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Q: What technology does Shutterfly use to print my photographs?
A: Shutterfly uses state-of-the-art Fuji Frontier digital printers designed for professional photofinishers. These printers expose Fuji's Crystal Archive photographic paper using red, green, and blue lasers to produce the sharpest prints available. The exposed photographic paper is chemically processed in the same way as in traditional photo labs. These printers, combined with Shutterfly's proprietary imaging technology, result in the best possible prints from your pictures.

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Q: What type of paper does Shutterfly use?
A: Shutterfly uses Fujicolor Crystal Archive photographic paper from Fuji. Fuji Crystal Archive is a resin-based paper that is noted for its unmatched archival quality. It has long been considered the finest color photographic paper available and is the choice of professional photographers and commercial labs.

Recent independent studies by Wilhelm Imaging Research (an organization respected for its testing of materials) show that Crystal Archive is the most fade-resistant photographic paper of all that are currently made, outlasting other major brands by almost a three-to-one margin. These independent studies showed that under normal display conditions, Fuji Crystal Archive lasts six or seven decades before any noticeable fade; the nearest competing paper was estimated to only last 15 to 20 years before fading.

More information can be found at the Fuji Crystal Archive page or by viewing the Wilhelm Imaging Research study.

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Q: How long will my prints last, compared to inkjet prints and traditional 35mm prints?
A: Unlike prints from an inkjet printer, which are printed on the surface of a paper, Shutterfly prints are very fade-resistant. Shutterfly's chemical process - combined with the use of true Fuji Crystal Archive photo paper - means that your prints will have the same or greater durability as prints from traditional photofinishers. Fuji Crystal Archive paper has been estimated to last many decades before any noticeable fading occurs - for more information, please see the previous question on this page.

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Q: What do you do to my photos before printing them?
A: Shutterfly analyzes your picture and automatically applies adjustments to the picture to improve the exposure and colors in the picture in order to give you the finest-quality prints. We call this technology VividPics®. VividPics is applied by default to all Shutterfly prints.

However, if you have already edited your pictures for color, brightness, or contrast in an application such as Adobe Photoshop, we recommend that you turn off the VividPics setting for the edited pictures. To do this, select the desired picture and click 'Enhance' on the green navigation bar. Then click the 'Effects' tab. On the bottom right, click the checkbox that turns off the VividPics setting for that picture. If you have a number of pictures selected, you can 'Apply this effect to all selected' pictures using the link to the left of your picture. Pictures printed with this setting turned off will be printed exactly as they were uploaded, with no automatic image adjustments or corrections.

Additionally, if you are an imaging professional such as a graphics artist that works in a color-managed environment, we recommend that you turn off the VividPics® setting. If your digital images are in an sRGB color space and you have previewed the image on a calibrated monitor, your Shutterfly prints should be very close to what you see on your monitor when the VividPics® setting is turned off.

Please note that although our VividPics® technology does work to improve exposure, it will not fix images that are poorly-exposed to begin with.

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