Foto Insight www.fotoinsight.com Reviews

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Good Points: Use photographic paper
Higher perceived resolution
Greater resistance to sweaty fingers and humidity
Shiny colours
Great results in large posters from relatively small jpegs
Lower cost

Bad Points: No instant results
Take almost a week to arrive
Postage is expensive
Delivery charges are the same (high) for a single poster
Requires uploading jpegs over the net

General comments: The advances in the resolution of digital images allow most digital camera pictures to be printed as super sized posters. With the majority of inkjet printers limited to A4, online digital photo labs such as Foto Insight offer large format posters.

The price of ink for home printers may be the one price, besides that of petrol that frequently infuriates consumers. It doesn't take long for the cost of ink-cartridge replacements to exceed the price of the printer. A large format, hi-resolution photographic print can drain entire refills, if the printer is capable to handle larger formats at all. Freeing digital camera users from the limits of their inkjet printer is a niche professional online labs like Foto Insight are catering for.

Exposure to light, heat, ozone and air pollution causes the ink used in home printers to fade. Recent research carried out by 'Wilhelm Imaging Research' found that "refilled cartridges often produce photos that begin to noticeably degrade in a number of months." Using real photographic paper on large format lab equipment, professional photo labs produce results which tend to look 'richer', and are more durable with regard to handling by sweaty fingers, humid environments and fading in daylight.

Unlike printed images which produce a perceived colour through different coloured dots from a limited number of basic colours, lab processed images produce the exact colour for every pixel. A test with a 1Mb jpeg at www.fotoinsight.co.uk produced a very well perceived hi-res result on a 30" x 20" (50 x 75 cm) poster.