Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

We only offer high quality scans (600dpi for paper photos, 3000dpi for negatives and slides) and offer one low price for each of these. Our service is designed to provide you with only high quality scans because you want to spend your money on scanning only once. Our pricing is all inclusive; there are no hidden costs for the DVD, higher resolution, or image restoration. Also, read the "About Us" section to find out more about our founders - they take great pride in their work, as does every single employee of ScanCafe. Compare our prices of high quality scans by visiting: our prices comparison page.

Your order is safe with us. For domestic shipping, we rely on UPS which allows both you and us to track your precious package by the hour. The UPS shipping label we automatically generate for you contains a unique barcode that will be used to track your order throughout the process. Our processing center is run by qualified technicians who take the utmost care of every picture. Once your photos are scanned they are preserved forever. We take the security of your images very seriously – outstanding customer service and care is core to our beliefs. We have successfully processed over twenty million images and have not lost or damaged a single order. Additionally, we only use manual processes - we have no auto-fed machines in which your pictures can get easily jammed and ruined (how many times has a printer or fax machine done that to you?) Lastly, we offer a shipping guarantee of $1,000 (please refer to the terms and conditions for full details). Learn everything there is to know about how we have built our reputation on caring for your precious memories: Safety.

We scan the following formats:
• 35mm negatives
• 35mm slides
• paper pictures up to 8x10
• 110, 120, 126, 127 & 200 (medium) format film

We also scan children’s art work, post cards, newspaper stories, etc.
Click here to view our detailed price for the various formats.

Let’s say you want to scan 500 pictures, it will cost you:
• 40 monotonous hours of scanning (5 months if you dedicated 2 hrs/weekend)
• about $200 for a high quality scanner like the EPSON 4490
• about $1200 for a high quality negative scanner like the NIKON CoolScan 5000ED

If you let ScanCafe do it for you, it will cost you
• Zero hours of your time
• $145 for 500 negatives
• $145 for 500 slides
• $145 for 500 paper photos

Memories are priceless! Most people have thousands of pictures in different formats (paper prints, slides, negatives). Scanning them enables you to:
• Preserve them on digital media like DVDs and CDs forever
• Get rid of your clutter and easily organize all your pictures
• Sort them, date them and label them
• Distribute multiple copies to friends and family
• Create photo books for special occasions
• Compile picture biographies of loved ones
• Upload all pictures to online photo sharing websites

Seeing is believing. Before you read any further, check out our quality page: Do it Once, Do it Right, At high Quality.
DPI stands for dots per inch; it is a measure of the resolution, accuracy, sharpness and clarity of your scanned picture. Up to a certain point, the higher the DPI resolution, the better the image; but this also takes longer to scan and process. With higher resolution, you can enlarge your image to larger size. With ScanCafe's DPI resolution, you can enlarge a paper photo to twice its original size, and print a negative/slide to 20x30 inches.
Based on millions of scans, we find that the optimal DPI levels are: 600 DPI for paper photo and 3000 DPI for slides and negatives.
Most scanning services charge extra for what is our standard resolution. Your pictures deserve a professional level of scanning and processing.
When shopping for a scanning service, make sure you compare price at equivalent resolution and with the equivalent level of image processing. ScanCafe service is all-inclusive: high resolution scanning, Kodak digital ICE and Photoshop manual processing.
For special purpose applications, such as very large print enlargements, we offer a higher resolution scanning option. If you would like to have your paper photos scanned at 1200 DPI, or your slides and negatives scanned at 4000 DPI, please be sure to order “Pro Resolution” on the online order form.

ScanCafe is the only professional scanning service that is designed for simplicity and ease of use.
We understand that it is painful and sometimes impossible to sort through thousands of pictures (you can’t even see what’s on a negative!). At ScanCafe, you get to send us ALL your pictures:
- we scan them and manually process them
- we load them onto your on-line account for your review
- you review them at your leisure and discard the ones you don't want (up to 50% of the images you send us).
You ONLY pay our low price for the high resolution scans of the images you choose. No other image scanning service offers such flexibility at such a low all-inclusive cost.

