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A 2024 Guide to Photo Album Scanning Services.
Discover the top photo album scanning services to digitize your picture albums. Compare prices, quality, and features and find best way to save your photos
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Hello folks, and welcome to Vintage University for yet another guide to digitizing services. In this guide we’re going to be taking a look at digitizing companies that not only scan photos, but will work on photo albums.
\n\nIf you’re like me, then you’re in a situation where you have tons of nostalgic photo albums that you don’t necessarily want to take apart, but you also want a different way of enjoying them than having to unload them from your storage closet. Flipping through the old albums can be a lot of fun, but there has to be a better way, right?
\n\nI can't be the only one who kind of loves the “cringe” of seeing old-school pics, and a rather unfortunate bob hair-cut from time to time. So, let's get started.
\n\n\nA Complete Guide to Photo Album Scanning Services.
\n\n\nThis may not be me looking through my cupboards, but goodness… I can smell the old wood and paper.
\n\n\nAnyway... if you have a bunch of photo albums, digitizing them can breathe new life into your past moments, making them easy to access and share. Whether it's snapshots of family gatherings or unforgettable adventures, turning physical photos into a digital format is the only logical next step in modernizing how you enjoy your family histories.
\n\n\nWhy Should I Digitize My Photo Albums?
\n\nThere are a variety of reasons to turn photo albums into digital memories, but let's start with this: it's important to preserve history, especially when it's our own, and make it last longer for future generations.
\n\nThink about it... the precious memories captured in your family albums collect dust on a shelf, suffer from mold and water damage in storage units, and fade over time thanks to the glue and chemicals that attach photos to those sticky pages.
\n\n\nA photo album that shows the deterioration of time.
\n\n\nOf course, you may be concerned about having people work on these albums, because you don’t necessarily want them to be undone as part of the process of archiving them. Many original albums are organized in chronological order, reflecting a “sequence” of events, and to undo that would be to undo a lot of the purpose of the albums - which is to take a guided trip back down memory lane.
\n\nBut the good news is that with a competent photo digitizing service, technicians will follow the original layout of your albums, capturing the captions, documents, and anecdotes that shape the stories that accompany the photos. With proper attention to detail, you can have everything digitized and archived without harming the integrity of your original albums. So if this is your main concern holding you back from having your albums digitized, worry not.
\n\n\nSome picture scanning services will scan the photos and the handwritten text.
\n\n\nWHAT SHOULD I LOOK FOR IN A PHOTO ALBUM SCANNING COMPANY?
\n\nWith so many scanning services out there, how do you know which one is the right fit for your photo album needs? You can't just trust any old company, and it's not just the price of services that you should be considering. There are countless factors that you might feel are critically important, and that you may want answers for before committing to the work.
\n\nAny photo digitizing service worth working with should have good-quality scans, great customer support, guarantees for the safety of your original photos, and complete transparency each step of the way.
\n\nIf you're pressed on time, and not looking to read an entire article, let me suggest Forever Studios. We'll complete your photo scan project with the utmost care for the most affordable price in the U.S. And if you look into Forever Studios reviews and testimonials anywhere on the internet, you’ll see that no one has quite as good of a reputation.
\n\n\nA worthy digitizing company will take the time and effort to treat your photos like they're their own.
\n\n\n![\"Pro](\"https://memoya-production.s3.amazonaws.com/images-blog/c569f950-d65a-4157-8c2b-850f6e231daa\")
\nThe Photo Album Scanning Services We’ll be Comparing.
\n\nOkay, so it’s time to start breaking down the current top-rated photo scanning services available. We'll explore a bit about the companies, their pricing, and the quality of their final products (courtesy of various reviews from different websites).
\n\nThese factors will hopefully equip you with all the information you need to confidently choose a picture scanning service that suits your needs and preserves your memories for years to come.
\n\n\nThere aren’t many companies that will accept photo albums.
\n\n\nLet me preface this by saying that there are not many companies out there that explicitly state that they'll take the photo albums. Most photo scanning companies prefer to take only loose or bulk enveloped/boxed photos.
\n\nSo, to cover the true purpose of this article, I'm only covering companies that state they take albums. There's no point in counting the others since you'd have to deconstruct those pesky sticky pages. That leaves us with this line-up of companies: YesVideo, ScanDigital, EverPresent, and your friends here at Forever Studios.
\n\n\nA Look at YesVideo Photo Album Scanning.
\n\n\nYESVIDEO COMPANY INFO
\n\nAdmittedly, I don't know much about YesVideo. I had to do my research before writing this part of the article. They're not a big name in the photo scanning industry, but they do take photo albums.
