Thursday, 8 September 2016

At last I have found an alternative to Truprint (and a malfunctioning printer)

I'm back! What a wonderful Summer I had. I hope yours was just as good x

My eldest son will be 18 on Saturday. 18!! Where did the time go? Anyway, I wanted to produce him a special photo album featuring every year of his life. But there were a few problems with this. Firstly, my printer is malfunctioning so I cannot print them out myself. And secondly, I have, as usual with these things, left it to the last minute so cannot do my usual Truprint order delivered to my mother-in-law who then forwards them onto me, due to the limited time available.

I know, this is pretty poor, having lived here in Switzerland for nearly three years now. But what with everything else, the photo situation has taken a back seat. And I haven't needed pictures within a deadline before so my previous way worked.

So, having a few days to get 60 photographs printed (I got carried away and now have 3 or 4 pics of each year) I had two options – to use ifolour (http://www.ifolor.ch/en) which has been recommended to me on many occasions – and the website looks suspiciously like the Truprint one – or use the photo machine at Winterthur Bahnhof. I chose the latter and was amazed who well this worked! You can choose English, upload your images from anything – memory stick, card, etc – or even Bluetooth them, which I did! Ok, I underestimated the length of time needed to print out 60 photographs and missed my bus (it took nearly half an hour) There were a couple of negatives - the machine, for some reason, didn't give change - so you need to be careful and have the right money available - and it didn't accept card payment. But for me, this is something I can live with for such a great immediate printing service. And the pictures turned out great! 

Now, when friends and family visit, I can instantly print out a few mementos of their holiday on the go, from by phone without having to fret whether the printer will work when I get home or if I need to buy another pack of outrageously expensive printer inks. 

By the way, the cost was 50 Rp per photograph. Bargain. If you're not printing out a life's worth of images for your son's 18th birthday that is...

5 comments:

  1. Mission accomplished! I haven't used these machines for a while but they are very handy. I find Ifolor very quick and reliable and the photobooks look really professional but I still like the charm of a hand-made album.

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    1. I agree, hand-made albums are so worth the effort. They provide memories that can last many lifetimes :)

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  2. I used to do hand made albums with written in comments and collage of souveniers .. but don't have that much time anymore so at least have printed annual photo album in a book form, with comments written in. Kids love to go through it and grandparents living far away love receiving it as their xmas gifts. Tried the machines too! Great for quick solutions :)

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    1. I often do the printed annual photo albums for family abroad. They love them ;)

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