Scanning very old photos for photobook

[ajo]

Im going through scanning some very old photos which are going to be put into a photobook.

These photos are old, yknow, the small little square ones mostly.

Ive been scanning at 600 and have also tried the next step up at 720 which on the screen seem fine. Is there really much benifit, or pros and cons at doing this. Or would 300 - 600 be just fine?

As I said, on the screen when zoomed in they look fine, im just scared then when we go to get it printed the quality will be bad.

Any help would be great, its for my grandparents 70th wedding anniversary!

ajo

 

[wackymacky]

Im going through scanning some very old photos which are going to be put into a photobook.

These photos are old, yknow, the small little square ones mostly.

Ive been scanning at 600 and have also tried the next step up at 720 which on the screen seem fine. Is there really much benifit, or pros and cons at doing this. Or would 300 - 600 be just fine?

As I said, on the screen when zoomed in they look fine, im just scared then when we go to get it printed the quality will be bad.

Any help would be great, its for my grandparents 70th wedding anniversary!

ajo

Usually the higer the resolution the better. It will depend on largely how it is handled when it is printed! It sounds like you're getting them printed professionally?

I'd talk to who ever is printing them to check what file types they want (JPG,RAW,TIF e.t.c,) the size limits they want the images at etc.

 

[Macky-Mac]

how big are you going to print those photos? if they're going to be smaller or the same as the originals then you should be fine with what you're doing.

A lot of professional printers seem to want files that are 300 at the final printed size for photos

 

[ajo]

I will be using iPhoto for the photobook. The images mostly wont be any bigger. A few of the already bigger photos will look nice full on a full page print.

As for the small square photos, those wont be that much bigger than they already are.

Should I be trusting what I see on the screen next to the real print?