed me thumbnails during the upload process. It is apparent that The Source knows what its customers want: low prices on standard 4x6 photos. They offered the cheapest 4x6 out of all the sites surveyed but they also have more photo sizes than most others. The photo quality was certainly decent and the glossy images were indeed glossy. Shipping was reasonably priced and several different shipping packages were available.