35MM Film
Printing Related Resolution Recommendations:

If you're wanting to create prints or enlargements from your scanned images then you may want a higher resolution scan. Film scans normally produce better reprints or enlargements than print scans. Click here to learn why. The charts below list the quality and size of print you'll be able to create from your scanned images. If you are thinking of having 35mm slides scanned the chart below can also be used but the resulting print may be approximately 15% smaller than the print sizes.

* Our recommendations are based ONLY on the overall resolution (i.e., image size) of your scan, and not on the overall quality, clarity, or exposure of the original picture.These recommendations do not consider film grain, ISO speed, or other film characteristics.

Scanning Your Photos/Images
Printing Related Resolution Recommendations:

The charts below relate to prints scans. The first chart is for 300 DPI print scans. The second outlines 600 DPI print scans.

300 DPI Print Scans Chart

600 DPI Print Scans Chart

* Our recommendations are based ONLY on the overall resolution (i.e., image size) of your scan, and not on the overall quality, clarity, or exposure of the original picture. Results may vary when creating enlargements from print scans. Our recommendations do consider the fact that most prints do not contain 600dpi worth of detail. Our recommendations are based on each print containing 400dpi worth of detail even though they will be scanned at 600dpi.

Print Scans vs. Film Scans

You're probably wondering if it's better to digitize your prints or your slides and negatives. Scanning film, slides or negatives, will most always produce better digital images than scanning prints. Slides & negatives are the original. Prints are second generation copies of the original film and do not contain as much information or detail as the negative they were made from.

If you have the option of scanning a negative instead of scanning a print made from the negative, we recommend scanning the negative. However If you're like most of us we've lost or misplaced our negatives. If we do have them they're not in an organized fashion and may be in poor condition. If this is the case scanning your prints is a great alternative.

There are some limits to print scanning that you should be aware of. Most color prints from your regular photo finisher contain around 300 DPI of detail. There are exceptions to this 300 DPI rule. Depending on the quality of the print being scanned and how crisp the image is, scanning at 600 DPI may sometimes produce better results. However, it's normally difficult to see much difference when comparing a 300 DPI print scan and a 600 DPI print scan. 600 DPI scans produce much larger files that are more cumbersome to work with but ensure every detail in your print is recorded in digital form. We don't charge more to scan your prints at 600 DPI. If you want to be sure as much detail as possible is captured during scanning, go with 600 DPI print scans. If you want files that are easier to work with, 300 DPI scans would be a better choice for you.

One of the benefits of digitizing your photo collection is that you have the ability to create new prints or enlargements from you new digital images. The quality and size of the prints you'll be able to make from your scanned images depends on the quality of the original film or print that was scanned. The charts below should give you an idea of what to expect when creating prints or enlargements from your scanned images. As you can see from the charts, film scans are the best way to create large prints from digital files. The charts below represent the quality of prints made from your scanned images. The sizes displayed horizontally represent the size of the print being made from your scanned image. On the left side of each chart is the resolution of the film being scanned or the size of the print that was scanned.