Costco vs mpix prints

[TreeofLifeStairs]

I had been told that Costco was a good all around printer for prints and that mpix was one of the best for quality. I never had tested both out though. I recently ordered some prints from Costco and found them to have a greenish tint to them. This wasn't the first time I thought some of my prints were green. This time I took the same file and ordered it from mpix to see if it was just my processing or if there was something wrong on their end. I just received the mpix prints today and they look great.

Costco
Pros: cheaper - $1.49 per 8"x10", faster - can be done in an hour in store for regular prints, excellent return policy - tell them you don't like it and get your money back
Cons: print quality - noticeable green tint to some but not all prints

Mpix
Pros: print quality - great consistent looking prints, prints get delivered right to your door.
Cons: more expensive (though they regularly have some kind of discount running) - $2.09 per 8"x10" ($1.79 if more than 10 are ordered), shipping cost - $3.95 for 5-10 day shipping.

Mpix automatically does a color correction for each print (except for their economy 4x6 prints) unless you tell them not to, so my image may have had the green tint to it and their color correction corrected it where as Costco printed exactly what they were given. Lastly, I have not dealt with mpix's customer service so I cannot comment on it.

In the end I think I will continue to use Costco for my everyday print needs that aren't very important but if I was getting prints made for a customer I would never use them.


Mpix left, Costco right


Original

 

[TCampbell]

Unless your monitor is color calibrated (e.g. X-Rite Colormunki, Datacolor Spyder, etc.) and your images white balanced then you can't necessarily be certain.

You can use this site to find labs that provide you with the color calibration profiles for their printers: Digital photo lab profiles

This allows you to apply the color calibration for the printer you plan to use to ensure accurate color. BTW... Costco happens to be one of the labs for which you can get the color calibration (ICC) profile for the printers.