Introduction [ Table of Contents | Snapfish ]

Snapfish was a San Francisco start-up that launched in April of 2000 and was later acquired by HP in in 2005. The Snapfish brand name is well known to anyone that prints pictures online and HP wisely kept the brand name.

The Snapfish photo card lineup includes simple, one-sided print cards and single-fold greeting cards like most other printing services. Snapfish offers designer cards such as “Ringo Baby” and “Susie Acheson” but what caught our eye was their recordable Cards. More on that to come.

Quality [ Table of Contents | Snapfish ]

To make a quality comparison with other services, we uploaded a test image (a color photo of tulips) to Snapfish and several other online services that print photo cards. We then ordered two folding greeting cards from each service as well as pack of 4”x8” photo paper cards to compare the print quality between services.

Print quality (photo paper cards)

The Snapfish photo paper cards we ordered had excellent color and excellent clarity. This is pretty consistent with the other services. If you are just ordering photo paper cards you really can’t go wrong with any of the printing services we tested from a quality perspective. Snapfish uses Fujicolor Crystal Archive Paper.

Print quality (folding/card stock cards)

The folding greeting cards we ordered from Snapfish had excellent color with a glossy finish. We were very happy with the print quality and can’t find any excuse to give them anything less than five stars. If you prefer a matte finish you may want to look at Kodak Gallery or PhotoWorks but personally I really liked the glossy finish on Snapfish’s cards. They look and feel more like a professionally printed greeting card you would find on the card rack at your local drug store.

We have one minor grief but we are not going to hold it against Snapfish because it is regarding a feature that none of the other photo card printing services we reviewed offer anway. Snapfish allows you to put a photo on the inside of the card in addition to the photo on the cover. To try it out we put our cat (morgana) on there but when when received the card we noticed some tiny white specks. Again, we are not going to count this against Snapfish because the main cover photo is flawless but we thought it worth mentioning.

Pricing [ Table of Contents | Snapfish ]

Pricing (photo paper cards)

Snapfish’s 5”x7” photo paper cards are sold in sets of 20 on matte or glossy paper for $17.00 ($0.85 per card). The 4”x8” photo paper cards are sold in sets of 20 on matte or glossy paper for $15.00 ($.75 per card). We would have liked the sets to be smaller. Not everyone may need 20 cards or if they need 22 they would have to buy 40. Snapfish offers volume discounts for purchasing more that one set of cards.

Snapfish also gives you the option to have your photo paper cards printed on stationary. Stationary cards allow you to write on the back of them. Standard photo paper cards usually have the photo paper logo on the back and are not so great for writing. Snapfish’s stationary cards are $25.00 for 20 4″x8″ or $29.80 for 20 5″x7″.

When you click on a card in the Snapfish store, be careful to note that the prices listed in the upper right hand corner are preceded with “As low as”. We feel this is a little deceiving at first because those prices are only if you buy 240 cards or more. When you click on the “Pricing” tab at the bottom you will see the full price list. This seems to be a pretty common marketing ploy amongst all the photo printing services.

Snapfish does not list how much a full set of cards costs on the price list like other services do. Also, prices are not displayed under the cards in the store and even if you click on the card you need to further click on the “Pricing” tab to finally see the prices for a single set of cards. We would like to see these a little bit more up front. It feels a bit like the prices are being hidden and there is no reason for this since Snapfish has some of the best pricing we have seen.

Despite these minor annoyances Snapfish pricing is probably the most competitive among all the services we have reviewed so far.

Pricing (folding/card stock cards)

Snapfish generally offers their folding cards for $1.99 per card in quantities of 1-19. There are volume discounts if you purchase more that 20 cards. This is relatively cheap compared to the other services we reviewed. Be sure to check our discounts page to see if there are any current coupon codes or discounts.

Overall we found Snapfish’s Pricing to be very competitive with other print services. That said, we really would have liked the option to purchase around a dozen photo paper cards at a time instead of 20.

