From a D- to a solid A....Costco re-print looks great

The other day I gave Costco a bad mark for a 20x30 print because it lacked intensity and had vertical print lines through it. Well, I met with Jamie on Monday at Park Meadows store and she agreed to reprint the image for me. I went back to Photoshop and resized to 20x30 at 300DPI and used their Epson 7880 profile for satin paper. I brought the file over on a flash drive today and they reprinted it for me at no charge. The difference was like night and day!!!! The colors are intense, the print is sharp and NO PRINT LINES!! I give this print a solid A. The customer service was great and they are more than willing to work with anyone with special requirements. I have no reservations about matting and framing this print. I want to say that a fair portion of the color problem was on my end, not theirs. Kudos to the team at Park Meadows Costco!

How much did it cost? (initially, that is...)

Todd,

$8.99 plus .62 tax.

You might want to compare your Costco print with one done by an online printer that you trust and see what the differences are. I have used Sams Club a lot and their prints are good and cheap (and quick!) but the best online printers only cost a little more and are probably better.

You might want to compare your Costco print with one done by an online printer that you trust and see what the differences are. I have used Sams Club a lot and their prints are good and cheap (and quick!) but the best online printers only cost a little more and are probably better.

I've done this to about 6 - 8 prints or so. I've compared to WHCC and WCI. The majority of the time the issues with the CostCo prints were personnel issues. Scratches, bends, etc... I had the same vertical issues on two of them as Jack has stated. I never tried it the way Jack has described. I always did it online.

I will have to try your way Jack, I'm pretty excited! Bill a good online printer like WHCC or WCI is about $30 a print for a 20x30. Make 5 prints and your talking $150 vs $45 at CostCo. If your making lots a prints say 50 or so it's $1500 vs $450. I'd say that a huge cost savings.

Thanks for the info Jack.

If people are interested I might be able to dig up some of my test prints from CostCo vs WHCC and bring them to the Shindig.

used their Epson 7880 profile for satin paper

Jack, is that available online somewhere?

The profile seems to be crucial. I used the same print file at the Costco in Scottsdale and then up here in Cincinnati and the Scottsdale print came out REALLY nice, but the Cincy Costco print was dark with a magenta cast. The first Cincy print had banding so I asked for a reprint, which they did right away, no griping. That's nice that they will reprint, but why don't they LOOK at it first and not allow it to go to the customer if there's banding? Still, for $8.99 it's the bargain of the year!

Paul,

Go to drycreekphoto.com. In the search, type Costco printer profiles. When the list comes up, pick your store and download the profile for their printers. There should be ones for lightjet and inkjet.

Jack, thanks for your work on this. My experience and that of many others has been very good with Costco. I check prints before leaving area so that I can get any problems corrected.

Bill Brennan

Brian, I haven't used Costco ever since they aren't in my area so can't comment but I have used Sam's extensively and I am guessing especially reading the comments and talking to other people that the quality and the issues are similar with the exception that Sam's don't profile, I had to create my own profile for Sams. The quality issues though were partly related to color and partly to handling, finger creases, banding from the printer etc all of which can be improved by working with them but they never really go away. The cost savings are one thing and having satisfied customers is another I suppose, if I was doing a 20x30 for a customer I'd use the best printer I could find. If I was just doing smaller prints for family or casual purposes then I might still use Sam's (or Costco). We all have to make our own choices depending on our circumstances. I know you will get good prints from Costco at a great price.

Agree 100% Bill, It's why I've only used CostCo for testing purposes. Test a $9 a print and then send off the final to WHCC. I was just stating that if using Jack's process produces excellent results, there could be a huge cost savings.

Hi Jack,

This is interesting. Ive been laying low in this discussion however I've agreed with the prior posts about the lines showing up in larger prints. I went back to Park Meadows Costco today to pick up a few more 12x18 prints and noticed the lines again. My 16x20's came out great. The gentleman told me the 16x20 comes from a different printer after agreeing that the lines in my 12x18's were a problem. He said its been a problem for a while. I'm going to keep going back, the prices are just too low to pass up.

BTW, be VERY aware the online system is set up by default to AUTO CORRECT images. Thus my first ever batch came out way too highlighted. I overlooked this option because its only an option after you add to cart, pick the sizes, verify address, and pick which store to pick up your images. Then you get this option as you do the final order. I wish Costco would move this option up in the ordering process.

Kane

So I will pipe in my 2 cents worth. The reason that you are getting lines on the prints is exclusively because of the printer paper profiles. I regularly use Illford Gold Fiber silk for anything large on my Epson 7600. I have a ton of cheap Kodak glossy 8x10 paper that I picked up a while back. On a regular basis when I print my first 8x10 I forget to change my paper profile in Lightroom to the Kodak paper. 100% of the time I get lines through the print and a slight magenta cast.

Places like WHCC are calibrated to use SRGB so when you send them your prints in SRGB they do the conversion for you. Places like Costco & Sams don't have the education on printing so they print them as is with the embedded color profile.

Hope this helps.

Jim

Jack, this is great news. I'm glad to here the dry creek paper profiles and sizing to 300dpi did the trick. I'm curious if Jamie or yourself had to do anything special on your reprint submittal - do you have to drop these off in person and request anything special? Also, can you confirm which paper they used for your print - was it Fuji Satin or an Epson paper?

Thanks for keeping us in the loop,
Craig

Oh, Brian and Jack, if you could bring in these prints for the Shindig that would be awesome. I'm probably not the only one that would love to see the comparisons. Great way to save everyone time and money doing the same tests for themselves.

Craig