Pikto

Pikto makes beautiful products, but in all the times I have been into the store, not once has a salesperson spoken to me. Sometimes they don’t even make eye contact, while other times they look up, but don’t even say hello. Welcoming someone to the store and being available to speak to is one of the primary features of working on the sales floor, I assume. There has always been no more than one or two other people in the store. What a turn off. It’s sad because I like their product, but I don’t want to get my wedding album made at a place where I get bad vibes. I would rather spend my money somewhere where they are happy to have your business.

So many people are posting reviews about the quality of service. I gave this rating a 2, because I recognize that Pikto is lacking in some areas, but their ability to reconcile issues is excellent. I’m quite hard pressed to acknowledge that perhaps its your approach to the Pikto employees that made your experience a bad one. If you are a jerk when you call and complain, they are less reluctant to help you. I had problems uploading a layflat book to their new platform and I only had up until 10am the following day. Well, it ended up that it never uploaded and although I called in a panic, I didn’t treat them like it was their fault personally. They recognized the issue and were more than willing to help me. I wasn’t a jerk to them either. So, I ended up getting the service I deserved in light of the mishaps of their online uploading platform. If you are nice enough, any one who is in the service/​retail industry will be willing to resolve your issue. Thanks Pikto! I know some of your stuff isn’t perfect, but your product is excellent and I will always come back!

Do not bother going here if you would like prints that are even remotely true to your images. I printed here twice using their online system. The first time I clicked ‘colour correct’ accidentally, and the prints came out dark and green. I thought that was my fault, so I tried different prints with no colour correction. Same result — grey and yellow-​green prints. I understand there will be differences between print and monitors, but my monitor is calibrated and the difference should not be that extreme. Also, the first time I went the guy blatantly ignored me, and the second time they were certainly far from friendly. Not impressed. The only thing I would say for them is that they are very fast, affordable, and the online system is easy to use. But that is not worth much if the prints are useless.

Any photographer who cares and is passionate about their work and should avoid this place at all costs. Impersonal service with standoffish hipster staff that work there because it’s cool and don’t actually give a **it about delivering a quality product to their customers and ensuring their sarisfaction. I had high hopes for this place and what a disappointment. After doing further research I stumbled upon Toronto Image Works, wow, what a difference in service and quality!

I had problems with their online ordering system even when I followed the instructions step by step. I was told that the problem may be that my files are too large to transmit — if I knew this beforehand I would have resized my images, but I needed these prints ASAP and had no access to a computer.
I spent almost the entire day trying to call the store to rectify this; sometimes I would get a fax tone, other times I would get no answer at all. When I did speak to a staff, they offered no reasonable solution. I ultimately asked for a refund.

This is a great lab. I love the quality of the metallic print here and the prices are great. The only problem is it’s too far from me otherwise I would visit more often.
Special bonus: I love their metallic prints here.

As a professional wedding photographer, I need a reliable print shop where I can order prints of varying sizes but also have the option available to do some minor touch ups if needed via a workstation. Pikto offers that.
I have placed many orders through these guys and they do a pretty good job each time. The print shop staff are actually pretty nice to work with. They take the time to answer my questions (as long as they’re not too swamped with orders) and take care with my prints.
I’ve also printed a photo book with them. It was okay. Just okay. Think high school yearbook-​style of album with fancier cover options. It was a one time deal and I now outsource all of my albums to a company in the US.
The reason why I don’t give them a 4 star rating or higher is because of their prices. It’s one price for all. Regular Joe or Pro Photog, there’s no deviation of pricing (unless you order prints in mass quantities… but that’s available for everyone too).
I’d go back more regularly if they offered pro pricing but it doesn’t make sense to print with a lab that any of my clients could go to and get their prints for the exact same price. Pricing fail.

Save your time and money. Don’t use Pikto.
Longer version: I am amazed at the number of ways Pikto found to screw up my order. I brought in two redscale negatives to be printed. Given it is not a standard order I took care to show which negs to print and noted that it was redscale film.
When i arrived to pick up the prints I found that they only managed to get one of the two negs correct. More amazingly, they printed them in black and white, not color.
Pikto was good enough to rush the job through that day to fix it. However, I go back again later in the day to get the reprints only to find now that they’ve printed the negs backwards.
To top it off, I get home and see that they’ve also given me an envelope of someone else’s prints as well as the ones they screwed up for me.

I had to get a photo printed in a rush, weird size, metallic paper, etc…
Their online upload tool is excellent, and when I had problems uploading, their staff emailed me and did their best to help, even offering just to accept it as an email with instructions.
Really fast service, very very affordable… definitely use them again — as an aside — I think their prints are better quality, and faster than say, Black’s…

I really like Pikto so consider the rest of this review a swayed bias. (is that even proper english?)
At any rate, Pikto is the place I go to get my large prints done when I’m in a bind. I rent a workstation, run upstairs, convert my images to Pikto’s printer’s profiles, and in about 25 — 35 mins (this time can/​will vary) I have my prints in hand. I’m talking about images 25″ and larger but Pikto also prints every other size you could ever want including the ever popular 4x6s. Pikto is also a great place to check out photography books, magazines, accessories, portfolios, their on site gallery, and even pick up your very own Holga! The greatest thing about Pikto though, are the people. They are always friendly, always dying to help and answer your questions, and never make you feel like a tool when you ask ridiculous questions. Oh, they also have a small café you can sample while you wait for over sized, last minuet prints!

We did a comparison between Blurb + Pikto. We received both books through the mail. When the Pikto book arrived it wasn’t packed properly. Because of this the cover of the book was damaged and the corners of the pages were already distressed. When looking at the the 2 books next to each other we noticed that the printing on the Pikto book was blotchy. When we called the company about the damages and printing they were rude and denied that it was their fault. They refused to give us a refund and didn’t even offer to reprint the book. Terrible customer service. We are stuck with a book that isn’t acceptable to show and we had to pay for it. It is ridiculous! We will never recommend this company to anyone. Blurb is much better and the customer support is 100% better.

I was taken to Pikto by one of my closest friends who also happens to be a photographer. The Distillery District is not an area in which I frequently hang, but the last couple trips made me think that I should.
Pikto is a really cool place, even for a regular citizen such as myself. Workstations to be rented by the hour, for all the things that these camera-​toting, globe-​trotting artists need to do with their digitized images to make them ready for printing, which they also do here. Another amusing activity that you’d (read: I’d) never considered: printing your own photobook! A perfect tool for displaying either work that you’ve created or work that was created in your honour (portfolios for artists or models, respectively), or a great way to celebrate and immortalize your own fun, friends and family. I recently got a tour of the book-​binding facilities and got to see some from each camp. It was also pretty damn exciting.
They carry a wealth of specialty magazines, useful and novelty photo gear, comfy places to sit while you peruse, and some very attractive frames and other display devices. A coffee bar that brews close-​to-​my-​heart Balzac’s, and a mini-​gallery display that changes monthly make this a rare combination of specialty shop and artsy hang-​out.