Ease of Use - Ordering Process:  

We love how easy it is to upload digital photos to York Photo; the step-by-step print ordering process is a cinch to follow. The interface is almost identical to our #1 service, Snapfish. We feel that anyone, regardless of computer experience, can order prints from this site without problems.

You can upload your photos to York three different ways. You can use the basic one-by-one method, download the small Java application that allows you to upload multiple photos and videos at once, or you can download York’s free desktop manager and organizer that enables you to manage your photos directly from your desktop without getting online to York’s website.

We also liked that at the end of the ordering process, York suggested we change our print size to 4x5.3, a size better suited for pictures taken with a digital camera and requires less cropping.

Quality of Prints:  

We sent the following three digital photos to every online photo developer we reviewed. We did not feel that one company in our review merited a perfect score. The prints developed by York Photo are almost completely indistinguishable from the #1 service, Snapfish.  These prints are well done and the average user would have minimal criticisms.

• Sunset: On its own, and not being compared to some of the other services, our sunset photo from York would look great. The reds and yellows in the background are vibrant and well lit. However, next to some of the other photos evaluated in this review, our models seem just a bit darker and shadowed. Click here to see a comparison.

• Black and White: Similar to Snapfish, our black and white image was printed with a little more yellow undertone than we would have liked, but to the untrained and naked eye, this is not a distracting problem. Click here to see a comparison.

• Aerial: York Photo cleaned up our foggy aerial shot well. The buildings are crisp and clean with only a slight amount of yellowing on the buildings in the forefront. Click here to see a comparison.

Note: To compare quality, we took each set of prints received from the online photo developer and laid them down side-by-side to compare quality.

Pricing:  

York Photo is one of the lowest priced printers on the Internet. You’ll never find these prices at your local pharmacy or discount store. Additionally, their rate for other sizes like 5 x 7 or 8 x 10 is more than competitive.

You can also get an index CD of your order for $2.99.

York Photo also has volume discounts for 35 mm film developing, which makes it an excellent value, no matter what your picture-taking methodology. However, this service doesn't offer volume discounts for digital photos, a fact we found disappointing and strange.

Service and Site Features:  

York Photo supports album sharing and group rooms for free. Sharing allows you to send your photos and albums to friends and family. A group room is a place where you and your loved ones can upload photos from other accounts and here, York hosts the space. This way, you can all order prints from each other’s albums.

Much like Snapfish, York has a small editing application online that allows for minor alterations like red eye removal, cropping and tinting. York Photo also has a decent selection of photo-based gifts including aprons, baby bibs, calendars, ceramic mugs, pillow cases, golf towels, mouse pads, neckties, puzzles, t-shirts and more.

York Photo’s free photo software, PhotoShow Express, is an easy to use application that installs directly to your desktop. You can use PhotoShow to organize and manage your photos and albums without going online. PhotoShow can import photos directly from your camera, perform minor editing and touch-ups, create slideshows and more.

We really like that unlike the #1 service, York doesn’t charge for hi-resolution downloads. You can download up to 50 pictures at a time from your account directly to your hard drive. This is great if you want to put a picture on your blog or set an image as wallpaper or a screen saver.

However, YorkPhoto considers accounts without any purchases on them for more than 365 days as “inactive” and will delete your albums.

Shipping Costs/ Turnaround Time:  

Our photos from York were one of the first to arrive. There were only 3 days between the date we ordered and the date the photos were delivered.

York Photo’s shipping costs tied with several other services for one of the lowest shipping charges. To ship four 4x6-inch prints, this service charged us $.99. The actual postage rate for USPS First-Class Mail is $.97, so YorkPhoto.com kept only $.02 for packaging and handling.

The cost of shipping does increase with the number of prints you order. For every set of 10, after your initial 5 prints, an additional $.49 is charged. However, shipping is tiered and per-set shipping costs do go down slightly with the number of photos you order.

YorkPhoto.com ships your finished prints to you in a paper sleeve reinforced with a lightweight cardboard insert, which is then placed in a paper envelope. Although this is cheaper packaging compared to other printing services, our photos arrived without incident.

York Photo is a great service if you are looking for simple and inexpensive. However, we would like to see them start some forward thinking like supporting photos uploaded from cell phones and providing customers with the option to send their orders to local photo printers.