Any Ideas on getting photo duplicates of old 3×5's to come out correctly?

Archived in the category: Computer Scrapbooks

Posted by admin on 26 Feb 09 - 5 Comments

I scanned some old 3×5 pics to my computer w/ a Lexmark x83 scanner in JPEG format and sent them to the walmart photo lab to get duplicates and made them into 4×4's for a project i'm working on; the prints came out and now they look blurry and blocky. I am very unhappy and need to find another way to get copies of these pics to come out correctly or at least find out why they are turning out this way.The photo lab people seemed to have no clue! The pics are for a Christmas project scrapbook.
Most of these pics are home pics taken from the 70's and 80's. How do I change the dpi on the scanner?

There is a program that can help you. It's free, but it will take some time and patience to learn how to use.

Download The Gimp. You can get it from:

downloads.com

There are several websites to get Gimp instructions from.

To get the best pics, make sure you scan them with the highest DPI possible. Have to have something good to work with! If you have trouble, please e-mail me for further scanning hints. Don't want to bore you with stuff you already know!

5 comments for “Any Ideas on getting photo duplicates of old 3×5's to come out correctly?”

Dr. Sam

I am not familiar with your scanner, but please be sure that you are scanning at 300 dpi or higher. "Blocky" sounds like you have used too low a resloution. If you are running out of time, you may be faced with going to Staples Copy Center or Kinko's to get it done.
References :

February 26th, 2009 at 10:25 pm

eyebchery

the people at walmart know nothing more on this subject than you do. Do not rely on them. Kinko's would be better (knock on wood). Your best bet would be to look up a photo printing place in town that does digital photos. There is a lot more to scanning than high resolution. They can do all sorts of adjustments with photo editing software that will give you the best results at a good price (good price – because it should be easy and quick for them).

If you do it yourself, it would be better to scan at a resolution higher than 300 – if you aren't doing too many photos. Tiff is also better than Jpeg.

* and make sure these photos aren't copyrighted. Technically, if you didn't take the pictures, you don't have the right to do this unless you have permission from the photographer. Kinko's will refuse to scan the images if they think they are copyrighted. I'm just giving you a heads up … just incase.
References :

February 26th, 2009 at 11:15 pm

april_hwth

Just like everyone said, scan them at a higher resolution. 300 dpi. If you particularly like Wal-Mart, you can always use their scanner. They have a kodak center where you scan there and then make duplicates. It's not great, but should give you better resolution, in turn getting rid of the "blockiness." But yes, try Kinko's or Wolf Camera. If you live in a rural area, it may be quite a drive to the nearest store. Good luck!
References :

February 26th, 2009 at 11:57 pm

imadriana

There is a program that can help you. It's free, but it will take some time and patience to learn how to use.

Download The Gimp. You can get it from:

downloads.com

There are several websites to get Gimp instructions from.

February 27th, 2009 at 12:41 am

Hum_archmage H

Best Christmas Ideas: Popular Christmas Screensavers, Popular Christmas Games, Popular Christmas Video software, Popular Christmas DVD Software, Popular Christmas Auido Software http://www.popsnail.com/christmas/Games.html
http://www.popsnail.com/christmas/Screensavers.html
http://www.popsnail.com/christmas/Video-Software.html
References :

February 27th, 2009 at 12:52 am

Computer Scrapbooking Techniques

For Computer Scrapbook Design Tips and Ideas