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Resolution of Photos

I just completed a photo essay book about my parents as a gift for my brother and three sisters. What I discovered as I put it together, many of the photos’ resolution were not large enough to make the images large on the page. For this book, it is currently only digital, so it does not matter. But if we want print it, I may need to re-scan the photos.

Many of the photos were scanned years ago when my computer hard drive storage was much smaller. Today, images should be scanned at least at 600 dpi for a jpeg and even higher for a tiff file. A tiff file will end up very large but it is a stable format and will not change with each saving. Scanning first as a tiff is ideal. Then save as a jpeg for daily use but keep the original tiff scan untouched.

So, what did I end up with some of the images? Many were under 200 kilobytes, some even under 100 kb. Here is an example of one of my parents at 62 kb.


I do have many the images, so re-scanning is possible. However, the photos I borrowed to scan are not. I need to purchase a new scanner, as my HP scanner is nearly 15 years old and does not communicate well with Windows 10. I can get it to scan but none of the features work to do any editing. I will also have to do some rearranging in the office to find a place for the scanner. Now, if my husband and I could agree on which one.

If purchasing a scanner is out of the question, many of the local FamilySearch Centers have a variety of scanners for use. Many public libraries do, too. So, there is not excuse to not scan our photos at the highest resolution the scanner will allow.

#52Ancestors-Week 52: Resolution

This is my seventh year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow (https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/) at Generations Cafe. 
I write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or My Trails into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.

Copyright © 2024 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.

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