Best Format for Scanning Photos. When you scan a document or a photo, you are provided with a variety of file formats in which the scan can be saved. You can actually use a photo scanner for scanning just about anything, including everyday documents, receipts, magazines, children’s artwork.

Tony Hoffman The Best Photo Scanners of 2018 Time to convert your snapshots, slides, and negatives to digital format? Get the job done quickly with the right photo scanner. Here are our top performers in testing, along with our deep-dive reviews. Digitize Your Precious Photos Both photo buffs and family archivists often turn to photo to digitize their prints and film. Most such scanners provide photo-friendly features, such as high resolution and the ability to scan transparencies such as slides and negatives in addition to photo prints.

Many include software to help retouch scans and remove scratches. Though they are geared to photo scanning, most photo scanners can also be used for general-purpose scanning, and some include optical character recognition (OCR) software. This is a niche segment of the hardware market; you will see relatively few models of photo scanner on the market, and they tend to have very long shelf lives.

Flatbeds: The Rule for Photo Scanning One feature shared by nearly all true photo scanners is a flatbed design. In these scanner designs, you lift a lid to expose a glass platen, onto which you place your photo to be scanned. Download safari 7 for mac. We strongly urge you to avoid making a habit of scanning photos (or any delicate originals, for that matter) through a sheet-fed document scanner.

It works in a pinch, but it risks damaging your originals, even if they're enclosed in a protective sleeve. A notable exception is the Epson FastFoto line of sheet-fed photo printers, the latest of which is the The FastFoto models are built specifically for scanning shoeboxes full of photo prints and are engineered to treat the prints gently. Finding the Right Features. Photo scanners are available in a wide range of prices and capabilities. As a rule, low-cost photo models are limited to scanning photo prints. Many do a very good job of this, generally for less than $100.

Starting in the $200 range are scanners that can handle slides and/or film negatives. Such models come with holders that fit multiple slides or negatives and secure them in place during scanning. Most scanners offer basic and advanced modes, accessible through their driver or scan utilities. A scanner software's basic mode, typically, will select the scan settings for you, while the advanced mode will let you customize the settings.

Many scanner drivers also have dust- and scratch-removal capabilities. The dust feature sometimes works well, but effective scratch removal really requires a hardware-based solution. To pinpoint this, look for something called Digital ICE technology, which is generally built into some photo higher-end scanners. Is an MFP Enough?

Though most people who scan a lot of photos will want a single-function scanner, nearly all multifunction printers (MFPs) include a flatbed that can scan photo prints and other material. The quality of their photo scanning varies widely, depending on the hardware and software involved. Most fall well short of single-function photo scanners in terms of scan quality and/or photo-centric features. (See our picks for.) A few models, which we call home photo labs, can scan slides and negatives in addition to prints, and have a variety of photo-centric features, as well as providing the normal MFP functions (printing, copying, and—in some cases—faxing).