If you have negatives for most of your photo collection, scanning negatives is a better option because:
• Scans from negatives are of much higher quality than paper photos
• Negatives are cheaper to ship (negatives weigh 1/10th of paper photos) and are priced more affordably
• For negatives, you will need a smaller package to ship
• Negatives are in a sequence and easier to organize while scanning

We currently have a $9.95 surcharge for the handling of albums. You should strive to remove the individual photos, place in folders or Ziplocs, and ship them to us for scanning. This way, we aren't put in a tough position of making a judgment call on whether or not to cut an image from an album. If we do run into situations such as this, we will do our best to contact you prior to any physical alteration of your albums. Never send your order in bubble mailers – always use a certified shipping box.

We recommend that you remove slides from carousels (which have significant cost in shipping). If you do decide to ship your slides in carousels, then we will charge you a surcharge of $4.95. If you have slides in magazines or slide display pages, you may ship them in that manner with no surcharge. Alternately you can package your slides in aluminum foil boxes. This will be much cheaper for shipping. Regardless of how you ship them, please insure to secure them tightly with rubber bands or wrap them in saran wrap to prevent the images from shifting around during shipping. Slides, negatives and prints are very durable and don't require excess protection while shipping - but you should put them in Ziploc bags to protect from any inadvertent spills on the delivery truck. A single layer of bubble wrap or newspaper will generally suffice for protection in the box. Never send your order in bubble mailers – always use a certified shipping box.

See our “how it works” page
Step 1: Collect pictures: Collect all your pictures in multiple formats (negatives will work out the cheapest: both shipping and scanning costs) Count: ? Box them: Package them in a standard FedEx or UPS box
Step 2: Place order: Log onto ScanCafe.com and place an order. Print 3 copies of the shipping label: attach one to the outside of the box; place one inside (it will always travel with your images); and keep the third for your records. Then, simply ship it!
Step 3: Tracking: We will send you a confirmation email on receipt and also when your pictures are scanned and ready for review online.
Step 4: Tracking: You can review the status of your order at anytime by logging in to your account and clicking on order status. You get to review ALL your scanned pictures online. You select the pictures that you like (minimum 50% selection required) You’re done! We will ship you: • All the originals that you sent us • All your selected scans on your choice of a DVD or CD or a Hard Drive

We are the most affordable scanning service. Check our prices on our price page. When you place your order, we charge you for the shipping cost of sending us your originals plus a 50% upfront payment for your estimated order size. We will then bill you for the remainder of the processing cost and the return shipping after you have completed the online review of your scans. You will have the freedom of reviewing the scans online and discarding the scans you don't want. We will only charge you for scans you retain. We allow you to discard up to 50% of the scans of the images you sent us, meaning that if you send us 100 images at minimum you will have to pay for 50. We are the only scanning service that offers this flexibility. Of course, we will return all of your originals.

You will typically see your scans online for review in 4-6 weeks from the time we receive your photos. Your DVDs and originals will be returned to you within 2-3 weeks* after you have reviewed and checked out. This is for typical orders that are less than 1000 photos. For larger quantities, please add approximately 4 days for every additional 1000 photos. Once we receive your order, you will be able to track progress online from day to day. For turn around time information on special media like medium format, 110 etc, please contact us.
*If you need your discs sooner than 2-3 weeks after you've checked out, please contact our customer support team and they will assist you.

We highly recommend DVDs if your computer has a DVD drive because DVDs hold 7 times as many images as a CD. The quality of the image is the same on both.

Your scanned pictures will be stored on DVD or CD in jpeg format. If you took the time to organize and label groups of images, this organization will be reflected in your scanned images. For example, if you have an envelope of photos labeled: “Sam’s 2nd Birthday”, we will store your scanned photos in a folder named “Sam’s 2nd Birthday”. You will see this folder during your online review process and this folder will be burned onto your DVD. These DVDs or CDs can usually be viewed on your DVD/View CD player or computer. However, we cannot test every model of player, and have found that some DVDs will not play in certain players. The DVDs are intended to be used with a computer, so they should work with all computers.

