A few months ago my parents visited me — their first time in San Diego (and for my mom, the US). We took a LOT of pictures during their stay, but my mom is not a big fan of digital pictures. So she kept reminding me every other day that she wants hard prints of selected pictures. Days went by and soon it was time for them to leave and I still hadn’t printed any of the pictures, so I told my mom that I’ll directly ship the pictures to India.

So I started scouting for online services where I could upload pictures and they would print and ship to my home in India. Naturally I focused on services which had a strong emphasis on India (so the likes of Yahoo Photos and Shutterfly were out). It turns out that there are many many such services now and it soon became very confusing. I wasn’t sure which service to use and there wasn’t enough information available online that I could make an informed decision. Like a good researcher then, I decided I’d have to figure this out for myself.

I surveyed several different services and ended up using three of them. Here I summarize my experiences — maybe it will be useful to some of you! Meanwhile, I should emphasize that this is a fast moving market so things might have changed in the past month. You are your own judge of the information presented here and standard grain-of-salt and veracity apply :-)

As I said, its a fast moving market. This is a hot space in the sense that it is timely and there is an obvious large market for such a service. Competition is good for end users because it drives down prices and providers are forced to innovate and focus on value addition. The base feature set is almost identical across all websites.

All of them provide flash based and Java based file uploaders. In fact, I found that many websites actually use the //exact// same Flash/Java components — so I suspect that these modules are being provided by some third party. Most services will allow you to choose number of copies, type of finish (matt/glossy), size of the print and so on. Most services use CCAvenue as the payment gateway. Some services provide a desktop application to upload pictures (only on Windows).

===Picsquare===

[[http://picsquare.com|{{ http://floatingsun.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/screenshot10.png}}]]

IIRC, Picsquare was one of the first companies in this space. Though not the prettiest, they are certainly one of the best services out there — their rates are extremely competitive, they offer a [[http://www.picsquare.com/prices.do?forward=products|variety of products]] (photo mugs, t-shirts, calendars etc) and service has been wonderful so far. Picsquare was one of the three I ended up using and I’ve had no complaints so far.

Notables:
* Flickr integration
* Photo mugs, t-shirts and calendars

Picsquare is the creation of two [[http://www.iitb.ac.in|IIT Mumbai]] alumnus. Interestingly, one of the founders of Picsquare — Manish — is from Bhilai, the city where I was born and brought up! Check out the [[http://picsquare.wordpress.com|Picsquare blog]].

===iTasveer===

[[http://tasveer.com|{{ http://floatingsun.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/screenshot9.png}}]]

[[http://www.itasveer.com/|iTasveer]] is one of the websites that has changed significantly since I last checked it out — at that time it was largely unusable for me due to stability issues and missing features on Linux. But it seems that since then the site has undergone some major changes, and I’m really excited about checking it out for my next order.

Notables:
* Flickr integration
* [[http://www.itasveer.com/goDoodle.do|Doodlepad]] lets users design their own t-shirts and mugs! Pretty sweet!
* It seems iTasveer is the only service that is collaborating with Microsoft to let users print their pictures on iTasveer directly from their desktops through the photo printing wizard in Microsoft Visa. More [[http://www.itasveer.com/faqOPW.do|details here]]
* [[http://www.itasveer.com/handmadeAlbumsAll.do|Hand made photo albums]]. Proceeds from these albums go to an NGO called Parichay

iTasveer was created by four [[http://www.iitd.ac.in|IIT Delhi]] alumnus. Check out their [[http://blog.itasveer.com/|blog]].

===Merasnap===

[[http://merasnap.com|{{ http://floatingsun.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/screenshot8.png}}]]

Merasnap has a very Web 1-ish look to it — it feels like a dot com from the yester years. I created an album and uploaded some photos a while back, but when I logged in again today I was told that my album has been “archived” and I need to send them an email to make it “live” again. Pretty weird (and lame) if you ask me — storage is cheap guys!

Notables:
* hand made photo frames
* laminated snaps
* NO flash/java based uploader — just a regular form based uploader.

Overall its a very unimpressive, run-of-the-mill service. No Flickr integration, no photo gifts, cumbersome multi-file upload, strange archiving policies. Naturally, not one of the services I used.

===Snapgalaxy===

[[http://snapgalaxy.com|{{ http://floatingsun.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/screenshot7.png}}]]

Snapgalaxy was the only service I found which had an equally strong emphasis on both India and the US. So if you have a leg each in India and the US, this might be a great alternative to Shutterfly and the other big boys of online photo printing — infact, their rates are competitive even with Walmart! Snapgalaxy was also one of the three services I ended up using. The website is very well done and I really liked the interface. However, it was a little painful ordering 30+ snaps because I had to individually fill out size/other preferences for the pictures.

Notables
* print cards and posters
* mouse pads, mugs and CDs/DVDs coming soon
* create an [[http://www.snapgalaxy.in/common/example|online portfolio]] to show case your photography. This feature is a little confusing though since it pitches Snapgalaxy against a whole other set of competition.

===Photomasti===

[[http://photomasti.com|{{ http://floatingsun.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/screenshot6.png}}]]

Easily the ugliest and least functional site of the bunch. I could not even register with them! I tried registering again today and got:


Microsoft VBScript compilation error '800a03f9'

Expected 'Then'

/email-functions.asp, line 4

if session("LocalAddress")="66.116.171.114"
-------------------------------------------^


You get the idea.

===Printcamp===

[[http://printcamp.com|{{ http://floatingsun.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/screenshot5.png}}]]

Printcamp seem to have changed the logo since I last visited them. I think the previous logo was better, but whatever. The website claims (right on the home page) that users can order photo mugs, t-shirts and calendars. However, once logged in, I was unable to do so. Hell, I couldn’t even figure out the page that would let me place these kinds of orders. **UPDATE:** //it seems I need to send them an email or call them if I want to order any of the “custom” photo gifts.//

Printcamp is also one of the more expensive services. I came out largely unimpressed — they offer nothing compelling for me. Even the website and the user interface itself is pretty basic.

===Photohugs===

[[http://photohugs.com|{{ http://floatingsun.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/screenshot4.png}}]]

Definitely the prettiest website of the bunch — I loved their website. Very simple and easy to use. This is the third service that I actually used. They don’t allow special characters in passwords (neither do some of the other services I covered) which is strange, specially because it doesn’t make any sense to do so.

Notables:
* great UI
* they support Paypal payments!
* only regular prints — no other photo gifts

==== Conclusion ====

I would heartily recommend Picsquare. I think iTasveer is pretty cool too, but I won’t give a recommendation until I’ve used it myself. If you want to give others a shot, Photohugs and Snapgalaxy should be next in line. I would stay away from all others. And Picsquare and iTasveer are definitely the ones to watch out for — these people are doing the real innovative stuff!