Scanning photos for high res printing.

[David G. Smith]

I have a lot of photos of my family that I need to distibute to other family members. I don't know squat about still photography and have some questions about the best way to scan these photos so as to offer the most options for my family to use.

I will be scanning these photos. What resolution is requiered to be able to print photos back out as prints. what DPI setting should I use? Should I modify the DPI setting for larger or smaller photos. What file format should I save the scanned photos in?

Anyone have any other info that I will need to scan photos for printing, please let me know.

Thanks.

[Fake Name]

Lots of opinions here, and you don't mention what you'll be printing with- inkjet? Costco?

Were it me, I'd scan at the intended output size, say 5x7 @ 300ppi. 300ppi is generally recognized as an informal standard, and, while arguable, works pretty well. I'd then take the files to Costco and have them printed there- great prints, cheap.

Yes, you can get great results at other smaller resolutions- if you are inkjetting, some folks use 185ppi as a standard.

In any case, I'd scan and save as .tif files without any compression.

Keep in mind these will be fairly large files, and awkward to email. If you wish to email these images, open the original .tif file and use the "save as" function to reduce the resolution (making the file smaller- I like 5x7 @ 72ppi for email) save the file as a .jpg, without changing the original .tif. The .tif will be your archive file forever- it's the files you'll want to burn to CD's as backup.

fn

[David G. Smith]

Sounds good. Yeah, I want to print the photos at a photo- finishing outfit. I will check out Costco.