Sometimes you find yourself in a situation when you have to scan paper prints, negatives or slides and store them as digital photos on your computer. Although the reason for doing that can vary there are some common considerations to scanning paper prints. In this article we will go over some of them and try to make your scanning experience easier.
There are three types of prints that you might be scanning:
Paper prints: the most common, usually at sizes like 4X6 and 5X7.
Negatives: also known simply as film. This is the processed film usually 35mm from which paper prints are made.
Slides: very similar to negatives used for projecting photos on a large screen.
Scanning paper photos prints.
Photo paper prints are easy to scan. You can choose to scan them yourself at home (purchasing a scanner that can do the job is usually cheap and costs less than a $100). You can also choose to mail them (or hand them) to a professional scanning service that will scan them for you and mail you back the originals and a DVD with the digital scans (such services include www.digmypics.com, www.digitalpickle.com, www.britepix.com and many more)
There are pros and cons to both scanning at home and using a professional service. If you have a small number of photos scanning at home is easier. If you have plenty of photos using a service might be easier but you can end up spending more money.
When scanning at home consider the following:
Resolution: the resolution of a scan is measured by the number of dots per inch that the scanner can produce. Most scanners can scan at 1200 DPI or more. Usually the scanner can be set to scan at different resolutions. The higher the resolution the slower the scan and the bigger the photo file size will be. For most paper prints scanning at 300 to 600 DPI is enough but you can experiment scanning at higher resolutions if you feel it provides better results.
Speed: If you have a small number of photos speed is not an issue. If you have hundreds or more of photos scanning speed becomes important. To get fast scans you would have to scan at the lowest resolution possible that results in good enough scans - for most paper prints 300 to 600 DPI is enough.. Also if you're going to buy a scanner check the scanning speed (usually measured in the number of scans per minute make sure that you check the speed at the DPI you're going to use).
Photo feeding: if you only have a small number of photos this is not an issue. If you have many photos make sure that the scanner you buy allows fast and easy loading of photos. Some higher-end scanners will let you load a stack of photos and will automatically feed and scan them for you. These scanners are the right choice if you are planning on scanning hundreds or more photos.
Scanning negatives and slides
Scanning negatives and slides is harder than scanning paper prints. In most cases it is easier and maybe cheaper to use a professional scanning service (such services include www.slidescanning.com, www.myspecialphotos.com, www.pixmonix.com and many more). If you want to scan at home your standard flat scanner will not be good enough. In most cases you will need to spend money on purchasing a film/slides scanner. Those scanners are more expensive than the flat paper scanners. Negatives and slides are small high resolution sources and thus require scanning at higher DPI than paper prints. In most cases 2400DPI or higher should be used.
The considerations for scanning negatives and slides are similar to scanning paper prints. If you need to scan just a few negatives or slides speed and ease are not important but if you're going to scan hundreds or more you should spend more money on scanners that can feed the negatives or slides automatically or can just load a roll of film and scan it.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Scanning pictures
By: Ran Landau | 19-07-2008
I'm looking for a photo scanner, with a good feeder, which will scan all my old photos,
is there something like that in the market?
I just cancel In running MBSA 2.1 scan on my ...
By: gsriddle | 27-06-2008
I just cancel In running MBSA 2.1 scan on my Laptop, it goes to about 75% but never completes and after long time I just cancel the scan. What is happening?
How do I make and exact copy of a CD disc label?
By: britcom61 | 18-05-2008
How do I make and exact copy of a CD label? The label that sticks on the disc itself. I tried scanning the original and then sizing it to fit my label maker. Problem is that the scan has a shadow around the edge and the scan also shows the edge of the disc! There must be an easire way to replicate a cd disc sticker, does anyone know how??
Best resolution for scanning old photos
By: arutha | 12-11-2007
I have a lot of old photos that I wish to scan. My scanner allows me to modify only the DPI. The available DPI options are as follows:DPI - 100x100, 150x150, 200x200, 300x300, 400x400, 600x600, 1200x1200, 2400x2400, 4800x4800, 9600x9600, 19200x19200.When I use a low DPI I get a low-quaility scan but it's fast. When I go up to 1200x1200 DPI it takes forever to complete a single scan. My question - is there any rule for which DPI to choose, or should I just go with the best combination of speed and quality (in my case - 600x600).Thanks..
Looking for suggestions on current scanning/OCR technology to save time on blogging by posting in handwritten entries
By: Ecrivaine32 | 07-02-2007
I like to do my writing by hand in my notebook on the Metro, and I love to blog, but it's lighter and more convenient for me to go lo-tech, mostly because I haven't purchased one of the new ultraportables yet (yet, I say - I definitely have my eye on them). I have a Palm Treo 700p, however, even though I purchased a lightweight, wireless keyboard to go along with it, I don't really have the space in which to use it when I'm on public transit (where I get most of my writing ideas and inspiration). If I just use the Treo keyboard with its awkward, tiny keys that drive me bonkers, it would take me days to write one post.I really like the idea of writing my posts (albeit, neatly) and then scanning them in via some kind of device or software. I have not messed around with scanning technologies in a while, so I was wondering if anyone could supply me any advice on this.I always seem to have more to say than time to blog, and I'm constantly missing out on good opportunities to write. Any suggestions?Also, I like the idea of the handwritten images, which I think may add some character as well to my blogs.I will still type into my blog, so it will be kind of a mixed media project online.
Slides to JPG
By: Mr.Kelada | 03-08-2006
I have a bunch of slides that I would like digital images of. Currently I'm getting prints from the slides and scanning them on a flat bead scanner. Is there a better or cheaper way of getting .JPGs from slides?
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