We all take a lot of photos with our phones. And you know what? That's ok. The camera on the iPhone takes pretty darn good images, and the plethora of mobile editing apps gives us all more flexibility than we would ever need. But what happens to all these photos after we edit them and post them to Facebook or Twitter? We forget about them. Well now we can actually make use of those photos, and bring them into the physical world hassle free, insanely cheap, and unexpectedly gorgeous.
Printing sucks. I hate printing photos. I hate dealing with the hardware. Ink can cost a small fortune (yeah, even that Kodak ink that promised to save me money- LIES). Paper is a whole other deal. I went shopping a couple days ago for high quality photo paper to print some pictures of friends that I wanted to frame and put on the wall. I paid $10 for 20 sheets of photo paper, and that was the cheapest they had. I could have easily spent $50 on the same number of sheets if I wanted the “highest quality” paper. Ugh.
I brought that paper home only to realize that the black ink in my printer was completely empty. So after buying new black ink and paper, I was in this over $25. I just wanted one 5x7 picture! It was while I was watching the photo print out that I realized I could have done the exact same thing for $0.89 if I just thought about it a little harder. I could have used PostalPix.
We all have tons of images on our phones from the native camera app, Instagram, Camera Awesome, Snap Seed, whatever. I’ve met some people with pictures on their phone sucking up more flash memory space than anything else. I’ll bet the thought of printing those images never came to mind.
Well now printing is possible, and it’s not even hard.
Quality prints of all your mobile photos are available for ridiculously low pricing. Order 1 or 100, it's up to you!
What is PostalPix? It’s an app for iPhone and (coming soon on Android) that lets you upload, select print size, and order quality photo prints all from the comfort of wherever you are. You can buy one, or fifty at any combination of sizes. What’s more, they are delivered within a few days, look great, and cost virtually nothing.
- 4x4 Squares cost 29 cents
- 5x5 Squares cost 89 cents
- 8x8 squares cost $3.49
- 4x6 prints cost 21 cents
- 5x7 prints cost 89 cents
- 8x10 prints cost $3.49
To get a set of 5x7 prints costs so little I don’t even hesitate to hit the “buy” button. I have apps that cost more than it would cost for me to get a stack of prints made.
And they are really nice prints. They don’t feel cheap. They don’t come damaged. They look better than if I printed them at home (because let's face it: most of our home printers suck).
When I saw that PostalPix specifically advertises that they print Instagram photos, I was really skeptical. To me, Instagram screams sucky resolution, low quality image that only looks good on an iPhone. So I made a point to get some Instagram photos printed just to see how good they looked.
Turns out, they look a lot better than I ever expected. They are sharp, the colors are great, and the little square prints serve as excellent decorative pieces. Ladies, scrapbook till your heart’s content. I would go so far as to say that the Instagram prints look better than those I had taken with the native camera app.
So prints are great, but that’s not the best thing PostalPix has to offer. If you’re up to spend just a bit more money, you can get your images printed on aluminum.
And photos printed on aluminum look flipping awesome.
I had two of my Instagram photos printed on aluminum, and I have to say, I kind of want a whole wall in my house decorated with these. These aren’t just stickers on aluminum coasters. PostalPix prints directly onto the aluminum, so the image lasts longer, looks better, and is easier to clean. Heck, take a bottle of Windex and a rag to these puppies and they shine right up. PostalPix includes a magnet and a square of double-sided tape with each aluminum print order, letting you choose to mount to a wall or your refrigerator.
The aluminum prints are sturdy, easy to clean, and look just as good as they did on my phone.
Do me a favor. Pull out your iPhone, go to your photos, and just browse. I’ll bet you will find at least ten pictures you would like to see on something other than a screen. Well now you can, and you can rest assured that the prints will look stunning.
PostalPix is available on the Apple App Store for free. It's coming soon to Google Play.
US only, right?
Yeah but their goal is to grow internationnally, just go on their website, enter your mail and your country and they will let you know when the hit you country !! Just made it.
You can buy 100 sheets of 4x6 premium HP photo paper for $3.65 on Amazon....
8.5x11 Kodak Photo paper is $13.99
lololol wow. How could you say something like that and yet be on FStoppers website? The only point to this is if you want cheap crappy "home printed" versions of your photos. Postal Pix is trying to meet high end prints with mobile photos. Sure, you could download your images and upload them to Bay Photo, Adorama, etc but that's not the point. Even a bad photo printed nicely is still nicer than a bad photo printed badly.
My printer takes $80 worth of ink and it is not even a professional photo printer. I wouldn't bother wasting my expensive ink on a photo when I can have someone print it for 29 cents. And let's not even bother comparing them to Walmart... smh
Its a cellphone photo, its going to look like crap anyway. And if its worth printing, its probably worth doing some editing on too, eh? Get an Epson Stylus, you'll love it.
Sent from Galaxy Nexus
I still think you are missing the point. You can have a good shot from a cell phone with limitations. I'm sure you don't need an explanation on why.Print quality though would make a cell phone picture look terrible all together though. This is a simple way to get a picture made without all the hassle plus knowing your print isn't going to fade after 6 months because you decided to instead get it printed on a 40$ "photo" printer you picked up at wallmart down the street.
I don't think I'm missing the point, I get what the service is for. The author made the argument that it was as economical as it was easy, which it isn't. I understand the service is useful for some, but for me, I prefer control over editing and output instead of a simple "one-click" solution.
"Instagram-ed' photos have already overrun the internet, do we really need them littering the real world as well? Are these the photos we're going to pass on to our kids? Just wondering.
Two things:
1) you said "I prefer" which, yes, one can prefer to have more control but if you really think about it a majority of the population couldn't tell you the difference between a megapixel and megabyte. So for THEM it can be convenient. For people who are in the know of photography, this is a gimick like Instagram.
2) Instagram-ed photos have been overrun but i much prefer instagrammed then photos that have been run through iphoto or picasa or PS Elements (poorly done) horribly edited and shared like the ones you see litered on Facebook (Example: fake bokeh, glittery stars, crappy vignette). Plus, Instagram makes taking photos fun for the average Soccer Mom (or dad). Nothing wrong with it. Overall, this also gets prints made. That is the important part. What good is a great photo in the computer hidden in the folder and forgotten by a non-photog vs a semi-decent snapshot from a camera printed and sitting on the coffee table? I'd much rather see those photos out on paper and this enables everyday people to print more often with ease. You can't deny that.
Yep, I agree it's useful for some people.
Just make sure you have iOS 4.3, my old iPhone 3G ain't having it. Looks like a reason to upgrade!!! :)
Hahahaha ... you guys did again!
You forgot how powerful and well read is your blog and almost put down their website/app.
They act fast but asking for 3 to 4 days to ship! F-Stoppers has to change this name, you guys are MOVING others more than anyone else!
Cheers!
Hey, these guys just started a Kickstarter campaign.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1540849422/postalpix-app-photo-prin...