Scanning photographs

SteveJW

No problem scanning

Some of them have writing on the rear, how do I combine the two

Currently save as jpgs, I can combine the two using Paints Shop Pro to create a montage,

Alternatively I could combine as a pdf, but fear quality suffers

Anyone suggest a better solution

Thanks in anticipation

Steve

Neil_Jones

Probably won't be an option from the scanner unless you have a top end scanner, not a cheap all-in-one unit.

What you're doing now is probably the next best thing.

dil1976

Could you photo copy one side then put them both on the scanner?

debitcardmayhem

What are you trying to achieve? You could use word / excel to have links to the files for the two sides perhaps.

debitcardmayhem

Or create a html page with the same details

SteveJW

debitcardmayhem said:

What are you trying to achieve? You could use word / excel to have links to the files for the two sides perhaps.

I want to preserve them for posterity, attach them to my family tree, created in Family Tree Maker

This is uploaded to Ancestry

So not really for myself but future generations

Thanks to all

PHK

The key here is to use the correct format for the photos.

For archival purposes TIFF is usually recommended but there are others that people use such as DNG

If you want to preserve what's written on the back (rather than just a scan of the back) then any format will allow you to add text into the metadata, which any image viewer will show.

If you just want a scan of the back then you'll need an archival format that stores multiple images in one file.

I suspect that the limiting factor here will be the Family Tree software or website you are using. What can they display.

Olinda99

combine them as you are doing, or upload them as separate images titled 'photo1', 'writing on the back of photo 1' etc

vacheron

Do you really need to scan the text on the rear, or could you just name the image file of the front by appending the text on the rear to the filename?

Something like IMG223 - (Holiday in Skegness June 1954).JPG

If I was going to combine them in Paint Shop Pro I would take the first file, Increase the canvas size and then paste the rear file just below it, then re-crop and save it.

Just make sure if you are saving as .jpg that you set the JPG compression to a low value to minimise any quality loss as JPG is a lossy format. 

Neil_Jones

vacheron said:

If I was going to combine them in Paint Shop Pro I would take the first file, Increase the canvas size and then paste the rear file just below it, then re-crop and save it.

Just make sure if you are saving as .jpg that you set the JPG compression to a low value to minimise any quality loss as JPG is a lossy format. 

If there is any possibility that the file may need to be edited in future it may be worth adding the text as a layer, and then saving the file in a format that PSP can open again to alter the one layer.

If its saved as JPG that's fine, but that file format doesn't support layers, so if your text is added on a part of the picture that's awkward to paint out, you won't be able to change it without a load of faffing around or rescanning, whereas you can just load the original layer capable file into PSP and reexport it.

This may not be a problem for the OP though, but is food for thought for somebody else.

vacheron

Neil_Jones said:

vacheron said:

If I was going to combine them in Paint Shop Pro I would take the first file, Increase the canvas size and then paste the rear file just below it, then re-crop and save it.

Just make sure if you are saving as .jpg that you set the JPG compression to a low value to minimise any quality loss as JPG is a lossy format. 

If there is any possibility that the file may need to be edited in future it may be worth adding the text as a layer, and then saving the file in a format that PSP can open again to alter the one layer.

If its saved as JPG that's fine, but that file format doesn't support layers, so if your text is added on a part of the picture that's awkward to paint out, you won't be able to change it without a load of faffing around or rescanning, whereas you can just load the original layer capable file into PSP and reexport it.

This may not be a problem for the OP though, but is food for thought for somebody else.

That's a good idea if it is for personal copies.

If the plan is to archive them to a third party / cloud family tree program, they may not accept proprietary image formats (or may "flatten" then on uploading), but if you are keeping your own copies as well it could work.