Costco printing pictures, compression?
 

I am using Costco's online photo lab to print a few pictures from my digital camera for the first time and it is asking me if I want to compress the image while uploading? I am assuming this is to save file space on there servers but it seems to allude to better image quality for 4x6 prints, it says not to compress the file if you want larger than 8x10 which I do not.

Any idea's or suggestions? I just want the best image quality for the prints.

Can you give more details? How much is it compressing the images? What's the DPI, etc?

If you want the best quality prints you're probably better off compressing them yourself, assuming you already know how & have the tools. It will help you to know exactly what you're getting and it will probably decrease your upload (& their processing) time.

I've never used Costco, but have used a variety of in store photo centers and my universal experience has been that the less the store does to your pictures (other than print them) the better.

It would probably be worth a call to the photo lab to get the details on their printer/settings at which point we can be more specific.

OK thank you for the input. I am not sure of the DPI or any other settings or changes it will make to the images.

The box that pops up on the Costco site is pretty vague with information. I am going to resize the images myself just to speed up the upload time.

If you're just gonna wing it, I would shoot for 300 dpi pictures (1200x1800 pixels for a 4x6). If I were to bet on it, that would be the resolution I would think they're going to print at.

Had a bad experience with Costco printing my photos. I specifically did not select either of the options for compression or color work when I was ordering a 16x20.

When I picked it up not only did the receipt read that they'd compressed a large file to a couple hundred K, but the lady cheerfully reported she "color corrected" it despite my settings. The result was a pixelated mess with zero shadow detail - everything remotely gray to mostly black to 100% black was all the same.

Costco is awesome for many things but I will never use them for photos again. Hope you have another choice nearby!

edit: To be clear, for the best image quality do not choose compression regardless of size. Compressing the photos is only so they'll upload faster, or take up less space in Costco's systems.

Costco is the only nationwide chain I know of that calibrates and provides color profiles for their printers, because of this I know a few pros who use them to run off proofs and personal stuff. I'm surprised you had such a bad experience since I've heard such overwhelmingly good things about them. I'll have to ask people I know how they've done it.