Instagram Offers Posters, Retro-Style

U.K. users can click on the "Buy" button on maker Firebox's Instagram poster page, choose which photos to upload, and receive a 24-inch wide poster print of their favorite photos in the mail. For the U.S., Printstagram offers the same service, and prints stickers and mini-books as well.

Services like these build on the phenomenal success of Instagram, one of the most successful iOS apps for iPhone and iPad.

Instagram, a two-year-old start-up, catapulted to success along with Apple's iPhone 4S, gaining two million members in the month following the phone's release. The rapidly growing company now boasts even President Obama as a user.

The app allows users to get creative with their pictures with 16 different filters that can blur, sepia-tint, soften, and crop photos, replacing costly lenses and services that once performed the same functions.

Consumers enthusiastically embrace the portability and convenience of digital photography, but the success of Instagram as well as other photography apps like Hipstamatic indidcate they also like to go "retro" with printed photos, which are easier to display at home.

Instagram is wisely capitalizing on the nostalgic trend but adding modern twists, linking itself to various companies which transform the app's photos into hardcover photo books, postcards, and iPhone cases, among other products. A number of businesses now print Instagram photos in a variety of media, creating a cottage industry building off the app.

Instagram's strong integration with social networking sites like Facebook also lets users quickly share their creations, and the new poster option provides a unique way to display both singular photos and collages as tangible art.

If Instagram keeps providing fun tools that bridge iPhone photography and old-fashioned formats, the company is likely to continue its path to success, reminding users of the app's capabilities each time they look at their walls.