What is the difference between processing film and developing film?

Alyssa: What is the difference between processing film and developing film?
I called a photo lab in my area and they said that they could only PROCESS 120mm film and had no way of printing it. Does that mean that it would come out as a negative and not an actual picture?
Or on a more basic question what is processing and printing and developing?

P.S Where would be a good place to get 120mm film developed that doesn’t charge an outrageous price?

Answers and Views:

Answer by Ansell A
Develop = develop the exposed film to produce a negative (or a slide)
Print = print from the negative onto paper to produce a photograph on paper!
Processing = same as developing.

It would help if you actually said where you were in the world then maybe someone can recommend a local lab.

Answer by dieterzakas
First, a correction: it’s 120 film, about 60mm wide; the “120” refers to the format.

Way back in the day, when I worked for Fotomat (yep – the same ones that had the parking-lot kiosks), “processing” film meant the whole kit and kaboodle: first developing the film (the process of using a chemical bath to bring out and fix the latent images), followed by the printing part. Collectively, this was called “processing,” or to be more precise, “photofinishing.”

However, once in a great while, we’d get a customer who’d request “develop only” for his film. This meant the film would go through the development chemistry, but without the printing stage.

To answer your postscript, have you thought about using mailers? I find them convenient.

I buy my mailers at B&H, a New York photo store, who has a special arrangement with A&I in California for a discount price (A&I’s mailers cost more than the same ones you buy at B&H). B&H does sell online.