Scanning photos which dpi

Of course, the higher your resolution, the larger the photo files will be, so some folks are leery of packing their computer with hundreds of huge photo files. So if you have the storage space, use it. If you scan your photos at a relatively low resolution and then crop your photo, you might end up with too few pixels to make a quality print. How many pixels is enough? For photo prints, dpi is fine in general; scan at dpi to make sure you get all the details hidden in your prints.

Plus, the higher the resolution, the more time it takes to scan each photo. The second number is often the highest resolution it's capable of scanning digitally — faking the results by interpolating the data.

Thankfully, some scanning software now won't even let you select the digital dpi's from the list. So you may need to consult your specifications printed on the box or find it in the printed or.

In the end, there won't be any benefit to having our entire collection in a digital format if we aren't able to make paper prints from them like we can with our film negatives. The larger the piece of paper you want to print on, the more image resolution you are going to need in your digital files. Printers today need on average between and ppi dpi of image resolution information to print a high-quality image on high-quality paper.

I know you probably hate math as much as the next person, so don't worry — I'll do it for you. Here's my work:. Given a choice, without a doubt in my mind, it's better to scan too high than to scan too low.

And if you don't want to take just my word for it grin , when I started learning all about scanning years ago, I found great comfort in this quote from Wayne Fulton of scantips. It is true that if the image might be resized after the scan, it's always much better quality to resize to reduce the image size rather than to resize to increase the image size.

If you aren't sure what your future intentions for the image might be, and won't be able to scan it again, then it's probably best to err on the large side if storage space allows, up to reasonable amounts anyway.

Resizing to be smaller discards excess pixels. But resizing to be larger must create or fake new interpolated pixels which were not in the original scan. There is no additional detail possible in interpolated pixels, even if the image is larger. The results are not at all the same as scanning at the higher resolution. Alright, again, if you haven't watched the special video above, I would highly recommend you watch it.

Most of the information you need to know is in this easy to follow mini-lesson. After watching the video and reading this article, has this made you change your mind one way or the other? Tell me what you think about all of this in the comment section below. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Last updated Nov 1, Scanning Photos. Last updated Jul 18, Scanning Photos. So I changed strategies and aimed for the stars. The result? Read on to find out. Hey, my name is Konrad.

I've been scanning professionally since I've helped multi-billion dollar companies, pro sports teams, pro photographers, artists, museums, book publishers, etc. I've scanned over , slides, negatives, photos. The reason I'm telling you this is because no matter what challenge or frustration you're having, I know exactly what you're going through.

Your free ebook is up for grabs. Just click the button below and start downloading Toggle navigation. Here's what you need to know Here's how mine looks like Well, let's have a look at DPI Now let's double the DPI to