What digitising means
Digitising is copying something physical, such as a print, a slide, a videotape or a cassette, into a file on a computer. Done once and done carefully, the file can be backed up, shared with family and shown on any screen, and it won’t fade or wear any further.
There’s a deadline of sorts. Prints and slides fade, magnetic tape slowly loses its signal, and working VCRs and cassette decks get harder to find each year. The originals are still worth keeping afterwards, but the copy is what lets you stop worrying about them.
Do it yourself or send it away
The first decision is which things to do at home and which to hand to a transfer service.
| What you have | Do it yourself? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Printed photos | Yes | A flatbed, or a photo scanner you feed prints into |
| Slides and negatives | Yes, slowly | A flatbed with a transparency unit, or a dedicated film scanner |
| VHS and camcorder tapes | Yes, with a working player | Copies in real time, so a two-hour tape takes two hours |
| Cassettes and records | Yes | A deck or turntable and a USB audio interface |
| CDs you own | Yes | Any computer with a disc drive, built in or plugged in |
| 8 mm and Super 8 cine film | Usually not | Needs specialist equipment, so use a service |
| Mouldy or damaged tapes | No | A specialist can clean them. Playing them can ruin the tape and the player |
The settings that matter
- Resolution, in dpi. Dots per inch: how much detail the scanner captures. For ordinary prints, 300 to 400 dpi is the usual guidance, and 600 gives you room to crop or enlarge. Slides and negatives are tiny, so 35 mm film is usually scanned somewhere between 2,000 and 4,000 dpi.
- File type. Save master copies as TIFF, which loses nothing, or as top-quality JPEG if space is tight. Make smaller copies for sharing from the masters, never the other way round.
- Colour and clean-up. Leave each master untouched, and fix faded colours or scratches on a copy. Some scanners have dust removal for colour film, often called ICE, which doesn’t work on traditional black-and-white film.
- Names and dates. Name folders by year and event as you go, such as
1994 Wales holiday. A scan’s date is the day you scanned it until you change it, which matters to photo apps that sort by date.
What it needs
- For photos: a scanner, a computer, and a soft brush or lint-free cloth for dust. Second-hand flatbeds are common. Check there’s a driver for your computer, or plan on VueScan.
- For video: a working player, a USB video capture device that takes the player’s composite or S-Video output, and a computer. Allow plenty of disk space: video captured at good quality takes several gigabytes per hour, and tens of gigabytes if you keep it lossless.
- For audio: the deck or turntable, a USB audio interface, and a phono preamp for a turntable that doesn’t have one built in.
- Time. This is the real cost. A shoebox of prints on a flatbed takes evenings, not minutes, which is why feed-through photo scanners and transfer services exist.
- Somewhere safe for the results, backed up like anything else you can’t replace.
How a flatbed scanner fits in
- Any size of print, from passport photos to A4, plus letters, certificates and children’s drawings.
- Photos you can’t take out. Lay an album page or an opened frame face down on the glass.
- Several prints at once. Many scanners’ own software finds each print on the glass and saves it as a separate file.
- Film, on models with a transparency unit, using holders that keep strips and slides flat.
- Gentle handling. Nothing is pulled through rollers, so it’s the safe choice for curled, torn or fragile prints.
- Nothing to subscribe to. Windows and macOS include basic scanning apps, and the maker’s own software adds the useful extras.
The easy way to set it up
Everything here is done with ordinary desktop apps. Nothing needs the terminal.
- Install the scanner. Plug it in and install the maker’s scanning app. If there isn’t one for your computer, use Image Capture on a Mac, the Windows Scan app, or VueScan for older models.
- Choose your settings once: 600 dpi for prints, colour even for black-and-white photos (it keeps the tone of old paper), and TIFF.
- Scan in batches. Clean the glass, lay out the prints, scan, and save each batch into a folder named by year and event.
- Fix the dates. Immich lets you change the date of one photo or a whole selection in its web page. digiKam, a free desktop app, can change a whole folder at once.
- Add them to your library. Upload the folders to Immich through its web page, or into whichever photo app you use. See photo backups.
- Back up the masters to a second drive and somewhere outside the house. See backups.
For tapes, records and CDs, the options below are desktop apps with ordinary installers as well.
Questions people ask
What resolution should I scan at?
600 dpi for prints you might crop or enlarge, 300 to 400 for everyday snapshots, and 2,000 dpi or more for 35 mm slides and negatives. Going higher than 600 for prints mostly makes bigger files, not better pictures.
Should I scan the backs of photos?
Yes, whenever there’s writing on them. Names, dates and places on the back are often the only record of who’s in the picture. Save the back as a separate file with a name that matches the front.
How long does a VHS tape take?
As long as it plays. Capture happens in real time, so a three-hour tape takes three hours, plus a few minutes to trim the start and end.
Is a transfer service worth it?
For cine film, unusual tape formats and very large piles of prints, often yes. Ask for full-resolution video files rather than DVDs, ask what resolution prints will be scanned at, and make sure your originals come back.
Can I copy my own CDs and records?
Copying music you’ve bought, for your own use, is allowed in some countries and not in others, so check the law where you live. Copying shop-bought films isn’t covered here.
