Export to Costco Photo Center
by Vlad on Sep.01, 2009, under Costco Photo Center
One time I needed to use Costco Photo Center to print my photos I was surprised to find out they didn’t offer a Lightroom plugin to upload files to their lab. Their web site uses a propitiatory API, which they don’t disclose (at least as of today it hasn’t been disclosed yet). But I was up for the challenge. After a few days of battling it out with the black box of Costco web site I was able to produce this little plugin.
Download and use this plugin free of charge, all I ask in return from you is to provide some feedback.
Visit the Export to Costco Photo Center page to download the plugin package.
September 25th, 2009 on 4:19 pm
Is there anyway to apply the Costco icc color profiles in Lightroom2 and do any color adjusting before uploading to Costo? Can this be done in Lightroom 2 or do I have to do this in Photoshop?
September 27th, 2009 on 9:47 pm
Ann, you should install the Costco ICC profiles (see http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/profile_install.htm for instructions). Next time you export your photos, select Costco profile from the Color Space drop-down list of the export plugin’s File Settings section. Complete the export dialog. Next time you export photos, your ICC profile choice will be selected by default. You can also save your selection as a user preset.
October 8th, 2009 on 4:45 pm
I’m a first time user and just installed the latest version. Is it intentionally that in File Settings I can’t change the file format? It displays JPEG and is grayed out. I want to upload a TIF file.
Thanks
October 8th, 2009 on 8:30 pm
Limiting file format options to JPEG only was done intentionally based on recommendations by Costco :
Generally speaking, using BMP for uploads makes no sense. The size of TIFF files is less than of BMP, however they are still much larger than uncompressed JPEGs. Most importantly, for the purpose of printing your photos, TIFF is an overkill and it won’t have any effect on the quality of your prints.
October 9th, 2009 on 1:47 pm
Thanks Vlad, just wanted to understand. Very helpful plug-in.
December 26th, 2009 on 1:11 pm
Do you know of any Costco plugins that work with Costco in the US?
December 28th, 2009 on 11:07 pm
I believe my Costco plugin is the one you are looking for.