Wednesday, February 1, 2012

How to Print Better at Costco


Whether you admit it or not, we all know that the cheapest, most bang for you buck place to print your photos & printables is Costco.
I kind of have a love/hate relationship with Costco Photo Printing.
I love to hate it and...
I hate to love it.
Sometimes, it is just what makes the most sense, so even I, will on occasion skip my fancy dancy labs & head to Costco.  So here is the trick to actually getting a somewhat decent photo &/or printable artwork printed from there...

STEP ONE:

For the life of me, I cannot figure why their default photo finish is set to glossy.  Once you have your photos placed in your shopping cart, switch the finish to lustre!  Or curse yourself & Costo's defaults when you pick up your fingerprinty glossy prints.  yuck.  

STEP TWO:

This is a little tricky, because you will feel like you have already placed your order, but in fact, you can still make changes & this one is crucial to every designer & photographer.  When reviewing your order you will see the above box...you might have to look for it.  Click on the 'edit options' button because we want to turn the 'auto correct' OFF.  I have printed prints with this on & ALL my colors are wonky...which drives me a bit batty.  Typically they come back too red, if I haven't turned this off.
STEP THREE:

When you click on the 'edit options' button in Step Two, you will be lead to this page, click that little box to turn off auto-correct, click continue & then thank me when you pick up your prints.

And that's it.

Here's to better prints from Costco!


3 comments:

donatelli98 said...

You know I am a Costco photo addict - so I truly truly appreciate this tutorial! I will be referencing it next time I order photos!

Amberly said...

you're such a smarty-pants! thanks for the tips!!

Lorinda Garcia said...

I work in the Costco photo lab and turning the auto correct off makes a huge difference when printing things like subway art or other Photoshop work. Except this also has to be used with the printer profile that you can download on the Costco website. The company and website that it will direct you to is called "Drycreek". Then you must find your store you print with, download the printer profile and ask your lab to print your pictures on that machine (if they have more than one machine). These printer profiles calibrate your computer screen to the printer that you are printing on so you literally see the exact coloring on your prints that you originally saw on your computer screen. The lab updates their printer profile every 6 months so you must keep your profile up to date and re-download also to get the best coloring from Costco. Hope this helps you! Happy printing!!

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