Account Setup [ Table of Contents | Snapfish ]

Like most photo printing services, Snapfish requires a sign-up before you can upload and order cards. The signup process is relatively easy. Often Snapfish will have offers when you sign-up for the first time so be sure to check our discount page.

Image upload [ Table of Contents | Snapfish ]

There are a number of ways to upload photos to Snapfish:

• Express Upload (The Flash powered default upload page)
• Basic Upload
• Quick Upload for Videos & Photos
• PictureMover (PC only)
• iPhoto Exporter (Mac only)
• Mobile Upload (for camera phones)
• Mail film
• Mail CD and/or USB drive
• Email

Snapfish’s Flash powered default upload page is very easy to use and supports multiple file uploads so you can easily upload more than one file at a time. The file browser allows you to click and drag to select multiple files within a folder which is a very nice feature.

Once you select your images using the default upload utility it will re-size them down to the necessary resolution for most printing needs. This speeds up the upload and is fine for photo card prints but if you plan to order any large prints you should probably change this setting. To do this, while on the upload screen click “Upload settings” and choose “Large print Upload”.

Another upload setting hidden under “Upload settings” is “Automatically remove red-eye, rotate, and color correct only the photos that need it”. This reminds us a bit of Kodak Gallery’s “Perfect Touch” setting although we are not sure that Perfect Touch does automatic red-eye removal. Another difference is that Snapfish’s corrections occur during upload so you enjoy the benefits when you share your photos versus Kodak Gallery’s corrections that are applied when you place a print order. If you have already made corrections to the photos you are uploading you may want to disable this option.

You can also upload ZIP file containing JPEG files using the default Snapfish uploader. We are not sure when you would really need this functionality but it is nice to have anyway.

If you have Flash disabled or some other problem with the default upload page, Snapfish also offers a “Basic Upload” tool but if you use this option to upload multiple files you will have to browse and select each one.

Snapfish also offers their Quickupload browser add-on as another way to upload your photos. It allows video uploads for sharing in addition to photos. Unless you are using the video sharing features we feel that it is not worth the bother since the default upload page has all the features you would typically need.

Snapfish allows 100MB maximum file sizes which should be more than adequate for files from even the highest resolutions cameras.

Snapfish only accepts JPEG and ZIP file format unless you are using their QuickUpload utility which supports BMP and MPG/MPEG videos. Some professional photographers may find this a bit limiting because JPEG is not a loss-less compression mechanism but saving to a JPEG using a very high quality setting should be adequate in most cases.

Using the web interface the upload speed was effectively 6.6 Mbs which is very good. Uploading a 9.8MB image file took 12 seconds. Unfortunately many broadband ISPs provide only a fraction of upload bandwidth compared to their download bandwidth so you may experience slower upload performance. If you are uploading more than 10 files a good strategy is to select all the files you would like to upload, click the upload button and then go do something else. This is where you will see a benefit from the Snapfish upload technology because it reduces the photo’s resolution to only what is required for most printing needs prior to uploading the photo.

Overall we found uploading photos on Snapfish to be a snap (sorry, couldn’t resist). There are a variety of upload options available but the Flash driven default upload page is so well designed and feature rich that we don’t really see the need for some of the other options.

Some notes on the PictureMover software package:

The PictureMover utility is an application that you can download and install on your PC to upload pictures directly from your camera or memory card. During the install the software will give you three options:

• “Automatically move all of my photos”
• “Let me choose which photos to move”
• “Do not move photos”

If you choose “Automatically move all of my photos” you will be asked if you would like the photos deleted from your camera each time you move photos. This option defaults to “Yes” so be careful here. Unless you trust Snapfish to store your photos then you might want to keep your pictures on your memory card and burn them to a CD or some other media for safe keeping.

