Beyond albums: how to have fun with your photos

The words "photo album" have changed in their meaning over the past 10 years. Back then, you'd be talking about a leather-bound volume, probably brown, containing slightly faded snaps of tedious family events, hanging at a diagonal because the corner mounts had come unstuck. In the digital age, the photo album is more likely to consist of neatly arranged rows of pictures on a computer screen, uploaded from a mobile phone or digital camera via a computer to a service such as Flickr or Photobucket. They never lose their colour, never get lost, and never become misaligned, moth-eaten or mangled.

As more of us get used to sharing our images online, the web does start to look like the natural home for them – and this raises the question of where exactly the world of photo-printing is heading. The crucial point about digital photography is, of course, that you no longer need to get an image printed on to glossy paper in order to see it. Shoeboxes full of fuzzy 6in x 4in prints – many with a big pink thumb in the frame and an embarrassing label stuck on saying "Quality Control: Print quality appears to have been affected" – are a thing of the past. When you've taken a bad digital photo, you're at liberty to hit the delete button straight away, and you're certainly not obliged to have it printed out to prove your poor photography skills.

So, we're becoming much more discerning about the pictures we choose to print. But fortunately for the print market, we're taking many more pictures with our omnipresent digital cameras, safe in the knowledge that we won't run out of film. And that, according to Helen Vaid, managing director of the digital photo-printing service snapfish.co.uk, means we're actually spending more on printing photos than before. "We might be seeing the death of the 6in x 4in print," she says, "but printing isn't going away; it's the kind of printing that's changing, depending on the age of the person, their attitude to technology and so on."

Memorabilia is a key part of businesses such as Snapfish; while you're able to print photos at home, your printer certainly can't put an image of your dad on a mug, or a holiday beach snap on to a coaster. "Our typical customer is a mother with two children who wants to preserve her memories of them growing up," says Vaid, "and share them with friends and family. These ways of printing – on to a T-shirt or canvas – are increasingly popular with them."

Not so with photography buffs: they seem to have spurned any print in favour of online photo-sharing services such as Flickr, where photography communities offer praise and feedback for high-quality snaps. It's telling that Flickr doesn't shout particularly loudly about the ability to order prints through the site; indeed, while it's possible to do so if you're a US resident, there's no such facility for UK customers, and you have to cheat slightly by going through a third-party website such as photobox.co.uk.

But is it worth uploading your pictures to an online service such as Photobox, Snapfish, Bonusprint or iPhoto (in conjunction with Kodak) and have to wait for your prints, when you could just get down and dirty with your inkjet printer at home?

Philip Hall, technical editor at Digital Photo magazine, has been consistently impressed with the quality achievable on a standard inkjet printer. "We test lots of printers from Epson, Canon and the like," he says, "and you can get amazing results from even the cheapest models." But many of us will also have experienced the waste of paper and ink while we attempt to get the results we want; as colour ink carts usually come in combined cyan, yellow and magenta, you only need a few smudged pictures of clear skies and blue seas before you have to chuck away your cart, despite there being plenty of yellow and magenta left.

The many variables (cost of ink and paper, proficiency with computers) makes doing a comparison between DIY and online services almost impossible. But one new method of DIY printing that's quick and easy is a new offering from Polaroid: the Pogo. Polaroid is banking on the future of print, and, with the release of this neat, pocket-size printer that spits out 3in x 2in stickers in seconds, is hoping to ignite the desire to print among the camera phone-toting young.

"Pogo is all about bringing the fun of the instant picture into the 21st century," says the company's manager Steve Smith. The heavily patented invention that's crucial to the Pogo's operation – and may prove to have applications far beyond a fun-size printer – is the paper the machine uses. It's an inkless, ribbonless system, and most of the technology is embedded within the paper itself; 100 billion crystals that react to heat and change colour accordingly. You send a picture from your mobile to the Pogo wirelessly, it prints it out, and no need to wave it dry: it's ready to just peel off. There are no settings or ink levels to worry about – and at 25p a print, it's no more expensive than using iPhoto or the like.

It's possible that, if Polaroid's vision for its Zink (zero-ink) innovation comes to fruition, we might finally be able to print our own photos without the faff, the expense, the stained fingers or, indeed, the long wait for the post to arrive.

Photo finish: Four ways to print

High Street Memorabilia

You might not consider SnappySnaps to be at the cutting edge of technology, but there's a good chance you can upload a picture to your local store's website, then pop along to pick up a bib or calendar a few hours later. Check for your branch at bit.ly/snappy. Prices range from a simple 12in x 10in print at £10.99, to a stretch A0-size canvas for £200. Perfect for all those last-minute presents.

Photo Share

If you're au fait with uploading your pictures to the web, and consider Flickr, Facebook or Google's Picasa to be your second home, www.photobox.co.uk allows you to connect your account with any of these services, choose the pictures you want to print and order them in a seamless Web 2.0 fashion. Standard 6in x 4in prints start at 5p; cushions start at £39.95. Prints are posted the same day, although you'll have to wait three weeks for your cushion.

Home Print

If you want to keep photo-processing in-house, you can either buy a photo printer – Canon's Selphy range is well regarded – or stick with your humble inkjet, buy some glossy paper and a few spare ink carts, and get to work with those adjustment settings on your computer. It'll never look quite as it does on the screen, but no one apart from you will know that.

Pogo

Firebox.com sells Polaroid's Pogo for £99.95 plus £3.95 p&p; once you've got one, it's just a question of charging it up. No ink necessary, the magic's all in the paper, which you can buy in packs of 30 online and in high-street outlets for £6-£8. Positives: a cool gadget, the process is relatively speedy, and all you need is a mobile phone and a Pogo. Drawbacks: sometimes, a 3in x 2in photograph will be too small for you.