photobox.co.uk

Here's a cheeky little website for those of you without a decent printer to print off digital camera photos...photobox.co.uk - a website which will print them for you.

With the invention of the digital camera, the majority of photo albums have been consigned to Facebook, or on the "My Documents" section of your computer rather than the more traditional ones hidden away on bookcases until the time comes to embarrass friends or loved ones, but this website will print out any photos you wish, even saved from Facebook, and continue this aged old tradition!!

But why bother paying to have someone simply print out your own photos?? Isn't that one of the great differences of a digital camera and a disposable one? Well, to get you hooked, the website offers 40 free photos when you sign up - a great reason to join as I used it to print off 40 photos to remind me of my time at university...and haven't used it since!! (I've actually got 4 free photos lieft by all accounts!) But that's not what most people will do, most will want to use it time and time again, as the service sees a 48-hour turnaround from sending them your photos to receiving them in the post. They come in a traditional packet that all old disposables came in which you can keep them in, and the nearest equivalent of the old negatives is a calibration chart to compare the quality of your photos. However, as long as your photos are direct from any digital camera, they will be pixel perfect.

But that's not all the website does. It also does prints, cards, t-shirts, decor, calendars, diaries, and 'fun stuff', which on closer inspection means jigsaws and fridge magnet. Well, some are easily impressed I guess!! But in all seriousness, photobox.co.uk doesn't just print your photos, in can provide all sorts of options for them. The website is very user-friendly to navigate, with an obvious index running down the left hand side of the page, and on the homepage, big adverts encouraging you to sign up.

Once you do sign up, you advantage is that previous photos you've uploaded, regardless of what you've had done to them, stay stored in your user space, so you can return to them which will help save time uploading them again, or if you happen to lose the digital version. After the first batch of free ones, photos can cost as little as 5p - 10p for sizes 5"x3.75" to 6"x4.5" depending on how large an order you make...there is the slight increase in shipping costs, but at £2.49 for 20 - 49 prints, it's not too bad. You can even order over 50 posters and expect to pay no more than £6.99 in postage.

You can request your prints in either matt or gloss, and with or without borders, with all photos printed on "highest quality FujiFilm Crystal Archive photographic paper." (Not my words, the words on the website...so any qualms, go to them!)

Now, I should reiterate, having never used any other elements of this website barring the free photos option, I can't wax too lyrically about other elements of the website, but seeing as I was paying very little for these photos, the service they provided was at an exceptionally high standard. If I'd have brought 200 jigsaws, they'd have driven it in a Bentley in a gold-plated suitcase...probably.