Flickr centralizes printing abilities
Yahoo adds a streamlined, centralized photo printing ability to Flickr through the Organizr tool. It's about time!
- Shankland covered the tech industry for more than 25 years and was a science writer for five years before that. He has deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and more.
As expected, Flickr has retooled its photo printing abilities to make it easier to print batches of photos.
The new print ability is now available in the Organizr tool, which already was available to help users group photos into sets, change viewing permissions, add tags, and otherwise manage their photos. Flickr's Eric Costello announced the Flickr printing move on Yahoo's blog Wednesday.
I loathed Flickr printing in the past, and the new option worked much more smoothly for me. I suspect I'm not alone here in my dislike--Flickr this year got a major influx of new members when Yahoo started closing down its Yahoo Photos service in favor of its faster-growing Flickr site, and the older site was more geared toward old-school photo site tasks such as printing. Indeed, Yahoo steered printing-oriented Yahoo Photos members away from Flickr when presenting migration options.
Previously, a user had to choose individual photos manually to print from each photo's Web page, although one print partner, Qoop, offered a more streamlined approach. Now, the Organizr's new "order prints" option lets a user select a group of photos to print, quickly choose from a variety of photo sizes, and add them to the shopping cart.
Also, opening the contents of a set presents the same option if you've already sorted photos into a batch.
The interface also includes tabs for sending the prints to Flickr's print partners, Qoop and Moo, which offer more elaborate options such as books, mugs, greeting cards, and miniature business cards.
Update: Regular Flickr printing also includes options for ImageKind, Blurb, and Zazzle.