\n\nThey claim to have technology that will scan the photos directly on the page without needing to take them out. The website doesn't go into detail, but another claim states that \"These images turn out glare removed (from those annoying album sheets), cropped, color corrected, and are suitable for printing.\" Take that as you will.
\n\nOh, and there's a claimed four-week turnaround time, though we aren’t able to confirm that.
\n\nI will give props where they are due. When you choose to order a DVD as a deliverable, you can request a DVD \"theme\" (think baby or celebration), and you can add generic music (i.e., big band, classic, country, etc.).
\n\n\n(photo retrieved from https://www.yesvideo.com/products/album-scanning)
\n\n\nHOW EXPENSIVE IS YESVIDEO?
\n\n- \n
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Starting price: $32.99 for the first 35 photos of one album
\n \n
Ok, so this company is quite pricey right off the bat. YesVideo charges $32.99 for the first 35 photos of one album. After the first 35 photos, they charge an additional $0.77 per photo in the same album. If you have multiple albums, you'll be paying that $32.99 as the best price for each. So, if you go with this particular company, you might want to consolidate your photos into as few albums as possible. I'm a writer, not a mathematician, but even I know that this pricing scale is ridiculous.
\n\nDVDs cost $7.99 per disc, which fit approximately 500 images each. USB drives for the entire order cost $16.49 each. A digital download with an undetermined time limit apparently comes with the initial digitizing price... that is if you actually get a download link.
\n\n\nWHAT IS THE QUALITY OF PHOTO SCANS AT YESVIDEO?
\n\nOn their own website, YesVideo has a 4.3 rating. Sifting through all of the reviews to find ones specific for photo album scanning was a very tedious task. I found a handful about photo scans being somewhere in the vicinity of OK and decent to very blurry.
\n\nOther reviews had no true information, but espoused that the experience was terrible because their media was damaged, the customer service sucked, or they never received a digital download link. For a company that says it has 20 years of experience, getting a 2.2 on Yelp is not a good look.
\n\n\nScanDigital’s Photo Album Scanning Work.
\n\n\nSCANDIGITAL COMPANY INFO
\n\nScanDigital is a pretty standard company that offers professional photo scanning services. That being said, it specializes in bulk photo scanning. Details about the company itself are rather limited. Information on the album scanning process states that their technicians remove each individual photo before cleaning, scanning, and \"optimizing\" them and then placing them back in the album.
\n\nWithin their claimed 3-4 week turnaround, all photos are supposed to receive \"cropping, rotation, color correction, and red-eye removal.\"
\n\n\nSome of our most precious memories are stuck in old albums. Scandigital can scan them.
\n\n\nHOW EXPENSIVE IS SCANDIGITAL?
\n\nScanDigital charges $0.68 per photo at the base price. They have two different options to choose from: premium (scanning at 600 dpi resolution) and expert (scanning at 1200 dpi). Any photo sizes larger than 8” x 10” accrue an additional fee.
\n\nOne of my biggest pet peeves is when a company is not fully upfront with their pricing BEFORE you have to put all your details in. And guess what? ScanDigital makes you put in all of your info before you can determine the price of your order with a flash drive.
\n\nThe best I could find is this info in the FAQ section: Ground \"Shipping + USB Flash Drive = $50.90 Express Shipping + Flash Drive = $65.90 Ground Shipping + Hard Drive = $134.90 Express Shipping + Hard Drive = $149.90.\" Does it technically answer the question of how much everything's gonna be? Yes, kind of, but the info is really freaking difficult to find. And it's an \"interesting\" approach to pricing.
\n\n\nWHAT IS THE QUALITY OF TRANSFERS AT SCANDIGITAL?
\n\nScanDigital has a rating of 3.1 on Yelp, which is not the worst rating I've ever seen for a photo-scanning company. The company's owner even has a PSA that Yelp is hiding good reviews. Well... goodness. Where do I start? The good reviews were all full of “happy customers” who were super excited to get good photos back, and that's juxtaposed with a lot of reviews that state the company is a scam.
\n\nApparently, they can't meet deadlines, and the \"specialized equipment\" leaves a lot of lines in the scanned photos. And to no one's surprise, they're unreasonably expensive.
\n\n\nInformation on EverPresent Photo Album Scanning.
\n\n\nEVERPRESENT COMPANY INFO
\n\nI know I said this about the last company, too, but Everpresent is another bulk scanning business that speed runs through the editing process. They have been operating for “30 years” and have scanned “millions of photos”. I have to say, Everpresent makes quite a lot of big-time promises:
\n\n- \n
- \n
All photos are cleaned and optimized (scanned at 600 dpi resolution).
\n \n - \n
They organize and label everything.
\n \n - \n
No upfront payment is needed.
\n \n - \n
A digital download is included.
\n \n
Everpresent logo and host of services they offer.
