After my guest post on Venture Beat I got a few requests to review iPhone camera and photography apps. The first on the list was Printic, an iPhone that describes itself as:

The best way to Print & Share pictures with the people you love. From your iPhone. In a snap.

The app boils down to a very simple workflow. You select images, select an address (or addresses) to send it to, and physical prints show up in a cute little orange envelope. The images are printed at a 3×4″ size at a traditional wet lab with quality control and a personal check of each print (according to what the website says).

The pricing model is simple as well, a free app, $0.99 per print, no shipping costs, no extra fees. Print fees are paid through the app’s in-app purchase mechanism (note that there is a no-returns policy).

Overall the process is about as easy as I wrote above. You go into an image picker (you can also link your account to Instagram or Facebook and pull images from there, but I chose three images from my camera roll. Next step, put in the delivery name and address, allowing you to send to multiple parties. This is nice if you’re on vacation and want to rub it in your friends noses, or send off some images from a get together to multiple people. Addresses can be imported from your address book which makes it pretty easy.

Honestly the process was about as easy as could be. When the images arrived (after a long wait that turned out to be nothing to do with Printic, but in fact with my ability to properly sort incoming mail!) they were of decent quality. The 3×4″ print size is a bit deceiving (as you can see, the print is a square orientation on top of the rectangular print size, so it looks a bit like a Polaroid).

Conclusion

The biggest issue I have with Printic is the print size and paper quality. The fact that you can get what you get for $0.99 (well, $2.97 USD as there’s a three image minimum), with no up-selling and a simple UI? Well, I wish my local photo lab (which charges about $0.23 for a 4×6″ print) had a UI as easy as this. Even with some minor issues importing addresses from the address book, this app still takes the cake in terms of workflow that I’d love to see in interfaces for the local London Drugs or Lens & Shutter.

Some options I’d love to see in a future update is a way to choose different levels of print quality. A real 4×6″ or 5×7″ option, or a “high quality paper” option would be great (at an increased price of course). However for the quality of images that most people shoot with their iPhones, this is more than adequate, and there is a certain amount of joy in having physical prints in your hand?

Is the app (and the print cost) worth it? I say absolutely. The simple fact that this gives you a quick and easy way to get physical prints in your (and your friends) hands without leaving the couch is enough to get my recommendation. Too often these days pictures stay 100% digital their entire life, and are never turned into physical objects. I’ll be taking a work vacation for a week to a far off land and plan to use Printic for sending a postcard home to my wife and parents for less than the cost of a Starbucks Latte.

Great job to Flo, Ben and the rest of the team on a great app.