scanning alot of photos

[divxdude]

I have alot of old photos to be scanned as files.

what do you think i should use oin terms of resolution or DPI?
what file format should i use?

someone said save them as TIF its uncompressed for highest quality
but i'm wondering if those are too big.

Is there some software that will save me some point-click by
nsing a bulk input method that auto-names or numbers them?
and saves it. such that I only need to press one key after each photo?

and what about centering? I want to ensure that viewing the image it isnt
off to one side. would that be a function of some type auto-crop?

I'm thinking resolving these issues at scan time will save alot of work later.

 

[divxdude]

also doesnt some software allow you to make a custom bed-size
such that all the scans are i/3 of the scanner bed length and the light
bar completes the shorter pass cycle much quicker?

my HP won't allow sizing until after a full length scan it seems.

 

[homercles337]

Are you going to print them? If not, then 72dpi is fine. If youre going to print then use the resolution of youre printer.
If you want lossless compression use PNG.
Not sure about batch processing with a scanner.
All scanners i have used have auto crop. Use it.

 

[divxdude]

i'm not planning to print them but these files may become the only
version i keep , may give the photos away or they may deteriorate
, get lost or destroyed over the next years.

 

[divxdude]

Is there another scan software package i can use that will allow me to set
the scanners length of travel ?

a 1/3 length pass will be much faster.

 

[Rottie]

I don't know any other photo-only scan software beside the scanner's software. If there is, I am curious about it too. I use old Umax 1200P scanner and I am happy with it, it allows me to re-size photo or crop it then scan it into tif format. It looks good but quiet very big file.