Professional photographers and videographers have long known the name Adorama. This famous camera store also provides photo printing services under the name Printique (formerly AdoramaPix). It has an excellent ordering interface and top-notch packaging and photographic paper options, though at a premium price. While Printique's prints are good, test photos printed by Nations Photo Lab are sharper and show better color accuracy, so it's our overall Editors' Choice winner for photo printing. For bargain pricing and acceptable quality, our top pick is Walmart Photo, and for same-day local pickup, it's Walgreens Photo.
How Much Do Printique Prints Cost?
Printique has higher prices than most other photo printing services, starting at 32 cents for a 4-by-6-inch luster print (glossy or matte costs 3 cents more per print). It still manages to undercut Nations Photo Labs' and Mpix’s 36 cents for the same size. If you want to go all out, you can choose Fine Art paper with a giclée process, which will set you back $9.99 for a mere 4-by-6.
More consumer-targeted services, which often do a good printing job, cost considerably less. Snapfish charges only 9 cents per 4-by-6 print, while Walmart Photo charges 14 cents.
Larger sizes are reasonably priced: 5-by-7 prints go for $1.20, and 8-by-10 prints are $2.65. That compares with Mpix's $1.69 for 5-by-7s and $3.29 for 8-by-10s, making them a bit more expensive than Printique’s. Amazon Prints charges only $2.09 for an 8-by-10, and Walmart Photo (which produces better quality than you might expect) charges $1.94.
Similar Products
Nations Photo Lab
Walgreens Photo
Walmart Photo
Mpix
Amazon Prints
CVS Photo
Snapfish
What Photo Gifts and Cards Does Printique Offer?
As with most photo printing services, Printique sells more than just paper photos. You can order photo books starting at $14.99 for a Mini Softcover with 20 pages at 4-by-4 inches. For $29.99, you get an 8-by-8-inch softcover book, and the same price can get you an 8-by-8 canvas print. Wood, acrylic, and metal prints are on offer as well. You won't, however, find the smorgasbord of objects that Shutterfly sells. Printique does now embellish mugs and water bottles but not clothing, bedding, or shower curtains.
The company can also turn your images into holiday photo cards, with a notable selection of Hanukkah designs. Flat 5-by-7 cards cost $1.75 each for quantities over 12 or $4.99 for a single. Disappointingly, you can't get folding cards, but your choices do include appealing cutout shapes as well as felt, linen, and pearl textures. Though that pricing is reasonable, Walmart Photo offers cheaper cards starting at just 50 cents each for 4-by-8 and 5-by-7 folding cards for $1.42.
Printique's Print Ordering Interface and Options
You start your order by choosing a size and paper type. You can create an order without signing up for an account, but I recommend doing so to make it easier to see your orders and online-stored images later. Sizes range from 3.5-by-5 inches to 12-by-36.
Among services I've tested, Printique offers the most choice in paper types, including Luster, Glossy, Matte, Metallic, and Deep Matte (good for soft, low contrast images), as well as giclée paper of low, medium, or heavy texture. Giclee prints are defined by higher-quality archival paper and finer resolution.
Next, you choose the source of your photos. You can simply upload them from a folder on your computer or get them from an online source such as Dropbox, Facebook, Flickr, Google Photos, Instagram, or even Lightroom—an option I haven’t seen in other services but one that pros will appreciate. Once you upload image files, they appear in your Printique online galleries.
Printique lets you upload HEIC/HEIF, JPG, and TIFF formats; that last option is more than many services support, allowing for full-resolution image files of up to 200MB. I appreciate that the requirements are easily found on the upload page. Uploading my 108-megapixel test photo file was no problem, nor were HEIC/HEIF files, an efficient format used by most recent smartphones to save on storage. So, Printique is one of the more accommodating services I tested in terms of accepting file formats, though it doesn’t work with PNGs or GIFs.
Once you choose the pictures you want printed, you have two procedure options: Express Order Mode if you want to order the same size and material for all pictures in the order, and Detailed Order Mode if you want a variety. The buttons at the top right of the interface let you switch modes at any time during this step.
After you pick your sizes and paper, you review the cropping. The program checks if your photo dimensions work with the print size and lets you adjust the crops if they don't. I like that you get a Letterbox option that results in no lost image edges. Aside from cropping and rotating, you can choose B&W or sepia printing, but there are no other photo adjustments, such as brightness or contrast. Not having them probably makes sense, given that Adorama and Printique cater to professional photographers, who usually adjust their images in photo editing software.
You can turn off the default color correction if you use a color-calibrated monitor and, therefore, trust the accuracy of the colors you see. You can also enter text to print on the back of the photos and choose if you want the filename and date to show up there as well. It's a thoughtful touch that only the best services offer. Some simply print an inscrutable order number. For $5, I could add a sample pack to see what the different paper choices look and feel like in person.
If you live in the New York City area, you can pick up your prints at Adorama, which has locations in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Otherwise, its shipping is pricier than most services, starting at $9.24 for one-week delivery of my order of 25 prints, mostly 4-by-6 prints with a couple of 8-by-10s thrown in. For comparison, Nations Photo Lab charged me $7.95 for shipping, Mpix charged $4.99, and Snapfish $4.98. To get me my photos in four days, Printique would have charged me $13.46; three-day delivery would have been $27.96—not exorbitant for prints that you need ASAP.
For $2, Printique offers white-label packaging to keep your order a surprise, and you can add a gift note for $1.99. I received an email confirming the order immediately after placing it, and the order page gives you the option to cancel it.
How Good Are Printique's Prints?
My Printique order arrived in the most substantial packaging of any photo processor tested—an oversized cardboard box. Inside that, the photos were placed on shrink-wrapped cardboard sheets. Nothing was going to result in bent or creased photos with this shipment treatment. Considering how much of Adorama's business involves shipping expensive professional photography gear, it's not surprising that the company is so good at protecting photos, too. What's more, the order arrived in the promised six days after I placed it. It's the big box at the top right here:
Despite the excellent protective packaging, the prints are only good, falling short of most competing services in sharpness. The images just look soft. As you can see in this set of scans of printed 8-by-10 photographs, Nations Photo Lab clearly produced more detail than Printique:
Here is the cropped original image file for comparison:
My crop of test prints of a portrait shot below shows the lack of sharpness and inaccurate colors, too. Printique's two high-end competitors, Mpix and Nations Photo Lab, both produced superior results:
Here's the original portrait image file for comparison:
Boutique Photo Printing
Coming from Adorama, a well-known name in photography, Printique remains a decent choice for turning your digital images into paper photos, one that ships your prints in the strongest packaging of any photo printing service we've tested. That said, it's pricey, and while its print quality is good, it's not as sharp as what we've seen from some competitors. Our overall Editors' Choice winner for photo printing services is Nations Photo Lab, which eclipses Printique in image quality. For a bargain, we recommend Walmart Photo, and for local one-hour pickup, our winner is Walgreens Photo.
The Printique photo printing service from Adorama has an excellent web interface and the best packaging of any service we've tested, but its prints aren't the sharpest.
Like What You're Reading?
Sign up for Lab Report to get the latest reviews and top product advice delivered right to your inbox.
This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.
Thanks for signing up!
Your subscription has been confirmed. Keep an eye on your inbox!
Sign up for other newsletters