Once PictureMover is installed you will see a Snapfish icon in your system tray (the very right hand side of your task bar). If you don’t like it there you can open PictureMover, click “Options” > “Advanced Options”, put a check next to “Hide PictureMover system tray icon”, and then click “OK”.

If you don’t want PictureMover to run when you start-up your PC you will need to remove it from your “Startup” folder. To do this click “Start” > “Programs” > “Startup” and then right click on “PictureMover” and choose “Delete”.

By default, PictureMover apparently uploads a lower resolution image than your original. This will reduce the time it takes your photos to upload and probably saves Snapfish a little money on storage. We uploaded a test image that was 3504 pixels wide and 2336 pixels tall and the software re-sized it to 1773 pixels wide and 1182 pixels tall. For photo cards this is perfectly fine.

If you intend to order 8″x10″ prints or larger then you may want to set PictureMover to upload the full resolution image. To do this open up PictureMover and click “Options” > “Advanced”, put a check next to “Always user large print upload…”, and then click “OK”.

Photo Sharing [ Table of Contents | Snapfish ]

Like many other online printing services, Snapfish allows you to share your photos with others. When you upload your photos you are asked to create an album which is a group of photos centered around a particular theme such as a vacation or event for example. Once you have created an album you can add and delete photos in the album.

The Snapfish slide show feature is nice but not quite as spectacular as Kodak Gallery’s. You can adjust the speed of the slide show, change background colors, and view comments and captions.

Once you are happy with your album you can then share it via the Snapfish share album interface where you enter the e-mail addresses of your friends and family you would like to share with. Snapfish provides an address book so you can just click to add recipients and also create groups. You can also import contacts from Yahoo and Windows Live which is nice feature. We would also like to see GMail as an import option here.

Snapfish offers a couple additional share options in addition to the default e-mail. The first is “share with a link” which provides a simple link to your Snapfish album that you can copy and paste to an instant message or anywhere else. The second is “share to…”, which allows you to post your photos to Facebook, Myspace, Blogger, and Typepad. With the popularity of social networking this seems like a very smart move to us.

After you click “share album” your recipients will receive an e-mail from Snapfish with a link they can click to see your album.

We were already pretty impressed with Snapfish’s sharing features when we saw the “Create & share a new multimedia Snapshow FREE” option. Snapfish provides a number of slide show themes where you can select photos from your existing album to create an animated multimedia presentation call a “Snapshow”. Your images are displayed with a number of animated template effects, transitions, etc. You can share Snapshows the same way as albums.

We easily give Snapfish five out of five stars for all their sharing features.

Storage [ Table of Contents | Snapfish ]

Snapfish provides unlimited storage for your photos and only requires a yearly purchase of single print to keep your account active. This is a better deal the Kodak Gallery but it comes with a catch…

Unlike other services such as Kodak and PhotoWorks, Snapfish does not offer free downloads of your original high-resolution photos. You have to pay $0.25 for the first download and then $0.05 for each photo after that for up to 50 photos. While this fee is small, the other services don’t charge anything so we are taking off a star.

Card Designs [ Table of Contents | Snapfish ]

Snapfish offers the typical 5”x7” and 4”x8” photo paper card designs in sets of 20. Stationary photo cards which are double sided 5″x7″ and 4″x8″ cards are also offered. These allow you write on the back unlike the standard photo paper cards. As mentioned before we would really like to be able to order 10 or 12. Traditional 5”x7” folding card designs are offered as well and can be purchased individually. Snapfish also offers a 4.25″ x 5.5″ folding note card format in sets of 12.

Snapfish doesn’t offer as many alternative card formats as other services such as PhotoWorks for example but one notable exception is their recordable card. This allows you to record a 10 second voice message that will go with the card. We think this is a cool feature with a lot of possibilities. Snapfish also offers 4.25″x6″ and 5″x7″ postcards which you can have mailed directly to your recipients.

Overall we give Snapfish four out of five stars because we would like to see a few other alternative card formats.

