Are Kodak my new favourite printing service? It's a close call! (kodakgallery.co.uk)

Member Name: sakura8

Product:	kodakgallery.co.uk
Date:	28/04/09 (204 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very easy to use website, competitive pricing

Disadvantages: Only do gloss prints, colours not quite as expected

It seems that all the online printing services are vying for new customers, so there has been a spate of offers for free prints, obtained by using discount codes or creating a new account. I've already used up the freebies offered by Jessops and Asda (also reviewed) and Kodak Gallery is the latest service I've tried using their offer of 40 free prints. I normally use Photobox to print my photos, so that is the benchmark I use for comparison.


The website
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I found it very easy to create an account by entering my email address and creating a password. My 40 free 6 x 4 prints were automatically added to my account.

I really like the website as it's very well laid out and everything is easy to find.
It is very easy to upload your photos using their software, which is quick and easy to download and install. The software makes uploading your photos much faster and it is worth using as you can search your computer for your photos or drag and drop them into the Kodak Gallery window. The photos you have selected to upload are viewed as thumbnails, which can be made bigger or smaller for easier viewing, so you can decide whether or not you really want to upload them. Once you have uploaded your photos then you click on 'Go To My Gallery' and this will take you directly to your account online.

You are taken to the page where your photo albums are stored and you can edit them before printing. The editing features are quite comprehensive, you can crop, fix red-eye, rotate, instant fix and flip (reverse the image). There are also effects like adding a colour tint or adding an artistic effect like watercolour or neon. You can also change the borders and there are some pretty funky ones to choose from, ranging from colourful stripes to hearts.

Compared to Photobox I actually prefer the Kodak editing features because it's so much faster and easier to use. You also have the option to save your edited photo as a new photo or replace the original (whereas Photobox only has the former option). Unfortunately, instead of being able to move photos into a new album, it copies them and this means you have to go back and delete them if you didn't want them in that album.

Like most other online photo printing websites, you can also share your albums by selecting them to be included in a slideshow, which you can send to your friends in an email invitation.

Similarly to Photobox, there is a specific place in your account to enter any voucher codes for special offers or discounts and these are automatically applied to your account. Codes are easy to find and I've applied a 20% discount for future orders.

There is also an 'Advanced Print Options' setting in 'My Account' which basically takes care of the cropping if your photo doesn't fit the standard print sizes. They use something called the Zoom & Trim technique to automatically fit your image to the print size you ordered and this can be turned on or off.

I love that the prices for different sized prints are displayed on the left-hand side when you're viewing the 'My Prints' or 'Buy Prints' tabs, so that you don't have to go hunting around the site for the costs.

The choice of picture sizes was excellent and I could choose from the following sizes:
5 x 3
6 x 4
7 x 5
10 x 8
12 x 10
18 x 12
24 x 16
30 x 20


Ordering Prints
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Ordering prints is incredibly easy as you just click 'Buy Prints' and it takes you to your online albums. Then you just select the photos you want and add them to your basket. The photos are shown as a thumbnail, but if you click on the thumbnail the photo will open in a new window as a bigger version. This is brilliant as quite often you're not sure if you really want to print a photo, (especially if you have two that are quite similar) and this makes it easier to decide which one to keep and which one to bin by simply clicking 'Remove'.

You can also adjust the cropping of your photos from your shopping basket, as it opens up the photo in a new window for you to make adjustments, which is really handy, as you don't have to go back to the album.

Obviously you can select the size and adjust the quantity of each individual print and the pricing is clearly shown. It also warns you if the resolution of your photo is too low for high-quality prints at the selected size.

Something that is very clever is if you have the same photos in different albums and put both those albums into your basket, it recognises that they are duplicates and only puts one copy of the photo in your basket! The same is also true if you've added photos from an album into your basket, then added additional photos to that album, you can just select all the photos in that album to put into your basket and it won't duplicate the photos. This is brilliant because it can be difficult to keep track of what photos you've put into your basket already.

One inconvenience was there was no choice of matt or gloss so I wasn't sure what I was going to get.

The checkout procedure was straightforward and painless. I chose to pay £1.39 for postage and packaging and this was easily done by credit or debit card.


Confirmation of Order & Speed of Delivery
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I received a confirmation email straight after my order was completed and I received another email the following day to inform me that my photos had been dispatched. I ordered the photos on a Sunday and they were delivered by First Class Royal Mail on Tuesday, so they were well within their 2 to 4 days expected delivery estimate.


The Photos
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The photos arrived in the usual large cardboard envelope and the photos came inside a smaller paper envelope.

The photos were gloss and the paper was really good quality Kodak Royal Digital Paper. Overall I was quite pleased with my photos as the Zoom & Trim technique did indeed prevent any unwanted cropping.
However, the colours weren't that vibrant and most of them had a greenish overtone and appeared darker than I expected. It is always difficult to ascertain how well the colours will print out based on what you see on your computer screen, unless you manage to calibrate your monitor.


Summary
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I think the website is brilliant as it's so easy to use and I think the editing software is excelelnt because it's really quick to edit a photo as it doesn't take time to load it up, unlike the software used by Photobox called Picnik which takes ages. It's unfortunate there isn't the option of matt or gloss, but their prices are very competitive, so I will definitely use them again in the future.


- Only offer gloss
- Excellent choice of basic editing features
- Online photo storage is very good and easy to create new albums/move photos
- Very competitive prices

For reference, 40 photos would have cost £4 (40 x 10p)

www.kodakgallery.co.uk/



PRICE COMPARISON FOR 6 x 4 PRINTS:
------------------------------------------------- ---------
Asda:
1 - 74 = 15p each
75 - 149 = 10p each
150 or more = 5p each

Jessops:
1 - 4 = 25p each
5 - 49 = 19p each
50 - 99 = 12p each
100 - 199 = 7p each
200 or more = 5p each

Photobox:
1 - 149 = 10p each
150 - 299 = 8p each
300 - 499 = 7p each
500 or more = 5p each

Kodak:
1 - 99 = 10p each
100 - 249 = 9p each
250 - 499 = 8p each
500 or more = 5p each

Summary: I would definitely consider using them again!