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What DPI should I use when Scanning to Archive 4x6 photos? - Beth I have a ton of family photos that I want to scan in and archive. I probably won't be blowing up a lot of them in the future, but it would be nice to use a DPI that would allow a decent amount of blowing up if I wanted. What scanning DPI would you suggest? Thanks.

Best Answer: Hi There, When I scan photos I usually scan at 300 dpi. The rule-of-thumb is for the final image for printing to be approx. 200 dpi. If you know you are going to enlarge the photo you could try 400 dpi. 600 dpi would be better but the file size will be very large. If you are scanning a large photo I would not go beyond 300 dpi (large file size). It is possible to resize pictures larger (after scanning) with a good photo editor. Just watch for pixelation if enlarged too much. If you want a good free editor you can try GIMP. It does about everything Photo Shop does but takes some practice to learn. But for good results with 4 x 6 photo just scan at 300 dpi and I believe you will be happy. Hope this helps, Al - Albert W

Scan at 600 dpi and save then as tiff or jpeg (no compression). Why I suggest 600 is because, if you plan to blow it up, you will need this dpi for good outputs. - T-Bar

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