Essential Skills

Beginner

5 min read 5 stepsApril 20, 2026Verified April 2026

How to Digitize and Save Your Old Printed Photos

Turn your printed photo albums into digital files you can store, share, and preserve forever using a scanner, your phone, or a mail-in service.

At a Glance

Gather your photos and decide on a scanning method

~29s

Collect the printed photos you want to digitize and organize them loosely by decade or event — this will make the digital filing step easier later. Decide on your scanning approach: if you have access to a flatbed scanner (many public libraries offer free scanning stations), that gives you the best quality. If you have a smartphone, a free scanning app works well for smaller collections. For large collections of 500+ photos, a mail-in service like ScanMyPhotos (scanmyphotos.com) or Legacybox (legacybox.com) may save you significant time.

Scan with a flatbed scanner at the right resolution

~37s

If you are using a flatbed scanner, set the resolution (also called DPI — dots per inch) to 600 DPI for standard 4x6 prints. This is higher than the default setting on most scanners but produces much sharper results that can be enlarged later without becoming blurry. For very small photos (wallet size or photo strips), scan at 1200 DPI. Open the scanner software on your computer, place your photo face-down on the glass, and click Scan. Save the resulting file as a TIFF or high-quality JPG.

Quick Tip

Clean the scanner glass with a soft, lint-free cloth before scanning. Even small dust particles show up in high-resolution scans and can be distracting.

Use your smartphone camera for quick scans

~28s

For a fast approach that works well for small collections, place each photo on a flat, evenly lit surface — near a window with indirect light works well. Open your phone's camera app and hold it directly above the photo, keeping the phone parallel to the photo surface so the image is not distorted. Tap the screen to focus and take the photo. For the best phone-based scanning, download the free Google PhotoScan app, which automatically removes glare from glossy prints by taking multiple shots.

Organize your digital files

~26s

Create a folder on your computer named something like "Family Photos — Digitized." Inside it, create subfolders by decade or major event: "1960s," "1970s," "Mom and Dad Wedding," "Kids Growing Up 1985-1995," etc. Name your photo files descriptively — "1972-summer-grandparents-lake.jpg" is much more useful than "IMG_0012.jpg." Consistent naming makes photos much easier to find years later.

Quick Tip

Consider adding the year to the beginning of each filename so photos sort in chronological order automatically when you view them in a folder.

Back up your digital photos in two places

~39s

A digital photo stored in only one location is still at risk from hard drive failure, accidental deletion, or computer theft. Back up your digitized photos to at least two places: upload them to a cloud service like Google Photos (photos.google.com — free up to 15 GB, then inexpensive monthly plans for more) and also copy them to an external hard drive or USB drive that you keep at a different location from your computer. This two-copy approach protects against virtually all common loss scenarios.

Warning

Never delete your original printed photos after scanning until you have verified the scan quality and confirmed your backups are working. Check a sampling of the scans at full size before declaring the project complete.

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Printed photographs are not permanent. Over time, they fade, yellow, and deteriorate — especially older prints from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. Many families discover this the hard way when they pull out an old album and find that once-vivid colors have washed out or that entire photos have stuck together. Digitizing your photos — converting them into image files stored on a computer or in the cloud — protects these irreplaceable memories from physical deterioration, fire, floods, and the general wear of time.

Once photos are digitized, you can share them with family members across the country by email, store backup copies in multiple locations so no single disaster can destroy them all, print new copies on demand, create photo books, and organize them in ways that would be impossible with physical albums.

There are three main ways to digitize printed photos: using a flatbed scanner you own or borrow, using a scanning app on your smartphone, or sending your photos to a professional mail-in scanning service. Each approach has tradeoffs in cost, quality, and time.

A flatbed scanner produces the highest quality scans, especially for large batches. Scanning apps on phones are fast and convenient for smaller collections or when you do not have access to a scanner. Mail-in services handle the physical work for you but cost money and require you to trust a company with your originals.

After scanning, the equally important step is organizing and backing up your digital files so that you do not lose the digital copies either. A photo stored in only one place is still at risk — backup copies in at least two places (an external hard drive and a cloud service like Google Photos) give you real protection.

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Official Resources

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