ProudGrandma Posted February 12, 2020 Share Posted February 12, 2020 I have a bunch of photos I want to scan and put into digital photo books. I have a 3 in 1 printer/scanner but whenever I scan a picture, it scans it as a small part of a piece paper like image...so I am not sure that will work when I want to try to make photo books. I have looked at photo scanners...and I am sure this is a case of "you get what you pay for"....and I can't afford an expensive scanner. Does anybody here have a decent one that you could link me to? or experience using a regular 3 in 1 printer/scanner that could help me navigate this project? Thank you very much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheReader Posted February 12, 2020 Share Posted February 12, 2020 I wonder if your 3-in-1 has a setting/choice of "save as PDF" or "save as JPG" and if you save as JPG does it then save the photo as the right size/type image....? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katy Posted February 12, 2020 Share Posted February 12, 2020 Somewhere in the software will be an option to save it as a photo file instead of a document. You don't need a different scanner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProudGrandma Posted February 12, 2020 Author Share Posted February 12, 2020 13 minutes ago, TheReader said: I wonder if your 3-in-1 has a setting/choice of "save as PDF" or "save as JPG" and if you save as JPG does it then save the photo as the right size/type image....? it does...so that is all I need? AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenmom5 Posted February 12, 2020 Share Posted February 12, 2020 1 hour ago, kfeusse said: I have a bunch of photos I want to scan and put into digital photo books. I have a 3 in 1 printer/scanner but whenever I scan a picture, it scans it as a small part of a piece paper like image...so I am not sure that will work when I want to try to make photo books. I have looked at photo scanners...and I am sure this is a case of "you get what you pay for"....and I can't afford an expensive scanner. Does anybody here have a decent one that you could link me to? or experience using a regular 3 in 1 printer/scanner that could help me navigate this project? Thank you very much! look at the settings on your scanner. I use a regular digital scanner (all in one fax/photo/etc.) at as high as resolution as the scanner will do. then I crop all the extra out, which will enlarge the image. because it 'saves' an 8 1/2 x 11 image - I will scan multiple pix at a time - then chop them up digitally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheReader Posted February 12, 2020 Share Posted February 12, 2020 8 minutes ago, kfeusse said: it does...so that is all I need? AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! thanks. I hope so, yes. If not, see gardenmom's info below, that will help as well if this doesn't fix it. 5 minutes ago, gardenmom5 said: look at the settings on your scanner. I use a regular digital scanner (all in one fax/photo/etc.) at as high as resolution as the scanner will do. then I crop all the extra out, which will enlarge the image. because it 'saves' an 8 1/2 x 11 image - I will scan multiple pix at a time - then chop them up digitally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth S Posted February 12, 2020 Share Posted February 12, 2020 Yes, to all of this. My scanning software has "photo", "document" and other special features. I also was able to set it to scan the entire scanning bed (more like 11x14" size). You can usually google your questions about a specific scanner & the answer will come up in the results. (With step-by-step instructions!) I've had great success scanning 4 photos at a time, grouping them by topic as I scan them. Then as PP said, I crop them individually when I'm ready to use them. A followup step is to upload them to Google Photos (or other cloud), and save them on an external HD. It has been so wonderful to share these old photos with our extended family, just by sharing the Google Photo Link. And I"m no longer afraid of a house fire destroying our stash of photos. This is a great project to work on a little bit at a time over several weeks. Hope you have great success! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suzanne in ABQ Posted February 12, 2020 Share Posted February 12, 2020 I scanned about 600 photos a few years ago (all my parents' photos). I had a Brother multi-function that would scan several photos at once, sense their edges, and split them into separate photo files. It was AWESOME! Then, in the middle of the project, I upgraded my operating system on my Mac, and it would no longer support that function. Arghhhhh! I had to finish the job one photo at a time. Anyway, depending on your printer software, and possibly your computer, if you dig around in your scanning preferences, you might find the option to split multiple pictures into separate files. Do that, if you can. It will save you a ton of time. Oh, and another tip, if you have a photo with a lot of white, especially along the edges of the photo, your scanner may have trouble detecting the real edges and may chop off part of your picture. If you see that happening, just put a dark colored paper behind the photo. You may have to crop it manually later, but at least you'll get the whole photo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted February 12, 2020 Share Posted February 12, 2020 (edited) At the risk of sounding like a shill for Affinity Photo, the amount of value one gets in this image editing program for $50 ($40 on sale) is mind-blowing! Scanned photos rarely (never?) look their best straight off the scanner and almost always need a little love, whether it is adjusting levels, colors, fixing imperfections, cropping and straightening, or other "fixes." Affinity Photo is a professional-grade image editing software program that competes with Photoshop. AP now runs on both Mac and Windows. Being professional-grade does mean some time investment to learn the program, but there are excellent tutorial videos produce by Affinity (with more by the fan base), the interface is well-designed, the code is clean, and the power is world-class. I used Photoshop for decades. AP has replaced it entirely (along with the suite of other Affinity products). I give it the highest possible rating for anyone who is interested in learning about image editing. Top notch! Bill Edited February 12, 2020 by Spy Car 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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