Bring your photos, new and old, into the digital world with a scanner.
The magic of the digital world is its ability to carry an entire library of information in the space of a key fob, but not all the information we want available to us is in digital format. Until recently, photographs have only been in the printed form, which is easily destroyed, heavy to carry and sometimes lost. Scanning your photos into digital format will make it easier for you to hang on to some of your more prized possessions--your memories.
Instructions
1. Adjust your scanner settings to match your intended use. If you just plan to upload your pictures to a website, you can probably get away with the scanner's lowest settings. This reduces the file size for faster download times and smaller storage space. However, if you are planning to archive these photos, you will want to save them in a format that will permit high quality prints in the future. Dave Johnson with PC World recommends setting the scanner at 300 dpi if you want to preserve the photo for printing at essentially the same size you scanned. If you want to have the option of enlarging your photos in the future, you should set the scanner at 600 dpi. Use 3000 dpi if you're trying to scan slides or film.
2. Place your image face down on the glass plate of the scanner, align it to the scanner's edges and start the scanning process. This process will be different depending on the scanner you own. Some allow for a single touch of a button while others may require you to open photo editing software first. The scanner will start warming up and you will usually have the option to define the scanning area through the interface of an automatic preview on your computer screen. If the preview screen shows the image tilted, bent or with dirt on the tray, stop to fix the problem. When you are satisfied with the placement and settings, continue the scanning process according to your scanner's software.
3. Save the scanned image in a folder where you will be able to find it again. Give the photo a file name that is somehow descriptive of the image. You can also name it for the date it was taken or scanner, but this will tell you nothing about what's in the picture and it is likely that you will run into file name conflict. One way to address this issue is to create new folders for each photo collection.
Tags: your photos, digital format, digital world, file name, have option