12/8/2005   English German
  Edition # 57  
San Francisco, 12-8-2005

Online printing at Costco

If you print your digital photos on an inkjet printer, it is extremely expensive. The printer ink mafia has ruthlessly driven up prices in recent years. Additionally, the quality of the photos usually does not withstand the expert eye; the photos are not of the same quality as those from a photo shop, primarily due to the printing process.

If you take the images on a CD to a photo development service, the results can vary. The mega supermarket "Costco," on the other hand, offers a service where you can upload the images via the internet and then pick them up a few hours later at the nearest branch. This is nothing special in itself, but what is exciting is that you can provide Costco with a so-called "profile" along with the images, so that they print the photos exactly as they appeared on a calibrated screen at home in photo editing software like "Photoshop" or "Gimp.

The whole process works like this: Volunteers have a reference photo developed at a Costco store every few months, analyze the result, and calculate the profile from it.

On the website of drycreekphoto.com The current profiles are listed for almost every Costco in the entire USA. To select the Costco in San Francisco, you first click on "California" under "US States" and then scroll down the list on the right to "San Francisco." Under "Costco #144," it states that this branch has a "Noritsu Model 3111" printer that uses "Fuji Crystal Archive Paper." There is a profile available for both glossy and lustre/matte photo paper. I tried it out, and the result was astonishing. And the price is unbeatable at 17 cents for a 4x6 photo. I now know professionals who have their pictures developed there!

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