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SnapBox adds editing tools to its photos-into-artwork service

Tune up your shots before turning them into framed canvas prints.

Joshua Goldman Managing Editor / Advice
Managing Editor Josh Goldman is a laptop expert and has been writing about and reviewing them since built-in Wi-Fi was an optional feature. He also covers almost anything connected to a PC, including keyboards, mice, USB-C docks and PC gaming accessories. In addition, he writes about cameras, including action cams and drones. And while he doesn't consider himself a gamer, he spends entirely too much time playing them.
Expertise Laptops, desktops and computer and PC gaming accessories including keyboards, mice and controllers, cameras, action cameras and drones Credentials
  • More than two decades experience writing about PCs and accessories, and 15 years writing about cameras of all kinds.
Joshua Goldman
2 min read

Screenshot by Joshua Goldman

There are plenty of services that can turn your photos -- whether taken with a phone or camera or downloaded from Facebook or Instagram -- into canvas prints. One of those services, SnapBox, is worth highlighting not just for the quality of the product, but for its affordable pricing and ease of use.

Ordering a print just requires you to e-mail a photo, which is quickly replied to with a proof of what it will look like. A 5x5 or 5x7 print is currently less than $10 and shipping is free if you're willing to pick the print up at one of 8,000 retail locations, including CVS/pharmacy and Bartell Drugs.

However, when the service first launched in October, the company's site and service weren't as polished as its product. (Just read a couple of the comments on my original post.)

Since then its site has been updated with a responsive design making it easier to preview and order from any device. If you want to order on the site instead of by e-mail, you can now upload photos directly on the site or import them from Facebook. And if you need to rotate or crop your picture or want to add a filter effect before you order, you can do that now, too (though the crop tool doesn't let you do a square crop for some reason).

Joshua Goldman/CNET

For $9.79 each -- fully framed -- the product is impressive. It's certainly a nice option for a quick and easy holiday gift, though you only have until December 17 to get it in time for Christmas. One other warning: While you can select to ship directly to someone else, there's no way yet to add a gift card of any kind and the packaging is designed for safe shipping, not gift presentation (something I've been told is coming soon).