Free copies and photo printing is a dream come true for most passionate fans of the printing process, especially those who create ‘zines. Oceanize out of Japan tapped into the passion of free copies by creating Tada Copy which means “free copy” by charging advertisers to place small ads either in the corner of copies or on the back, in exchange for the user to make copies for “free.” While this concept may seem similar (and it is) to the popular Purikura machines (see June story, “Purikura Machines in Japan, China, +Taiwantake DIY Photo Booths to New Levels Including Videkura—Short Videos Distributed via Mobile Phones”), the ads in the “free” copies have search-me codes, also known as QR codes which are embedded in a lot of ads in magazines in Japan that allow readers to scan the ad and find out information about the product, cost, or location.

Most of these “free Kinko’s” are around Tokyo universities where free copies are a hot commodity. Advertisers that have jumped on the Tada Copy program so far include KFC and Japan Tobacco.

In addition, there are other companies moving in this direction as well such as Priea that embeds ads in photo copies. The cool thing about Priea, which also acts as a social network, is that it delivers the final product to your door. So basically, you can upload and organize up to 30 images in your own collage format, then send it to Priea which then downloads it, prints it, and ships it.

This type of service is bound to cross to America soon as the increase in consumer-reporters, bloggers, ‘zine-creators, and general fans of digital photo prints continues to increase. What’s unknown so far however, is if there’s a return on the advertising investment in the “free” copies.