\n\n\nHOW EXPENSIVE IS EVERPRESENT?
\n\nIndividual Image Scans at Everpresent start at $0.45 \"plus regular standard scanning charges\" (to be honest, I'm not sure what that means 'cause isn't that what the $0.45 is for?).
\n\nFull Page Scans start at $2.99, which is apparently all-inclusive. To fully get an estimate of what you'll have to pay, you have to either call their customer service directly or send them an online filled-out form from their website.
\n\n\nWHAT IS THE QUALITY OF TRANSFERS AT EVERPRESENT?
\n\nLike many businesses that offer digital conversion services, Everpresent has a whole bunch of 5-star reviews of customer satisfaction on its website. What sets them apart from the rest is that they linked those reviews directly from reviews.io, where they have a rating of 4.6.
\n\nGenerally speaking, they have pretty good ratings. Admittedly, I can't find much on their photo scanning specifically, but what I did read is pretty positive. From customer service to a relatively problem-free digitizing process. The negative comments I did find stated that the company is expensive and they tack on hidden fees.
\n\nThe Better Business Bureau reviews, on the other hand, are not good. If anything, that's an understatement. The review specifically related to photo scanning is dreadful, and details some of the hidden fees that customers encountered. From uncharges for a piece of tape or a staple on the corner of a photo to discoloration.
\n\n\nPhoto Album Scanning Services with Forever Studios.
\n\n\nFOREVER STUDIOS COMPANY INFO
\n\nForever Studios, America's choice for photo album scanning since '07, offers museum-quality digital photos that you will love to pass down through generations. We'll make the entire process a breeze. Our experienced technicians meticulously handle each of your images and documents by hand (with white gloves) and utilize specialized equipment to guarantee top-quality results.
\n\nThe best part? Our standard processing time is only 2-3 weeks, with 1 week guaranteed service available for a small fee. How do we get that done for people all over the USA? Easy, we only staff professionals. Our processes were developed by a team of pros, and the scanning work itself is done by those same pros. It’s all super dependable.
\n\nWe prioritize maintaining outstanding standards and never compromise on quality, ensuring that your digital images will look stunning. All of our clients can have peace of mind knowing that their photo memories are in good hands from A to Z.
\n\nWe’ll take care of transit with insured ship kits, specifically put together for your order. And speaking of your order, our in-house staff of customer care staff are always available for both sales and support. No one is running for the hills after you place your order to make sure we don’t have to take care of the “support” part.
\n\n\nTypical photo albums, 35mm slides and negatives scanned by Forever Studios.
\n\n\nHOW EXPENSIVE IS FOREVER STUDIOS?
\n\nScanning services start at just 55 cents per photo. Forever Studios has two options for scanning. Forever Classic (included with the original price) guarantees better scan quality than the \"Big-Box\" Companies at an affordable price. Forever Gold (an additional 15¢ per scan) scans print photos at a higher DPI with post-processing image enhancements.
\n\nWe're on a mission to outshine our competitors in every way. And our deliverables really... deliver (pun fully intended). Our archival-grade USB thumb drive option is $30, our Forever Cloud year-long subscription (to access your digitized photos) is $55, our DVDs are $20 each, and our 4x6 quick print option is 50¢ per photo.
\n\n\nWHAT IS THE QUALITY OF TRANSFERS AT FOREVER STUDIOS?
\n\nAdmittedly, no one and no company is perfect. Nevertheless! Forever Studios has a 5.0 rating at reviews.io! Anything I say here will likely sound like I'm just singing the praises of my employer. But the proof is in the pudding. So please, take some time to read some of the reviews and see for yourself how awesome we are. It'll be worth your time.
\n\nThe truth is that we take this work extremely seriously, and our customers can see it in the results we provide. Attention to detail is how we get such consistent results, and customer service and support that go above and beyond are how we’ve consistently gotten nothing but perfect reviews.
\n\n\nFinal Thoughts on Popular Album Scanning Services.
\n\nAlright, so this shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, but I am not impressed with my company's “competition.” YesVideo, ScanDigital, and Everpresent are all stupidly expensive for what you get.
\n\nAnd goodness, there’s no guarantee that you're gonna get your original images back (I’m looking at you, YesVideo)! Please, please, for the sake of your printed photos, please don’t go to any of those horrible companies. Forever Studios has you covered and we do guarantee you’ll get your media back! Because at the end of the day, any digitizing work is based on TRUST. And if you’re looking for the best quality work from a company that everyone trusts, then there’s really only one option.
\n\n\n![\"Picture](\"https://memoya-production.s3.amazonaws.com/images-blog/0dff2fe5-9be3-4b9c-84f1-50478f0f20eb\")
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