Getting decades of paper prints into your library
Turn a box of old prints into searchable pictures on your phone.
Nobody scans four thousand prints in a weekend. People who finish do it in batches with a plan.
You have two honest paths. Your phone camera, which is free and immediate, or a scanning service, which takes a box and mails back files. The phone wins for the hundred pictures you care about. The service wins for volume.
Whichever you pick, do the sorting first. Pull the prints you would grieve losing into one stack. Scan that stack before you touch anything else. If you never get to the rest, you have still saved the part that mattered.
Key points
- Sort before you scan, and scan the irreplaceable stack first.
- Phone camera for tens or hundreds, a service for thousands.
- Flat print, window light, phone held square above it.
- Type names and a rough date while you still remember.
- Edit a copy, never the only scan you have.
What to remember
- A scan without a label is a puzzle for whoever comes after you.
- Protect the irreplaceable first. Volume can always be handled later or by somebody else.
- Never improve the only copy. Edit a duplicate and the original is always waiting.
Try this
Pull ten prints you would hate to lose out of the box tonight, scan them near a window tomorrow, and type a name on each.
Practice: Getting decades of paper prints into your library. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.