Digital prints on film paper?

[Deja Q]

Walgreens, walmart, proex, and everybody else can put digital prints on photographic paper. Is this true or do they use a dye-sub printer?

Either way, they say the prints will last forever. Not quite. Prints usually fade after 20 years depending on the quality of the paper used...

[BiggJawn]

1. I think it's Dye-Sub.

I had some stuff done at the Kodak machine and I couldn't tell any diference between the $3 Kodak "print" and my Epson. Didn't test to see if it was waterproof or not.

[MercutioATC]

2. NOT dye-sub. Walmart uses Fuji Frontier labs.

...which are arguably the best available right now. The prints are exactly the same as prints made from film (and cheap at $.29 each).

[FlaGranny]

3. My son had some made there

and they are fantastic, on a par with the best negative film.

[BiggJawn]

5. Can you give them a floppy?

Or a CDROM and they'll run it on the Fuji machine?
I've always used the Kodak self-serve machine...

[FlaGranny]

6. You can upload your photos to their web site

and then pick up the finished photos at a store.

[bfusco]

4. It's Fuji Crystal Archive

The process is Fuji Crystal Archive. It takes a digital image, projects it on to light sensitive paper and the image is developed in chemistry the same way a traditional C-print is done. Slide film is now often printed in such a way. I highly doubt the prints will last forever and are subject to the same factors that degrade color photographs. Low humidity, acid free mounting, consistent temperatures and avoiding direct sunlight gives the longest life to images. The longest and truly tested archival medium for color photography is the Giclée process. Black in white silver process on fiber paper, selenium toned and stored in optimal conditions has the most life (perhaps centuries). Epson advertises light fast inks that will last 80 years but I don't know if that is accurate.