Approximately 1200 paper print scans at 600dpi and 300 negative or slide scans at 3000dpi. The exact number is difficult to determine because of the digital size of the scanned image - for instance, a picture of a sunset over the mountains will have much more detail than a picture of a green leaf against a white wall and will, therefore, be larger in size.

The privacy and protection of your images is of paramount importance to us. Please refer to our privacy policy.

With a jpeg compatible DVD player, you can enjoy viewing the pictures from the DVD in the comfort of your living room. The "slideshow" feature of your DVD player will allow you to browse through your images just as you would on your computer. The recent generation of DVD players have the "slide show" feature. In order to determine whether or not your DVD player supports this feature, visit http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers. We cannot test every model of player, and have found that some DVDs will not play in certain players. The DVDs are intended to be used with a computer, so they should work with all computers.

With a jpeg compatible DVD player, you can enjoy viewing the pictures from the DVD in the comfort of your living room. The "slide show" feature of your DVD player will allow you to browse through your images just as you would on your computer. The recent generation of DVD players have the "slide show" feature. In order to determine whether or not your DVD player supports this feature, please visit http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers. You should look for "JPG" or "jpeg" under "video formats supported." We cannot test every model of player, and have found that some DVDs will not play in certain players. The DVDs are intended to be used with a computer, so they should work with all computers.

Many of our customers use photobook solutions from Blurb.com, Shutterfly, Snapfish, and others. Once you receive your high resolution images form ScanCafe, you can then upload them to these other sites and create your own photobooks. To find out more, you can check out http://www.blurb.com/partner/scancafe.

Yes. ScanCafe now allows you to easily share your scanned images with friends and family. After you review your scanned images and checkout, you will have an option to share your images for free. You can also buy extra sets of DVDs when you initially place your order and at the time of the final checkout process.

Kodak’s award winning Digital ICE (TM) processing is included free on all scans (since negatives can have dust and scratches). The award-winning Digital ICE technology automatically removes surface defects, such as dust and scratches, from a scanned image.

Cropping consists of digitally editing the scan to ensure that the image has a clean border.

ScanCafe has a very robust and secure UPS shipping process integrated in its order entry system. Our automated shipment software generates the shipping label for you so that you only have to print it and tape it to your package. We strongly recommend that you use this shipping procedure. It will cost you less and will ensure that your package is monitored from the minute you drop it off to the minute it is received. If there is a reason why you can't use UPS to ship your images please call us: 1-866-745-0392.

For prints, we use the Epson 4490. For slides and negatives, we use the Nikon 5000ED and the Nikon 9000ED. We rely on Digital ICE for the initial processing but each and every image is manually processed using Adobe Photoshop to remove the remaining blemishes to ensure the highest quality. We do much more than the automated image processing that our competitors limit themselves to. Try us, you won't be disappointed!

ScanCafe is a global company with facilities in Burlingame (CA) and Bangalore (the software capital of India). Most of our scanning is done out of Bangalore, India. See details on our first-class facility in Bangalore by clicking here: Graphics & Imaging Center. Most importantly learn how we keep your precious memories safe and secure (Safety & Tracking). We have scanned over 30 million images using our robust world-class logistics operation and have never lost or damaged an order. Feel free to place a test order.

Our operation in India is a fully owned subsidiary and was created for this sole purpose - your images are never out of the control of either ScanCafe or our global shipping partners. The Bangalore processing facility is managed by one of our founders (another Wharton Graduate - click on about us section for more details) who relocated permanently to India.

