What resolution should I scan old photos at?

600 dpi for standard prints reproduced at similar size, and 1200 dpi for small prints or anything you may enlarge. Slides and negatives need 2400 dpi or higher.

Can I just photograph old photos with my phone?

For prints you can lay flat, a flatbed scanner is clearly better. Use a phone for photographs stuck in albums or behind glass, shooting straight on in diffuse daylight with no flash.

Should I save scans as JPEG or TIFF?

Keep a master as TIFF or maximum-quality JPEG that you never re-save, plus a separate working copy. Repeated JPEG saving discards detail permanently each time.

How should I back up scanned family photos?

Three copies, on two types of storage, one of them off-site or in the cloud. A single drive failure can take an entire collection at once in a way that a box of prints never does.

Photographs

How to digitize old photographs properly

September 6, 2026 · 7 min read

Scan family photographs at 600 dpi for standard prints and 1200 dpi or higher for anything smaller than a postcard or intended for enlargement. Save masters as TIFF or maximum-quality JPEG and never re-save a JPEG repeatedly, since each save discards detail permanently. A flatbed scanner produces materially better results than a phone for prints; a phone is acceptable for items you cannot remove from an album or frame.

What resolution do you actually need?

Resolution decisions are usually made once and regretted later, because rescanning a box of photographs is a job nobody does twice.

For a standard print you intend to reproduce at roughly its original size, 600 dpi is comfortable. For small prints, or anything you may want to enlarge or crop into, 1200 dpi gives you room. Scanning a 6x4 print at 600 dpi produces a file of about 3600x2400 pixels, which prints cleanly at A4.

Standard prints, reproduced at similar size: 600 dpi.
Small prints, or anything you may crop into or enlarge: 1200 dpi.
Slides and negatives: 2400 dpi or higher, using a scanner with a transparency unit.
Documents and letters: 400 dpi is sufficient for text.

Is phone scanning good enough?

For prints you can lay flat, no. A flatbed scanner produces even lighting, no lens distortion and no reflections, and the difference is obvious once the two are compared side by side.

A phone is the right tool in two situations: photographs stuck into albums that would be damaged by removal, and framed pictures you would rather not dismantle. In those cases, use diffuse daylight near a window, avoid direct sun and any flash, and shoot straight on rather than at an angle.

File formats: what to keep and what to share

Keep two versions of anything that matters. A master file, in TIFF or maximum-quality JPEG, which you never edit and never re-save. And a working copy for sharing, cropping and printing.

The trap is repeated JPEG saving. Each save re-compresses and discards information permanently, so a file that has been opened, adjusted and saved a dozen times is visibly degraded compared to the original scan, with no way back.

Name files so they are findable in twenty years

A folder of files called scan001 through scan400 is barely more useful than the original shoebox. Names are the only thing that makes a digital collection searchable.

A date-first convention sorts chronologically and stays readable: 1971-approx-chesterfield-back-garden-mum-nana.jpg. Approximate dates are fine, and "approx" is more useful than a confident wrong year.

Storage that survives

Digital files are not automatically safer than prints. They are just differently fragile: a single drive failure or lost phone can take an entire collection at once, which a shoebox never does.

The standard rule is three copies, on two different types of storage, with one kept in another building or in cloud storage. For a family collection that usually means the computer, an external drive, and a cloud account.

Do not throw the originals away

A print from 1948 has already survived seventy-odd years without any maintenance. No digital file has yet proved it can do that, and formats and media both change.

Digitising is a way of making photographs usable and shareable, not a reason to discard the objects. Keep the prints, stored upright in the heated part of the house.

Common questions

What resolution should I scan old photos at?: 600 dpi for standard prints reproduced at similar size, and 1200 dpi for small prints or anything you may enlarge. Slides and negatives need 2400 dpi or higher.
Can I just photograph old photos with my phone?: For prints you can lay flat, a flatbed scanner is clearly better. Use a phone for photographs stuck in albums or behind glass, shooting straight on in diffuse daylight with no flash.
Should I save scans as JPEG or TIFF?: Keep a master as TIFF or maximum-quality JPEG that you never re-save, plus a separate working copy. Repeated JPEG saving discards detail permanently each time.
How should I back up scanned family photos?: Three copies, on two types of storage, one of them off-site or in the cloud. A single drive failure can take an entire collection at once in a way that a box of prints never does.