Printing at the digital kiosk

You don’t need a computer to enjoy the benefits of digital photography. With the introduction of digital kiosks in many photo, discount and drug stores you can select, edit, make prints and burn your photos onto a CD without ever getting near a computer.

The photo at right is a kiosk at a well known department store. The machine is linked to the normal photo processing machine, so photos pop out as they normally would with film.

You order the prints using the touch screen monitor. It is easy to use and a menu system walks you through each step. You start by taking the memory card out of the camera and inserting it into the slot in the front of the machine. The machine will also accept CDs and floppy disks.

Once you place the card in the machine, the touch screen will take you through the following steps:

•Choose the photos you want to print

•Choose the size for each, 4x6”, 5x7”, or 8x10”

•Rotate, crop and perform simple color corrections

•Print a contact sheet, or thumbnail print, of all photos on the card

•Print your selected enlargements

Once you are finished a receipt is printed, you pay and a few minutes later your prints are ready. The prints are the same quality as normal photo processing with a matte or gloss finish. At the kiosk above each 4x6 print costs $0.24. For an additional charge you can have all your photos transferred from the card to a CD-ROM. This provides a secure archive for all you r prints and allows you to erase the card to begin anew.

There are two disadvantages to using the kiosk

•The machine will crop odd-sized photos. This is especially true with panoramas, which are long and skinny: they will be badly cropped. You can over come this by adjusting the print size in a photo editor before you take it to the kiosk

•You must go to the store. If you want a print instantly, you may be better off buying a color printer.

Note: The kiosk can’t tell if you have edited your photos! You can enhance them with a photo editor and put them back on the card before you get the high quality prints the kiosk provides.