Is it Better to Digitize Prints or Slides?

When it comes to preserving old photos and slides, digitizing them is the best idea. Physical photos have many versions, such as prints, slides, and negatives, all of which are suitable for digitizing. People, who have both the slides and printed photos, often ask “Is it better to digitize prints or slides?”

If you have both the printed version of a photo and a slide, it’s best to digitize the slides. The main reason behind this is the slides are the originals of the photo while the prints are duplicates. So if you digitize the slides, the result you will get will be much better than that of digitizing prints.

Let’s take a deeper look at why it is a better idea to digitize the slides and not the prints of a photo.

Why should you digitize slides instead of prints?

All of our physical photos are in one of three categories. Either these photos are printed or they’re in their slide or negative forms. And there’s no better way to preserve them than to digitize them. If you have only one version, there will be no confusion regarding which one you should digitize. But the problem arises when people have both the printed version and slides. 

The most common practice and concept are to digitize the prints of a photo. But in reality, you should always digitize the slides. The main reason is the quality of the scanned photo. Since slides are their original versions of the photo, they contain much more information than printed copies. 

This happens because printed copies are duplicates, and as we continue to duplicate a photo, it loses more and more information. This in turn causes the scanned versions to be of lower quality. But if you scan the originals, that is the slides, the photos will have maximum information in them resulting in much better quality photos. 

For example, a scanned print can only have 300 and 600 DPI. Even if you scan a 600 DPI photo, it will not contain much detail, especially when compared to the original. On the other hand, a slide can be scanned up to 4000 DPI, which is clearly of better quality than the scans. 

This high-quality scan will lead to a larger file than scanned prints. But the increase in the file size is a good thing as you can enlarge a scanned slide as much as you want to. This is impossible with scanned prints. For instance, a scanned print can be of a maximum size of 16×20 if the print is 600 DPI.

On the other hand, the highest size your prints from digitized slides can be 20×30, even then the quality will be pretty good. So, if you want quality as well as the ability to customize your print size, digitizing slides is the way to go.

What should you consider before digitizing slides and prints?

Other than the obvious differences in the resulting quality of the scanned slides and photos, there are other factors that you need to consider before you digitize them. Whatever decision you make should be based on these factors. Here are a few things you should consider before deciding to digitize slides and photos:

1. The condition of the slides and photos

Whether you will digitize your scan or your photos will depend on the condition of those. If you have both of them, and the photos are in better condition than the slides, it is better to digitize the photos than to digitize the slides.

Because slides that are not in a good condition will not provide good results, no matter how much it is better to digitize slides in general. The same can be said when it comes to prints. Prints, as mentioned earlier, in general, provide lower-quality images when digitized. The results will be even lower if their quality isn’t up to the mark in the first place. 

2. Who will scan them?

You can either scan the slides and photos yourself or you can hire a digitizing service. In general, scanning slides is more difficult than digitizing photos. So if you are the one who is digitizing and don’t have a lot of time on your hands, it is better to digitize photos than slides. On the other hand, if you are hiring a digitizing service, it’s better to digitize slides as they will provide better results and they also have skilled individuals who can handle digitizing slides with ease. 

3. What is your budget?

Speaking of digitizing services, the cost of digitizing slides is much more than that of digitizing photos. For example, for digitizing 100 printed photos, we at digitizing media charge between £16 to £28, depending on the quality. On the other hand, for digitizing 100 slides, we charge £55, which is almost double the highest amount you’d have to pay for digitizing prints.

So if you have a tighter budget, you should go for digitizing prints. On the other hand, if money isn’t that big of an issue for you, then you should always digitize your slides. 

Final Words

“Is it better to digitize prints or slides?”, if you find yourself asking this, know that you should almost always choose digitizing slides over digitizing prints. The only times you should digitize prints is if your slides are in a bad shape, you don’t have enough time or money to digitize slides. No matter which one you decide to digitize, we ensure to provide the best and the most professional service in the UK. 

FAQ

1. What is the best way to digitize photos?

The best way to digitize photos is to hire a digitizing service. This will ensure your fragile photos are handled with utmost care and professionalism. Although the cost will be a bit high, it is worth it. If you want the easiest way to digitize your photos, then scanning them with an app is the way to go. 

2. How much does it cost to digitize a 35mm slide?

We charge £0.55 to digitize a 35mm slide. In comparison, digitizing a photo will cost you anywhere between  £0.08 to £0.28 depending on how many photos are being digitized. The higher the number of photos, the lower will be the per-unit digitizing cost.