We DO NOT send your individual packages via airfreight. Media processed in India are consolidated in Burlingame in secured and sturdy ScanCafe dedicated shipping containers that weigh a 1000-2000 lbs! Your precious photos are packaged with 5 levels of protection during transport. These rugged containers are air-freighted using a publicly traded global leader in international shipping (seeing is believing-Secure Tracking). Due to the significant increase in security in airport/tarmac operations and the significant tightening of air freight shipping resulting from international security threats, international package delivery has never been safer or more controlled. Our freight forwarding partner has an impeccable record has and has never lost a shipment on its Indian routes. We understand that some people may be initially concerned that their photos may be shipped to India for scanning - but any fears are unfounded. We pay our Indian employees a rate of compensation that is a full 25% above the average plus retirement and insurance benefits; this allows us to hire and retain the most qualified image processing technicians. Our technicians are just that - they are highly trained in all of the latest photo editing software and have a passion for photography.

Your photos are manually reviewed and fully restored one by one by our well trained technicians - NOT simply automatically processes by software in an "I feel lucky" manner that the majority of our competitors employ.

We have developed a very innovative process that combines technology and a reliable fully owned and operated off-shore infrastructure. Our founders met while attending the Wharton School of Business and have leveraged their experience and global business expertise to build this company from the ground up to be affordable - the reason we started this was because we couldn't find an affordable solution ourselves! Try us out you won't be disappointed!

We scan APS film using the latest high end Noritsu scanners. Noritsu is the industry leader in photographic film processing equipment for minilabs and print studios. Scans are at 4000dpi for APS rolls.

Printing and enlarging photos can be as much art as science, as acceptable quality can sometimes depend on the use, or even the image itself.

But a good rule of thumb is to think about photo quality printing, which most in the printing industry define as around 300 pixels per inch. (Books and magazines typically print photos to this standard).

At that standard, you should be able to enlarge any paper photo we scan at 600dpi by 2X (i.e., a 4"x6" could increase to 8" x 6") without any decrease in sharpness.

Slides and negatives, however, can be printed much larger, thanks to their naturally higher resolution. At our standard scanning resolution of 3000dpi, a 35mm negative could be printed, photo quality, at 9" x 13", roughly.

You do not always need to print at photo quality, however. If, for example, your print is going to be seen from a distance, you can print much larger. In testing, for example, we've printed 35mm negatives to 20" x 30" and been very pleased with the results.

If you are interested in making a poster or other large print that is going to viewed up close, we'd suggest that you use our Pro Resolution feature, which scans paper photos at 1200dpi and 35mm negatives and slides at 4000dpi. That would enable, in the case of negatives, an approximately 12" x 18" print at photo quality. We'd also suggest you have us deliver the scans to you in TIFF format, since with our jpgs there is a slight amount of compression. Both of these features cost just a few cents extra, so they will be well worth it when you make a very large print.

Yes, ScanCafe offers a guarantee against loss of your order once it is received in our offices. We have processed over twenty million images and haven't lost or damaged a single order. While your order is in the ScanCafe system, whether domestic or international, we guarantee that your order will not be lost. If it is, ScanCafe will give you $1,000 and a year of free scanning services. Additionally, you are covered by the UPS terms and conditions for shipments to and from ScanCafe.

Our office hours are 7:30am to 5pm PST Monday thru Friday. We will make every effort to respond to email queries within 6 hours during office hours and will make every effort to return voice mails within 4 hours during office hours. We are not open weekends or holidays.

You may call us at: 1-866-745-0392 or send a fax: 1-866-400-7209. Alternatively, you can send us an email here: admin@scancafe.com

Unfortunately we can't scan a single negative that has been cut from a larger strip.

We require a 50% upfront down payment to begin your order. Hopefully, this isn't an issue - our competitors charge you the entire amount prior to working on your order. The 50% is taken from your order size estimate - it will be adjusted as necessary upon final checkout after you have reviewed your scans.

Please insure that you securely box up your precious images. DO NOT use the flimsy department store boxes you get from places like Macy's or Nordstrom. These are not designed for use as shipping containers. In this same vein, do not use Kleenex boxes or any other container made of thin paper or cardboard. We even recommend against sending things in shoe boxes. The UPS store or your local post office can provide you with excellent shipping materials. And always be careful to fully tape up the box. Never use bubble mailers.

