How to scan or photograph an old print
Scan it if you can, photograph it if you can't. Both get you a printable file; the scanner gets you a better one, and the phone gets you one in seconds.
Scanning, if you have a scanner
The setting that matters is the resolution, and the default is usually too low.
- Scan at 600 DPI. A 6 × 4 inch print at 600 comes out around 3,600 × 2,400 pixels, which is enough for the largest canvas sizes. At 300 you get half that in each direction — fine for a small print, tight for anything on a wall.
- Choose photo mode, not document mode. Document mode is built to make paper white and text black. On a photograph it flattens the tones and throws away the mid-greys, which is most of what an old print is made of.
- Clean the glass and the print. Dust on the glass gets scanned at 600 DPI along with everything else, and it's far quicker to wipe it now than to remove specks afterwards.
A scan saved as a small JPEG has thrown away detail you spent time capturing, so save at the highest quality offered.
Photographing it, if you don't
This works better than people expect, provided you deal with three things: reflections, angle, and your own shadow.
- Take it out of the frame if you safely can. Glass will reflect the room, the window and you, and no amount of angling fully solves it.
- Use daylight, and no flash. Near a window on an overcast day is close to ideal. Direct sun creates hotspots, and a flash bounces straight back off a glossy print.
- Hold the camera flat on and directly above. Shooting at an angle turns the rectangle into a trapezium, and correcting that afterwards costs you sharpness at the edges.
- Fill the frame with the print. Cropping in later throws away exactly the detail you're trying to keep.
That last one is the awkward part: to shoot flat on you have to stand over the print, which puts you between it and the light. Set the print down with the window to one side rather than behind you, and check the screen before you take it — a shadow across a corner is glaring once you look for it and invisible when you don't.
Check the size before you choose a print
Whichever route you took, compare the width in pixels against Printerpix's image resolution guide for the size you want.
If it falls short — most likely if you photographed rather than scanned — Enhance rebuilds it four times larger in each direction. There's more in why your photo won't print big.
Creases, marks and torn corners
Old prints pick up damage, and Edit is worth trying on it. Brush over the damage and a little of what surrounds it, then say what should be there instead — the same technique as removing something from a photo.
- A crease across a face: "remove the white line and continue the skin and hair smoothly".
- A brown stain on the background: "remove the mark and continue the wall behind it".
- A torn corner: "fill in the missing corner, continuing the sky and the roofline".
- Scattered specks: "remove the small white spots and leave everything else unchanged".
The wording does the work. Describe the repair, not the damage: each of these names what should replace it, which is what "remove the crease" on its own leaves out.
Frequently Asked Questions
What resolution should I scan at?
600 DPI. It takes slightly longer and gives you roughly double the pixels of a 300 DPI scan in each direction, which is the difference between a small print and a large canvas.
Is a phone photo really good enough?
For most prints, yes — modern phone cameras out-resolve a lot of older photographs. Flat on, in daylight, out of the frame, filling the shot. Those four things matter more than which phone it is.
Should I take it out of the frame?
If you can do it without risking the print, yes. Glass reflects whatever is in the room, and that's the single biggest problem with photographing framed pictures.
Can you repair a crease or a tear?
It’s worth trying. Brush over the damage plus a little of the area around it, and describe what should be there — "remove the white line and continue the skin smoothly" rather than "remove the crease". How well it goes depends on what’s behind the damage: a plain background is straightforward, a face or a patterned surface asks more of it.
Can you bring back faded colours?
Not at the moment. Enhance sharpens a photo and clears up the roughness that comes with small files, but it doesn't change the colours it finds.
What does it cost?
Enhance and Edit are each charged per run. Current costs for every tool are on the pricing page.