Printique Review

Pro photographers and videographers have long been familiar with the Adorama store brand. Its photo printing service was formerly named AdoramaPix, but according to the company, the name change is intended to drive home the notion that it’s all about printing. In our previous test of the service, it was among the best, with an excellent ordering interface and top-notch packaging and paper options, though at a premium price. It still hits those notes, but the end results from Nations Photo Lab turned out sharper, with better color accuracy and sharpness, earning the service our Editors’ Choice award.

How Much Do Printique Prints Cost?

Printique is among the higher-priced services, starting at 32 cents for a 4-by-6-inch luster print (glossy or matte costs 3 cents more per print). That matches Nations Photo Labs and undercuts Mpix’s 36 cents, among high-end photo printers. More consumer-targeted services, which often do a good printing job, cost less. Snapfish charges only 9 cents per 4-by-6 print, while Walmart Photo is near that price at 12 cents.

Larger sizes are reasonably priced: 5-by-7 prints go for $1.20 and 8 by 10s are $2.86. That compares with Target Photos’ 99 cents for 5-by-7 prints and $3.99 for 8-by-10 enlargements. Mpix prices 5 by 7s at $1.69 and 8 by 10s at $3.29, making them a bit more expensive than Printique’s. Walmart Photos (which produces better quality than you might expect) charges only $1.94 for an 8 by 10.

What Photo Gifts and Cards Does Printique Offer?

As with most photo printing services, Printique offers 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 offers. Printique does now embellish mugs and water bottles, but not clothing, bedding, or shower curtains with your photos.

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The company also offers holiday photo cards, including 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. Unfortunately, no folding cards are offered, though you can get appealing cutout shapes and felt, linen, and pearl textures. Though that pricing is reasonable, Walmart Photo offers cheaper cards starting at just 48 cents each, and 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 Kodak Endura Luster, Glossy, Matte, Metallic, or Deep Matte (good for soft, low contrast images); or Giclee paper of low, medium, or heavy texture. The latter are defined by higher-quality, finer resolution, and archival paper.

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; tha 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 PNG or GIF files. 

Once you’ve chosen the pictures you want printed, you have two procedure options: Express Order Mode and Detailed Order Mode. The latter simply lets you specify different sizes and paper types for each photo. Detailed is particularly useful if you only want large versions of particular shots in the set. Thankfully, buttons at the top right let you switch among these modes at any time during this step.

After you pick out your sizes and paper, you proceed to review the cropping. The program checks if your photo dimensions don’t jibe with the print size and lets you adjust the crops so that they do. 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. It probably makes sense for the more  pro-level audience, who adjust their images in photo editing software like ACDSee Photo Studio, Adobe Lightroom, or Skylum Luminar.

You can turn off the default color correction if you use a color-calibrated monitor and therefore trust the accuracy of the colors you’re seeing on it. 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 New York City, you can pick up your prints at Adorama’s Brooklyn or Manhattan locations. Otherwise, shipping is pricier than most services, starting at $7.52 for one-week delivery of my order of 26 prints, mostly 4-by-6 inches with a couple 8 by 10s thrown in. For comparison, Nations Photo Lab’s shipping cost for my order was just $4.95, Mpix’s was $4.99, and Snapfish’s was $4.98. For four-day service, I would have paid Printique $14.44 and for 3 day it would be $22.68—not exorbitant, if you need the prints ASAP.

For $2, Printique offers white-label packaging in case you want your order to be a surprise, and you can add a gift note for $1.99. I received an email confirming the order immediately after placing it, and your 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 but nothing was going to result in bent or creased photos with this shipment treatment. What’s more, the order arrived in the promised six days after I placed it.

Despite the excellent protective packaging, the prints were only good and fell short of even Target for sharpness. They also were on the oversaturated side. As you can see, Nations Photo Lab clearly produced more detail than Printique in the city scene below.

My crop of a portrait test shot below shows the oversaturation even more, and in this case the coloring of the Nations Photo Lab print was much closer to that of the original photo. Especially in the eyebrow, you can see other services show more detail. Printique, however, did a better job than Mpix and (of course) the bargain Amazon and one-hour Walgreens options.

Boutique Photo Printing

Coming from Adorama, a well-known name in photography, Printique remains a decent choice for your photo printing needs that ships your prints in the strongest packaging of any photo printing service we’ve tested. That said, it’s on the pricey side and while its print quality is good, it’s not as sharp as we’ve seen from some competitors. Furthermore, it’s in the upper pricing echelon. Our Editors’ Choice winner for photo printing services is Nations Photo Lab, which eclipses Printique in image quality. For a photo-printing bargain we recommend Snapfish, and for local one-hour pickup, our top pick is CVS Photo.