Sunday 26 August 2012

Top 5 Reasons to Scan a Photo


When you scan a photo, you are preserving a memory that can have many possibilities. Many people scan a photo into their computer to upload it to web pages, and many people also scan a photo to edit it and improve it so that they can print the photo out and frame it. There are many reasons that scanning a photo is a great idea, and there are times when a photo scan would do a photo a lot of good. Here are the top five benefits of a photo scan.

1. A photo scan provides a workable foundation for restorers to work on photos that need retouching without having to alter the original photo. A photo scan can result in a photo that is not sun damaged, time worn, or mishandled.

2. A photo scan can give an owner brand new copies of very old photos for family history's sake. There are so many things that people do that compromise the condition of photos, and some of those things are completely unnoticed. Fingers that touch pictures transfer a small amount of acid to the photograph, and with time, the photo can be eaten away to a point. Using things like pens, tape, and other adhesives on pictures also unintentionally damages the photographs. A photo scan can deliver corrected duplicates of original photos.

3. A photo scan can create duplicates for members of the family that all want the same picture. Many photo editing programs will have settings that when a photo is about to be printed, the computer operator can choose a common picture sizes for the photo to be printed out as. Whether it’s an 11X14 or a 4X6, you can have pictures for everyone, no matter when the picture was taken.

4. You can take a large original picture and shrink it down to a wallet size photo when you scan the picture. A photo scans of a giant family portrait could easily turn something that has been put in the back of your closet into something that you put in the back of your wallet instead. You don't have to only have one copy of the picture that is an inconvenient size; you can choose the size of your picture during a photo scan.

5. You can improve pictures that have been degraded, damaged, or in overall grave condition back to perfect quality prints that you can once again hang on your wall. For posterity sake and also family history's sake, many people want to preserve their old photos of the family. With a photo scan, there can be many copies of a picture, and that picture can become a picture on a personal website, can be hung up in a hallway, and can also be shared and distributed. A photo scan opens up many possibilities for any picture, no matter how old it is or what condition it is in.


A scan of a photo can correct sunlight induced fading damage. Most people are commonly aware that sunlight will ruin photographs. Even pictures that were never intentionally put in the sun can still show damage, even if the sun hit the picture for a few minutes each day.

Photo scanning can provide a smooth replacement for a sticky, corroded picture. Never use rubber cement to adhere photographs to anything. The acids in rubber cement will ruin the picture quickly, cracking the emulsion and paper backing. Rubber cement contains sulfur, which reacts with the silver that sentences pictures to certain death!


Scrapbooking and photo album hobbies have become very popular ways for people to store and share their photos. It is better to use pictures that have undergone photo scanning for these projects, with the original pictures stored properly. You should not use originals in these albums, but the photo scanning copies work well. Do not use the photo albums that have the self adhesive pages covered by clear plastic film. The glue, again here too, is acidic. Never display your pictures in vinyl sleeves. The sleeves are made out of a certain type of plastic that will cause both color and black and white photos to fade. However, if you find pictures that are dear to you. it have fallen victim to any of these damaging mishaps, photo scanning can make it all better, and can even make your pictures better than they originally were.

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