Bulk Photo &

Document Scanning

In this class you will learn:

1) Why you should scan your photos & documents.

2) Best practices on scanning.

3) What ScanSnap is and how to prepare it to scan photos.

4) How to prepare settings before scanning.

5) How to choose a folder to save your scanned images & documents.

6) How to rotate scanned images.

7) Troubleshooting scanning issues.

8) Tips on how to organize, protect, and archive your images.

Created by Luis Aponte, July 10, 2020.

This project was funded under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act from the Institute of Museum

and Library Services. Florida’s LSTA program is administered by the Department of State’s Division of Library and

Information Services.

Why scan your photos & documents?

Preservation – Having physical photos can be nostalgic and physical copies of documents

are convenient when a computer is not immediately available. However, you never know

when physical copies of photos and documents may become wrinkled, torn, burned, lost,

stolen, or discolored over time. Having a digital copy allows you to preserve your photos

and documents as a backup, if needed. Digital copies can be stored on a USB drive,

computer, cell phone, external hard drive; cloud storage, or tablet.

Convenience - Digital copies of your photos and documents make them easier to organize

on your storage devices. Tags can be added in order to make them easier to find. You can

make copies with ease; edit and enhance them digitally; share them via email and on

popular social media platforms; as well as print as many physical copies as you like

without losing quality (depending on the printer, of course).

Best practices on scanning

1. Organize your collection – Creating digital albums that are labeled with a name and date

make them easier to identify and to find for later retrieval.

2. Store multiple copies – In order to prevent the loss of valuable files, store multiple copies

different places using the 3-2-1 backup rule (Courtesy of Michelle Quigley, Reference

Librarian):

a. Create at least 3 copies of your collection.

b. Store on at least 2 different kinds of storage media.

c. Store at least 1 copy in a different physical location.

3. Manage your collection (Courtesy of Michelle Quigley, Reference Librarian):

a. Update your collection with new photos, documents, files.

b. Make sure your storage media devices are up-to-date. Replace every few years.

c. Specify in your estate plan where your digital collection is stored.

What is ScanSnap?

ScanSnap is a unique scanner available at a Pop Up

Media Lab in your local Palm Beach County Library

branch thanks to a generous grant from the Library Services

and Technology Act (LSTA). Scan images and documents

quickly at 30 sheets per minute and save them to your

computer, USB drive, or cloud service provider. You can

also scan double-sided documents and images with

ScanSnap. The automatic detection function allows the

scanner to automatically determine the most appropriate

format for your scanned images based on each document

type (i.e. documents, business cards, receipts, and photos).

Preparing settings before scanning

ScanSnap’s home screen allows you to modify the settings of your scan and scanning profiles.

Color

mode

setting

Scanning

side

setting

Image

quality

setting

Feed

mode

setting

Edit

Profiles

Scan

Button

ScanSnap home screen setting options:

Feed

Automatic: Automatically detects the color of each document and scans in color, gray, or black and white.

Color: Always saves the scanned image in color. Gray: Always saves the scanned image in gray.

Leaving this button on Auto allows it to automatically determine if the scanned image or document is single- or double-sided.

Duplex: Scans both sides of a document. Simplex: Scans only one side of a document.

Automatic: Scans documents at an optimal resolution according to the size of the documents.

Normal: A scan is performed at a resolution of 150 dpi when [Color mode setting] is set to color or gray, and 300 dpi when it is set to black and white.

Better: A scan is performed at a resolution of 200 dpi when [Color mode setting] is set to color or gray, and 400 dpi when it is set to black and white.

Best: A scan is performed at a resolution of 300 dpi when [Color mode setting] is set to color or gray, and 600 dpi when it is set to black and white.

Excellent: A scan is performed at a resolution of 600 dpi when [Color mode setting] is set to color or gray, and 1200 dpi when it is set to black and white.

The Feed Mode Setting displays the feeding method that is selected now.

Normal scan: Scans documents which are loaded in the ADF paper chute

(cover) on the ScanSnap at a time.

Continuous scan: Scans documents continuously.

o Select this feeding method to scan a large amount of documents

thicker than the amount that can be loaded in the ADF paper chute

(cover) on the ScanSnap.

Manual scan: Scans documents that are loaded one sheet at a time.

o Select this feeding method to scan documents that can be damaged

quite easily such as photographs, documents with overlapped areas

such as envelopes, or large documents (larger than A4/Letter size)

folded in half.

The Edit Profiles button allows you to modify the settings for a selected

profile, change the order of profiles in the profile list, or delete a profile.

Choose a folder to save your scanned images & documents

While having the ScanSnap program open on your computer, you have the option to scan your

images and documents to a folder of your choosing:

Once the photo is scanned, you can rename the file and choose where you want it to be saved.

1. Click the “Scan” button.

(A new window will pop up) 2. Click “Scan to Folder.”

3. Click the large “Scan” button.

4. Click in the text box under

“title” and give your file a name.

5. Select the “Browse” button and

choose where you want to save your file.

6. When you are finished making

changes, click “Save.”

Rotate scanned images & documents

On Apple’s Macbook Pro, the file format is supported by Preview. This means when you

double-click on an image or document you want to edit or rotate, this process will be completed

on Preview. To edit or rotate an image or document, refer to the main window of the SnapScan

software page on your computer.

When you exit out of Preview, the changes to the image/document will automatically be saved.

Troubleshooting

If the item you scan does not save in the file format you prefer; i.e. a picture was saved as a .PDF

(document) file, instead of a .JPG (picture) file; you can easily change the file type on the main

ScanSnap page. In the example below, a paper copy of an image was scanned into ScanSnap and

was interpreted receipt. As a result, the image was saved as a .PDF (document) file. In order to

change this file to a .JPG (picture) file, you only have to do two easy steps:

1. Double-click on the

image/document you

want to edit/rotate.

(The image/document will open with Preview.) 2. Click on the curved arrow to rotate the image/document.

Tips

In order to help organize your file and make them more searchable for future retrieval, you can

add tags to your documents and images.

1. On the ScanSnap home page, click on the drop-down menu button.

2. Select on the “Photos” option in order to convert the file to a .JPG file.

1. Under the “Tag” menu, click on the + symbol next to “Add tag.”

2. Type keywords that describe your document or image and press “Enter” on your keyboard after each word or phrase.