Currently we use the 2.5" 320GB drive from Western Digital (WDXMS1200TN) which has "in-line" power so no external power supply is required - they are extremely convenient. They connect via a USB port and fit in a shirt pocket. Scans in JPEG at 3000 dpi are between 5-7MB. The usable space on the drive is about 110 GB. Consequently, we can store about 16,000 images on a drive. We don't offer larger or smaller drives. For now this is the only option we offer.

Please note that if you purchase hard drive, you will receive this in place of the default CD/DVD set.

Yes, we now offer these services. You can upload images directly to us via our upload tool. You can write to our customer service team with any inquiries and they will be able to answer any question you have. Prices range from $5 to $40.

With our Pro Library option you get two complete sets of images. One is in compressed JPG file format with full image processing applied (crop, dust / scratch removal, color correction). The second is a “raw” scan with no image processing applied in a “lossless” TIFF file format. Both are scanned at the default setting of 3,000 dpi for slides/negatives and 600 dpi for prints. The JPG fully processed images are useful in 90% of professional applications for reprint or use on-line. The TIFF file become essential when full resolution is needed for poster size images, color space is critical, or a non-processed image is required by professional printers. Many of our museum, art gallery, photography and other professional clients find our Pro Library Option a great solution. Every so often one of our clients comes across a hidden “gem” they didn’t know they had. When they do, it’s important for them to have the absolute highest possible resolution image that has not yet been processed for them to work with. Sort of a “blank canvas” from which to apply professional processing as they see fit. Price is an additional 29 cents per image. You can also go to 4,000 dpi for slides/negatives and 1200 dpi for prints - cost is an incremental 9 cents per image. We only recommend such high resolution to pros and hobbyists who have a definite need and understand the nuances of 4000 dpi scans.

We are happy to announce that we can now accept orders from Canada. However, we are not able to accept orders from any other international locations at this time. We are working with US Customs to figure out how to best do this - when we do launch this service, we will let everyone know through our monthly newsletter which you can receive by signing up - its free and all we take is your email address, no other personal info is required. You can register by clicking on the "Get Started" button on the home page.

Unfortunately the answer is no, for the following reason – the UPS label that is automatically generated has a single tracking ID for a single package. If you were to print two copies of this label, then UPS would only track one of the boxes. If they were to misplace the second box, but deliver the first box, then you would have no proof of this as the delivery info would have followed the first box. Additionally, ScanCafe would have no idea that two boxes were coming. You can remedy this by either getting your order into a larger single box (large boxes suitable for shipping can be found at the UPS Store, FedEx/Kinkos, or any office supply store such as Staples or Office Depot) or by actually placing two orders on the site and applying a single label to each box. You could then track each box separately all the way through the process. If you do decide to place a heavy order into a single box (more than 10 pounds), then we highly recommend you take the order to a UPS Store or a Kinkos so that they can help you prepare the box for shipment to insure that the packing method used is sufficient. Please feel free to contact us with any additional questions on this topic at admin@scancafe.com or at 866-745-0392. One last piece of advice - if you look at the bottom of any shipping box, you will see the amount of weight that that box is rated for in both pounds and burst capacity.

UPS does not deliver to APOs or FPOs, so we unfortunately cannot accept orders from such addresses. We have chosen to implement this restriction in an effort to maintain the safe keeping of your images. If you have a friend or family member in the US who would be willing to act as a middle man for you by sending and receiving your order to and from ScanCafe, then we would be happy to process your order for you.

At ScanCafe, we’re continually working on making the service easier to use. We realize that many people who have lots of old photos are not necessarily familiar with the internet, and so we designed the Gift Box to reach out to them.

The scans are burned onto a data DVD when they are returned with the originals. If they want to view them, they will need a computer running at least Windows XP or later, or Mac OS 9 or later and a CD/DVD player, though that computer doesn’t need to be connected to the Internet at all. However, if they don’t have a computer, you can still order and provide a Gift Box to your recipient—just indicate that the completed scans and originals should be sent to you, which can be done on the order form.

