The do-it-yourself days aren’t over for digital photography; almost every camera owner still prints some shots at home. But this year photographers will take more digital images to photofinishers than they print themselves.

Using a photofinisher can be cheaper than printing at home, and it spares you paper jams, depleted ink cartridges, and other annoyances. With online services, you upload your photos to a Web site that makes them viewable and orderable by you--or anyone else you choose. (In some cases,visitors can even download your images.) With in-store processing, you use a terminal or kiosk to order (and even edit) prints stored on a memory card. If the terminals intimidate you, you can usually hand the memory card to a clerk, just as you do with film canisters.

Photofinishers can be a major time-saver for large photo batches. They can also print on items that would be challenging on a home printer (calendars, photo albums) or downright impossible (puzzles, mugs, custom postage stamps).

Based on our tests of 12 online services and in-store services at eight retail chains, you’re more assured of getting high-quality prints online. However, features for sharing and managing your images vary by site. Also, in our experience, if your images look “too professional,” online services may make you sign an affidavit that you’re not violating a copyright.

At the retail chains, service was speedy, as promised. But testers said other customers could too easily view images on terminal screens and noticed out-of-order terminals in about 20 percent of stores.

HP, the biggest brand of home printer, soon plans to enter retail photofinishing with its PhotoSmart Express kiosk. Set for Albertson’s and other retailers, the kiosk will use inkjet technology instead of dye-sublimation, the more common process for kiosks. HP hopes it will give its kiosks an edge in quality and speed.

Whatever service you choose, ask about prepaying for 100 or more prints, which may save you a few cents per print. Also, while you can fix imperfections such as red-eye at photofinishing sites or terminals, it’s best to make such edits beforehand, using photo-editing software.

If quality matters most, go online. In our tests, the best online photofinishers produced excellent prints more consistently than the best in-store services. Just make sure you have access to a broadband connection; it’s painfully slow to upload photos using dial-up access.

If sharing is a priority for you, look for sites that make it easy to store images and organize them into virtual albums or even slideshows, complete with captions and colorful borders. Some sites, for example, won’t let you add photos to existing albums. But there are other services, such as Flickr.com, that offer more sophisticated sharing than the photofinishers.

Not all sites allow your visitors to download your images to their computers for home printing, especially for free.

For speed and price, go to a store. In our tests using standard delivery, prints ordered online arrived in four to seven days--well within the promised time. In-store prints arrived in 15 to 60 minutes. Still too slow? In-store processing chains that also offer online photofinishing usually allow you to upload images to their site ahead of time. The images are then ferried to your local store, where they’re ready when you arrive. The least expensive in-store services are actually cheaper than most online photofinishers once you factor in online shipping costs (of about 10 cents a print).

For best quality, use a minilab with Fujifilm equipment. With minilab service, the terminal you use is connected to the lab behind the counter. Orders typically take 15 minutes to an hour to complete. In our tests, quality from minilabs was better than from kiosks, the other in-store photofinishing technology. (Also, minilab prints are water-resistant, as are online prints. Those from the kiosks we tested weren’t.)

Major retailers are supplied with minilab equipment by Fujifilm or Kodak. You can expect prints that are at least very good if you use a minilab with Fujifilm equipment. In our tests, minilabs with Kodak equipment were more uneven, with the worst prints having flaws such as washed-out colors, out-of-focus images, and orange-tinted flesh tones.

For speed (and speed alone), use a kiosk. Kiosks are essentially stand-alone terminals that deliver prints like ATMs dispense money. In our tests, they typically delivered prints in 15 minutes or less. But quality is generally lower (and costs higher) than with other options, and you may have to wait for your photos--or fish awkwardly for them--while the next customer uses the machine.

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