Digital Home Thoughts: DotPhoto Offers New Print Sizes Based on Real Image Dimensions

"Digital photos aren't meant to fit on the 3-by-5-inch or 4-by-6-inch photo papers traditionally used for 35mm film prints. Photo-printing Web site DotPhoto.com's solution: Offer prints based instead upon the dimensions of the digital image itself. The company began offering the service this week...DotPhoto's new print size is called 4xD (the D is for digital). An industry standard based on a digital photo's native 1.33 aspect ratio, its resulting prints are 4 by 5.33 inches. Several other sites also offer 4xD prints, including Ulead's IMira.com and Smugmug.com. At least one, Club Photo, has been offering the size for years, according to company vice president Darren Schiff. But many of the major players, including SnapFish, Shutterfly, and Kodak's Ofoto, don't yet offer 4xD or other 1.33 sizes."

I think this is a bad idea. A really, really bad idea. Two reasons why: first, the world of photography is based around standards, and that resonates in everything from paper size to frame size. There's a legacy lasting decades there, and trying to come up with a "digital" print size makes no sense. Secondly, digital image sensor sizes are always changing, and unless I've misunderstood something, they seem to be pushing towards the "full frame" 35mm size - which is a good thing.

I'm all for choices and letting the market decide, so unless DotPhoto also starts to offer frames with their prints (they might), I predict the quick and spectaculur death of this concept. Even if they offer frames, I still predict this won't take off.