Five Apps to print photos directly from your mobile phone for FREE.

Printing snapshots taken with your phone has never been easier.​

I'm going to share with you Five Apps that make ordering prints so easy, you don't even have to leave the comfort of your chair. Each of these apps offers up to 50 FREE Photo Prints per month. The only cost involved is the cost of postage and packaging. 

If you want to preserve those special moments and have them at hand to see, rather than searching through realms of digital files. Then you have no excuse other than to get your photos printed. Printing your images is now a lot cheaper than it used to be. If you remember sending in rolls and film to be processed and printed then waiting to see what you had captured then you'll understand. You certainly won’t be getting your digital prints back with a quality warning sticker either.

Since the late 1880's people have been taking photographs that have become widely known as snapshots. They have been an integral part of family history and also a document that showcases periods of historical interest. It is, however, my fear that if people continue to create digital-only content it will eventually be lost in a world of ones and zeros, to never be seen again. It is more towards the family aspects that I fear for most, as I know only too well what it is like to not have photos to look back on. Read my blog on baby and family photos.

Here are some reasons why I believe you should print your photos.

• Important and loved images can become lost in digital archives, finding that one photo that means the world to you in years to come maybe like finding a needle in a haystack if not archived and stored appropriately.
• Digital Technology is constantly advancing. Devices become outdated, unsupported and new media types are being created.
• Prints are instantly visible and a physical item that you can handle and pass around.
• There is much joy and excitement to be had when finding a box of photos or an old album. Compared to that of finding an old USB stick that may not even work.
• The people within your images will not always be here, they are your memories, your reminders and one of the only visual representations other than videos, paintings or drawings that you may own after they are gone.
• Any print is better than no prints and much easier to pass on to future generations.

A brief history of the snapshot photo.

The introduction of the Camera Phone in 1999 created a movement that has led to almost all mobile phone devices being capable of taking photographic images and video. Snapshot Photography is more popular today than it ever has been, thanks to the ever-growing use of digital technology and mostly the Camera Phone.

It was estimated that in 2014/15 around 1.8billion digital images and photos were uploaded to the internet every day. That's a staggering 65billion images a year. I can only imagine that this total has substantially increased over the last few years, especially with the introduction of various social media platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook. All of which are driven on visual content.

Snapshot Photography was made available to the general public shortly after the invention of the Kodak Camera by George Eastman in 1888 marketed with the slogan 'You press the button, we do the rest'. This meant that anybody who wasn't able to already take photos with a previous camera model, now could.

The camera was pre-loaded with film allowing 100 images to be taken. The whole machine would then be sent back to a factory where it was re-loaded and the exposures were processed. Within ten years it was estimated that over 1.5 million rolls of film had landed in the hands of amateurs.

From this, we have moved on through time with the ability to create snapshots of events and significant important dates. We have captured the history of our families, friends and everything around us. Most importantly these photos have often been stored in both their negative and print formats. Whether in shoe boxes, frames or albums, they have become an integral part of our history, our stories and the legacy of our ancestry.

But, what about today? We have countless amounts of digital files floating around the internet and on digital storage devices that may never be seen. We are now not limited by rolls of film but only by the storage capacity of our media which is then transferred onto further storage devices.

Do me a favour the next time you are out at night and have clear skies. Look up and you can see stars, planets and perhaps galaxies from millions of light-years away. Whilst astronomers have many ways of counting them, they have no definitive answer of how many there are, but at least we can see them, even if we do need the help of a telescope to do so. Digital images however just seem to disappear and unfortunately unless we print what we love our family history will disappear with them.

I would highly recommend that if you have photos you really don't want to lose or anything that has any sort of sentimental meaning. You must get them printed.

Five photo printing apps for your mobile phone.

Each of these apps allows you to print up to 50 Photos for FREE per month. Use them all and that is up to 250 photos per month, all for the cost of postage and packaging. 

Please note some of these offers are only available through the apps and not available directly from their websites.

Prepare and organise your photos for print.

To help start preparing what you would like to print it would probably be best practice to sort out what you actually love. This will make it so much easier to make your selection with any of the apps listed below. Most mobiles phones or apps should allow you to sort images with a simple tap of the favourite or heart tab within your camera roll. Some mobiles or apps that are available also offer the ability to sort your images by date, location and even by a person. You may also find that your phone or app is able to organise its own folder categories, but you can also create your own if you wish. Maybe create a folder called print and place all your favourite photos in there.

An extra feature you may have is the ability to create video slideshows. It's certainly available in the latest iOS of an iPhone and is available within the Google Photos app which is available on both iOS and Android devices. You can create a custom slideshow or choose from a selection that has been automated for you. You can then export them to be saved for viewing on other devices as well as your phone. It's a nice little feature to have available, especially when you may have taken a bunch of photos at a family event such as a wedding, birthday celebration or a nice day out.

Choose your desired app, or download them all.

Check out these print albums for your prints.

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You now have no excuses not to print.

So there you have it, Five apps that allow you to print images directly from your mobile phone. You now have no excuses for not printing your photos. 

Print, enjoy and pass them around. You will be suprised how differently people react to seeing printed images rather than a phone flashed in front of their face.​