How to Scan Photos Effectively With the Best DPI Setting For the First Time
Digitizing photographs and pictures is now something that is being performed quite commonly almost everywhere, as it allows you the liberty to scan pictures that you want to keep for the future, and store them in digital format which proves to be safer and more secure. But before you purchase a photo scanner and start scanning your images, you would first need to understand how to scan photos effectively. You would also need to have sufficient knowledge on the best DPI for scanning photos so that you are able to scan properly without applying the wrong DPI setting. But before we start on the right DPI settings and how to choose them, you would first need to know what DPI really is.
For your information, the DPI setting is something that you can adjust within your scanning software, and it should have a varying range from approximately 50DPI all the way up to 6400DPI (sometimes even more). Usually when you want to scan a photo, you would need to set your DPI before your scanner is able to scan the image. The DPI is the variable that determines how much of details that you would have in your scanned image, how much resolution that your image would end up with, as well as how big your scanned file would actually be. If you have no idea of what DPI setting to choose, it would be easy to choose either too small a figure or even too large a number!
In reality, your choice of DPI would depend on how much detail you want on the picture. And this translates to you choosing the size of the picture that you would be viewing, thus if you are going to view the scanned image in a smaller size, you would realistically need a lower DPI value (which means there is less detail, but you would save it as a smaller sized file as well). On the other hand, if you intending the blow up your scanned image and re-print it in a bigger size, then you should naturally scan it with high DPI values, this would ensure that all the important details and features are captured during the scanning process, and you would be able to re-print a clear image compared to a blurry one if you choose a low DPI value.
So if you are wondering on how to scan your image effectively, perhaps the guide below might help you determine your DPI settings effectively in accordance to the size of your paper prints:
2.5x3.5' - 1000DPI
3.5x3.5" - 900DPI
4x4.5" - 600DPI
4x5" - 600DPI
4x6" - 600DPI
4x7" - 600DPI
5x7" - 600DPI
8x10" - 600 DPI
Generally you would realize that using 600DPI would suffice in most photo sizes, and it should allow you to print your images clearly and with enough details in them. And the file size that you obtain would also be manageable! Follow the photography tips as mentioned above, and you should be able to accomplish photo scanning effectively with the right DPI setting at all times!
