Some of your photos may be old, torn, or stained. The 
    decision on which photos to use is largely based on their
    historical value. Such photos often have significance. Photos
    can be scanned, then enlarged or decreased in size. In a photo enhancing program, contrasts can be adjusted, tears digitally mended, people can be added to a photo or even removed.

 Blurred facial features can be helped. For example, this original photo example can be enhanced, cropped, and cleaned up a bit. Or you might choose to leave an image "as is" for its historic value.

You can also choose to have a drawing created of the photo. See our Art Department for examples and more information.

Need quality photo preservation, repair, retouching, scanning. We offer all of that.

 

  A missing family member can be placed within a photo. Someone/s can be removed.

   One section of the book can be designated for photos or they can be
  placed throughout the text pages. See example of a photo section. See an example of photos on text pages. You may wish to take photos of special items within the family that are meaningful to everyone. 

 This was a precious medal awarded to a man. It was scanned and included in his book.

 

PREPARING THE PHOTOS

Whether you hire someone to scan the photos or whether you scan them yourself, take note of the following variables. Also see Easy Book for simple ways to include photos. 

•The advantage of scanned photos is that you have these readily available on a disk for future use. Photos should be enhanced when scanning.

•If you are having your photos developed and placed on a floppy disk or CD–an option being offered today by various companies–understand that such images are usually are at a LOW resolution. While they look good on your computer screen, to use them for a printed book will not look good. The resolution of the image may be too low to present well on a printed page. An exception: Some cameras create a very large photo image, almost like a "poster" so that when the photos are "downloaded" to print the photo, one has the option of taking the very large photo and re-sizing it to smaller. During this re-sizing, it can be saved at 300dpi.

    If a local company offers scanning services, ask what resolution they will use. It needs to be 300dpi (dots per inch), not less. 

•How your photos look in your book can be good or not so good, and it all begins with the scan of the photo. So learn how now rather than being disappointed later.

•Know that scanning alone will not produce a high quality image. You also need an enhancing program to improve the lights and darks. Most scanners today come with an enhancing program that offer a beginner simple choices. A professional designer uses a program that provides many ways to work with a photo.

•Before you begin scanning a photo, decide what size you want the photo to be on the page of your book. Select that size in your scanner before you scan.
    Remember to factor in the page margins as you make your photo-page plan. Binding edge margin should be at least one inch. Other margins should be a minimum of 3/4" or you may choose wider margins.

•You might choose to have several photos on a page. You may wish to sketch out on a blank page boxes for the photos that go there and measure how small or large the photo can be. Then scan at that size. For example: 3" wide and 4" high. In your sketch, allow room for captions. Your book will look best if you do not crowd photos/captions on a page.

•Photos need to be originally scanned at a 300 dpi (dots per inch) resolution.

•Do not scan the photos higher than 300 dpi or it can make a huge file difficult to work with. Realize that the final output for the published book will be 600dpi for under 1500 books, and 1200dpi for 1500+.

•Scan a color photo as "gray scale" and "save it" that way, if you wish it produced as black and white in your book. Scanning a color photo as "color" even though you want it as black and white in your book will create a monstrously-big file you won't like working with.

•After the scanner completes the scan of a photo, it will ask you what format to save it. Photos for a printed book should be saved to TIFF format. The GIF or JPEG formats look good on a computer screen, but do not have the high quality of a TIFF when printed in a book.

•Scanning a photocopy of a photo will reproduce the background texture of the photocopy, so use originals where possible. A designer can minimize some of this background texture, but not all.

•If you wish to enlarge a photo, take it up to the point where clarity is diminished and then bring it back down a bit. Small photos can be enlarged only to a certain point and still present well.

• If you are scanning a map, document or photo with extremely fine detail, you may wish to scan that particular item at a higher dpi than 300. After the scan has captured the detail, then bring the photo file down to 300dpi.

• Be aware that you need to scan each photo separately so that lights and darks for a particular photo can be balanced. Trying to scan a "group" of photos at one time will decrease the quality of each photo.

• Scan documents as "gray scale."    See examples:   •Document    •Pedigree Chart  
  
•Family Group Sheet    •Posterity Chart Photos    •Handwriting Example  

Also see:   •Photo Inset    •Photo Section Example    •Photos on Text Pages Example

COLOR PHOTOS

   Some people would like to see color photos in their finished book. In the
    world of color today, there are two ways to produce color photos in your
    finished book. First see:
               NEW ORDERING OPTIONS & BOOKS FULL OF COLOR

1. You can purchase color copies from your local copy shop and have them inserted in the book before it is bound. Color copies can be printed on both sides. Most shops offer a lighter and heavier weight of paper for color copies. Avoid placing a story on this color copy. Add only a caption. When a photo is duplicated as a color copy, the setting of the scan is for a photo, not text. Therefore the text may have a shadow.

As a publisher, we can print the color copies for you. However, because scanning and creating a color copy offers a number of color adjustments, you may wish to have them done locally. Take the color photo to a copy shop and ask them to produce one color copy. Look it over carefully and see if you are happy with the colors. If you feel the red, for example, is too red, ask them to adjust the color and do another color copy. Once you are pleased with what you see, then order the number of copies you want for your book. Then look at each one they provide.

If you are doing 50 books, for example, provide us five extras.

2. If printing 500+ books, color can be produced on the appropriate pages. This is expensive, so before you decide how many color photos to place in your book, you may want to obtain prices and consider the costs.

JOURNAL ENTRIES

Journal and other document pages can be scanned to preserve the handwriting. See Journal example. The pages must be sized to fit the size of book you plan, allowing for necessary margins. See Formatting Your Pages for margins.

See the When Ready To Send section for the finishing process.

If you have questions, call us 1 800 360-5284 or submit them on our Question Form. 

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