As great as digital photography is, viewing pictures on screen is never quite as good as actually sitting and looking at them on paper. Modern inkjet printers are excellent at producing high quality results, but there’s still something usually missing from the prints. It’s usually a flatness, and a general lack of ‘pop’.
I’d been meaning to try one of the many online services for some time, but hadn’t ever got that far. I finally decided to bite the bullet and give Bonusprint a go. Computer Shopper magazine had reviewed them favourably some time ago, so they seemed like a good bet.
Well, I’m impressed! The process is quite straightforward. First, you need to download the software from their website, which is a reasonably large 30mb – not massive by today’s standards, but still quite big all the same.
Once installed, the software allows you to configure your order offline. Adding pictures to the order, you can select what form or format the pictures should take. I selected 6×4 inch conventional gloss prints. The software then flagged up the fact that the digital originals aren’t quite the same ratio, so I was given the option to either crop them, or make them fit and leave white bars. I chose the crop option. Previews are shown all the way through, so you have a pretty good idea of the end result.
Various other adjustments and tips are available, so make the pictures work best for the medium you have selected; if a picture is not of sufficient resolution (i.e. a 2 megapixel going onto an A2 poster) the software will tell you. The quality is graded on a traffic-light system. Some will show up as not worth doing at all, whilst others are shown as more of a ‘maybe’ so it’s solely at the user’s discretion as to what you chose. The client isn’t an image editor though, and doesn’t appear to offer much in the way of adjustment. It is excellent at letting your set your order up properly though, and is probably more powerful than any web-based application could be.
After I had chosen the pictures I wanted, and how I wanted them printed, I was whisked away to the Worldpay site to pony up. The costs are quite reasonable, although it’s a shame this couldn’t happen in the actual application itself; a browser window opened to complete the transaction.
Finally, the application will upload the pictures, which was quick and efficient. A few days later, and the pictures arrived. They’re just like real photographs! Printed on Kodak stock, they are vibrant and clear. One picture showed a little bit of pixelation, but it was one I’d cropped down a bit. I can’t help but feel my own inkjet would have smoothed that out – not because it meant to, but just because it doesn’t have the capability to fully resolve the detail so finely. Bonusprint’s printers however, do, so if there’s some sort of glitching in the pictures, you’re going to see them come what may. Still, it’s a faithful reproduction of the original picture, so as long as you put decent quality in, it’s going to come out looking good.
All in, I’m very impressed. The pictures are of a quite superior quality, which at 10 pence each, represents fantastic value for money. I want to try a poster print, but I’m not sure if I have any shots I yet want to produce so large. Still, I’m sure I’ll find one!