Customization [ Table of Contents | Snapfish ]

The user interface for customizing cards is pretty intuitive. You can enter your own message, pick different font styles, sizes, and colors.

Snapfish presents you with a few different layout options depending on the design you choose. Once you have picked a design, you can retrieve photos from one or more of your albums and drag and drop them on to the card. Different designs will allow you to enter varying amounts of text so if one design doesn’t have enough room for your message there are others to choose from.

After your photo has been added to the card a little wand icon will appear if you hover your mouse over the photo. Clicking this icon will display a menu that allows you to:

• Position your photo inside the layout window
• Rotate the photo
• Select an alternative tint (i.e. black and white, sepia, etc.)
• Enlarge or reduce the photo
• Adjust brightness
• Enhance colors
• Remove Red-eye

Envelopes are included with all the cards designs (except for postcards for obvious reasons).

Snapfish provides a number of photo editing options if you want to edit your photo before you decide on a card design. To get to these options, click on the “+” next to the photo in your album and then select “Edit”. From the edit screen you can modify your photo in a number of ways such as fixing red-eye, fill flash, add a variety of borders, and apply tints.

Customer Service [ Table of Contents | Snapfish ]

We had to hunt a little to find customer support contact information on Snapfish’s website. We like to see this on the front page like PhotoWorks does so we are taking a star off here. If you are hunting for their contact information, click help and run a search for “contact support”. Click the first item in the search result to find their contact options and hours.

Like many of the other photo printing services, Snapfish offers live chat support. Live chat hours are 24/7 during the week and 9AM-9PM EST on the Weekends.

Ordering [ Table of Contents | Snapfish ]

The checkout process is pretty straight forward. Snapfish will save your shipping information and optionally your credit card information. You can update quantities during checkout and enter any applicable promotion codes. Be sure to check our discount page for the latest Snapfish promotions before you checkout.

Shortly after we placed our order we received an e-mail confirming it with an estimated arrival time. Less than 24 hours later Snapfish sent a followup e-mail telling us our order was “ready to ship”. I would have preferred to be notified once it actually had shipped but this might be me getting a little fussy here.

Packaging and Shipping [ Table of Contents | Snapfish ]

You can choose from a few shipping options including Standard, Second Business Day, and Next Business Day. We didn’t see the option to send parts of the order to different addresses.

If you are ordering a postcard you can have it sent directly to the recipient which is a very cool feature if you are on vacation and want to send a postcard without hunting for a stamp and the nearest mail box.

Snapfish’s standard shipping prices were relatively competitive with other services and they had some of the cheapest 2nd day and overnight shipping prices we have seen. We didn’t see processing times next to each item in the cart like some of the other services offer. Keep in mind that shipping times are in addition to production times.

Snapfish has in-store pickup options available with a few different retailers including Walgreens, Walmart, Meijer, and Staples for posters. Like Kodak Gallery, there was not an in-store pickup option for our folding cards likely because the in-store equipment can only handle simple photo paper print orders.

Our photo paper and folding card orders arrived four business days after we placed the order which is pretty good considering we used standard shipping!

The photo paper cards came in a light outer paper envelope. The prints were sandwiched between the envelopes. The combined stiffness of all the envelopes makes in difficult to bend the prints that are in-between. They seemed pretty well protected for the journey and arrived in excellent condition.

The two folding cards we ordered from Snapfish also arrived four days after the order was placed. They came packaged in a light outer paper envelope and sandwiched by two pieces of stiff paperboard to prevent bending.

Overall the folding photo cards seemed well packaged and able to handle the rigors of shipping.

Conclusion [ Table of Contents | Snapfish ]

In conclusion, Snapfish has a pretty good photo card offering. There are plenty of designs to choose from and we were pretty happy with the results. The only faults we could find were the fees for high-resolutions downloads, they don’t have many alternative card formats, and we don’t feel you should have to search around to find customer support contact information. Despite these shortcomings we easily give Snapfish five out of five stars.