Yes, they are. Your Gift Box will be tracked from door to door using our integrated UPS tracking system, and handled according to the same procedures that have allowed us to successfully scan over 20 million images. While at our scanning facility, your recipient’s images will be under 24x7 monitoring in a controlled-access, climate-controlled environment, and handled with our usual white glove treatment by trained technicians. In addition, all Gift Box orders are covered by our standard $1,000 handling guarantee, which promises that if your recipient’s gift box is lost while in the possession of ScanCafe, we will compensate your recipient up to $1,000 in cash and a year of free scanning services. The gift box must be packed in accordance with ScanCafe packaging instructions in order to be covered by our guarantee.

We will send status updates by email to you and your gift box recipient, and you or your recipient can call in at any time and check status.

Yes, you can. However, you will probably find that our regular scanning service will make more sense, for two reasons. First, with our regular scanning service, you send us your slides, negatives, and photos, and we charge you precisely for what you send. It’s hard to say the same thing for the Gift Box, since it’s hard to say how many images you will be able to fit into it, in advance. Second, with our regular service, you’ll have a chance to review your images, and delete the ones that you don’t want, up to 50% of your order. As the Gift Box is really intended for a gift to someone who’s not so comfortable with the internet, there is no review opportunity—once we scan the box’s contents, we return the originals and the scans immediately.

Yes, you can. When you order, you can specify an a recipient for the empty box, and a Return recipient (for when the box is full of the originals and the completed scans). The empty box recipient and the Return recipient may be different people.

The Gift Box includes our standard level of service. Images inside the Gift Box that require restoration will need to be sent in separately for restoration work.

Regular shipping is included in the price. You may purchase express delivery, however. Please note that express delivery applies only to our sending the empty Gift Box to your gift recipient. It will not accelerate the delivery of the completed order, which will take about 5 weeks from when we receive the box.

No, they can’t. The Gift Box is really intended for people who are not comfortable using the internet, so we don’t require creating a normal user account for them on our site. However, if you specify their email as the email where tracking status emails go to, they will be able to view their scans online once the order is complete, as well as share their scanned photos with others.

The box comes with its own packing materials included. Using those materials, you should be able to get about 400 snapshot-sized photos (up to 5” x 7”), around 140 35mm slides, and around 120 color negatives.

The gift box will work for color or black & white snapshot-sized photos, color 35mm negatives, and color 35mm slides. If your recipient includes any other sort of media, we will return it to your gift recipient, unscanned, along with rest of the completed order.

Instructions are provided. It’s important to use the containers included inside the box—photos go in the photos bag, slides go in the slides container, and negatives go in the negatives container.Photos that are not inside the containers provided will not be scanned.

Instructions are printed, with diagrams, on the inside of the lid. (There’s also a gift card indicating the gift is from you). Your recipient simply needs to fill the containers provided, slide the Gift Box into the prepaid envelope included inside the box, and drop it off at nearby UPS store. We even include some Styrofoam “peanuts” to help fill the box and prevent the recipient’s originals from sliding around. They can always call us for help—the phone number for ScanCafe customer support is also on the inside of the lid.

There are approximately 4,200 UPS stores nationwide. In addition, there are approximately 40,000 UPS drop boxes, and another 1,000 UPS customer service centers. Chances are excellent that there is a drop off location near your gift recipient. Your recipient may also schedule a pickup with UPS, but a surcharge may apply. The phone number for UPS is included in the instructions inside the box. You can find the nearest UPS dropoff location here: http://www.ups.com/dropoff?loc=en_US

We have sized the Gift Box so it will fit most of the important images a typical consumer has. If you’re confident that your recipient has a huge number of images to scan, feel free to order more than one Gift Box.

No, they don’t.

No, it doesn’t.

The Gift Box is, in effect, worth approximately $200 of scanning, and should be treated like anything else that’s worth $200. If your recipient does lose it, Contact ScanCafe customer service and we will try to help.

It’s intended for a single use.

About 5 weeks from when we receive it.

At this time, we are not able to accept walk-in orders. Our shipping department and customer service team are in two separate locations, and we have made this decision in an effort to ensure the safety and care of your images throughout every step of the process.

