Scanning and Archiving Basics

By Dayna Jacobs, AG® http://www.ongrannystrail.com

- Create a simple file system on your computer
- Create a consistent naming scheme for files
- Sort papers into groupings
- Choose “mode”
  - Home – will identify the borders of the photo
  - Office- additional options for customization
  - Professional – additional options for customization
  - Full Auto – will identify the borders of the photo and whether it is color or B&W
- Open up the scanning software settings (sometimes named “configuration”)
- Choose a DPI (resolution: smaller DPI=lower resolution/quality)
  - 150-200 dpi for derivative documents and 300 for originals
  - 200 for 4×6 snapshots you don’t want to enlarge
  - 600 dpi for photos
  - 1200 dpi for photos you want to enlarge or do detailed retouching on
  - 2400 dpi for negatives or slides
  - 4800 dpi for a negative or slide you will enlarge to 16×20 inches
- Choose a file format
  - TIFF and/or JPG for photos, PNG is also becoming popular. TIFF is good for most valuable scans and will not lose quality, but makes a larger file.
  - JPG is best for sharing on the internet or emailing because it is a smaller file size, but loses quality with each generation.
  - PNG is a new format that doesn’t lose quality but file size is smaller than TIFF. Ideally you would create an archival TIFF file and a JPG file for everyday use. There are programs that can convert a whole batch of files at once.
  - PDF for documents. Can do a keyword search. Can scan multipage files
- Choose “Color” scan for photos, even for black and white photos. Choose “black and white” or “grayscale” scan for text documents.
- Name the file and choose the place on your computer you will “Save to”
Full Auto and Home modes: Once you set the DPI, color, and “save-to” it will identify all the items on the glass and find their borders for you.

Office and Professional modes:
- Do a “scan preview”
- “Lasso” the item (s)
- Scan
Additional advice:
- Open the image files and add “metadata” afterwards in your photo-editor: people, places, dates
- Back up your files
  - To another hard drive
  - Online storage
  - Flash drive in a safe deposit box
- Archive documents and photos in clear archival sleeves or file folders and store in archival binders or boxes.
Here is a simple file system you can set up in your hard drive’s directory for your scans:

In My pictures (or My documents) create sub-folders:
- Ancestor files
  - Anderson
  - Baker
    - Scott Baker
    - Jordan Baker
  - Jacobs
    - Trent Jacobs
    - Lynn Jacobs
      - Childhood
      - Wedding
      - Baseball
    - Chad Jacobs
You can add folders under each name to organize further, i.e. Childhood, Wedding, Baseball, etc. if you have a lot of scans for certain categories. If you have the same file system for your binders and boxes for the originals, you can find them easily.

Here is a simple naming scheme for files: Last-First_year_event_detail

Pomeroy-Franklin_1910_deed_p1
Pomeroy-Franklin_1918_military_WWI draft registration
Pomeroy-Franklin_1949_death certificate

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