Costco Poster Prints

[adietrich]

I just came back from my local Costco, checking out the Epson7880 printer they have for poster prints. Drycreek provides color profiles, so I had to check it out. I basically followed the instructions (http://www.drycreekphoto.com/icc/CostcoPosterPrinters.html), printed from Lightroom2 into JPEG using the custom ICC profile and dropped the file onto a memory stick. The technician at Costco was very helpful and even reminded me that the profile I used was three months old already. ;-)

The result was pretty darn good, I am happy with it, and you can't beat $6,- (incl. tax) for a 16x20 print!

-a

 

[DabCan10]

I used my local Costco for prints and while they were well done in the end (and quite cheap), I found the experience fairly frustrating. Some pictures were in the wrong colour space for their printer, after returning they were then "too high resolution" which was odd as my $80 Epson printer at home handled the test prints just fine.

I guess you are saving money by losing customer service as they are only willing to deal with the files as is and not do anything to make it work if needed. I ended up printing half of them at Costco and the rest at a local drug store chain which was about 40% more, but closer to my house and far more convenient.

 

[kxl]

I use Costco for all my prints. The fact that they have many locations means I can send prints to any Costco throughout the country, and just have my prints waiting for me (or family/friend) to pick up the prints. I have printed up to 20x30 at Costco.

 

[vdonovan]

I was disappointed with my first Costco poster print, then I learned about color profiles (and I figured out that my monitor is poorly color balanced). Since then I've made a few poster prints where I adjust the file on a color-matched monitor and then set the profile for the Costco printer I'm using. I'm very happy with these, the colors and brightness are just what I expected.

Too bad they don't have metallic paper. But I've discovered the poster BOARD prints! Now I don't even have to mount! I print poster boards all the time now to give as gifts.

 

[ampguy]

We have framed 20" x 30" and 16" x20" posters from Costco taken with as low as 7MP cameras. Better images than anything I've ever seen in a gallery or anywhere else.

Last time I checked, our local costco only did up to 12x18 in the warehouse, and larger were uploaded online and mailed back. We didn't bother with the ICC stuff.