Ever since I got into digital photography 2 years ago, I’ve always sent my digital photos to commercial printers. I personally use DigiPrint as I’m also a member of their DigiPrint Pro club.
I’ve also noticed a lot of friends and fellow bloggers giving out personal calling cards made from printed photo papers. Some are done commercially (3 pieces can fit in a 4R) while others do their own printing. So, which one is actually better?
Just the other day, I bought a Canon Pixma iP4300 Photo Inkjet Printer. I thought I’d also try some home brew photo printing and see how it goes. I have tons of samples from DigiPrint to compare it with. At the same time, I can also do the calling cards by myself.
There are some drawbacks on either approach.
Commercial printing is cheaper (Php5.50 to php6.50 for a size 4R) especially with bulk printing. You have wider choices in terms of print sizes — 3R to 12″ x 18″ (some even higher). However, since they usually do bulk, you’ll need to accumulate several dozen pictures first before going to the printers. You can have one or two copies printed but it’s a lot of hassle to go out just to do that.
On the other side, printing your own photos at home is much more convenient. However, the initial cost could be a little steep. Though there are some less expensive photo printers that you can get for about Php2,500, they don’t support higher resolutions too. Still, for some, the convenience is a huge payback since you can experiment and do the printing right away.
Obviously, the combination of both is always the best set up. Do you guys do your printing yourself? If so, what photo printers do you use and what’s the most recommended one to get that’s currently available in the market.
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