Yes. We scan 120/220 medium format slides. We also scan 35mm, 110, 126, 127 slides.

DPI means dots per inch, and you should always select the highest dpi that works for that particular media for slide scanning. Specific to slides, our experience has shown that the maximum dpi you should use is 3000dpi. If you go higher than 3000 dpi, the resolution becomes too fine tuned and you start to see the microscopic permutations on the slide.

If you have mold build up or crusted dust that is difficult to get off with a jet of air, we will use a special film cleaner such as "Rexton Anti-Static Film Cleaner for Black & White and Color Film". A lint free cloth will then be used and we will wipe gently along the length of the slide. We will not apply the cleaner in a swirling motion because this will scratch the surface. In certain cases, the mold build up will be so extreme that we will need to do advanced photo restoration.

Most slides will bear a brand logo or the phrase "this side facing the screen." It is this side of the film that the scanner detector should read. The actual insertion procedure will vary from scanner to scanner.

ScanCafe's service is unique because we provide free, manual color correction and restoration for each slide although a small number of slides require more advanced restoration work. It works the same way as our photo restoration, but the image comes from the slide. Color restoration can be done during the scanning process using the scanner hardware or after the scanning process using an image editing software like Adobe Photoshop. At ScanCafe, we do both. We use Kodak Digital ICE which is built into our Nikon scanners, and we use Photoshop photo editing software after the image is scanned.

Most slides are of the standard size and the film is rectangular. Some slides are square in shape (super slides) and some are rectangular in the vertical direction. The Nikon 5000ED does not scan the entire area of these non-standard sized slides. To fix this, ScanCafe uses a Nikon 9000ED slide scanner on irregular sized slides.

At this time, we do not scan glass sides.

It is always better to scan the negative because it is usually in better condition, and the scanner can produce a digital image at a higher dpi resolution. Furthermore you get to keep the photo displayed in your home during the scanning process. That said, we do offer great photo scanning and slide scanning solutions.

Theoretically, it is very easy, but practically, it is very difficult. You need to scan the side that has the photographic emulsion. This emulsion side is usually less glossy. However, it takes a long time to figure this out. The best option for telling which side is which is to look at the numbering scheme on the negative. When using a negative film scanner, align the negative such that you can read the numbering scheme. You are now looking at the opposite side of the emulsion.

Actually, no. The infrared light that detects dust and scratches is not compatible with the silver halide emulsion on black and white negatives. If you scan with ICE, the digital image will look "silvery" and out of focus. The only solution is to disable ICE and manually restore the B&W scan at a later time using a clone stamping tool such as in Adobe Photoshop. However, using clone stamping requires a lot of practice. If you have more questions, feel free to contact our customer support team, and we would be happy to answer your questions.

The short answer is that higher dpi leads to higher quality, and our belief is do it right the first time and you'll never have to worry about it again. You can scan photos at a lower dpi and pay less, but the photo scan quality will not be as good and there usually are zero post scan services such as color correction and cropping - so be wary. At ScanCafe, we want you to have the highest quality so we scan at 600 dpi. You can see some specific examples on our quality comparison page. Is 300 dpi just as good? Unfortunately, it is not. You can take a look at our side to side quality comparisons of 150dpi, 300dpi, and 600dpi. 600dpi simply picks up more information from the print. Furthermore, you can scan and print a 4x6 photo at 300 dpi, but you will never be able to enlarge the print at a later time to a 5x7, for example. As technology gets better, you'll find more value in the 600 dpi. Again, when it comes to photo scanning, do it right the first time, and you'll never have to do it again. Furthermore, if you want to get the most out of post-scan services like photo restoration, you will definitely want to scan your photo at 600dpi.

We recommend scanning negatives first because negatives provide the best resolution and quality. Negatives contain the maximum information about your image since they are fundamentally analog - and we scan negatives at 3000 dpi. When we speak of "information" we mean: clarity, sharpness, color depth, etc. Similarly, we suggest scanning slides over photos if the image is the same. Again, like negative scanning, you scan at a higher resolution with slides than with photos.

We use top-rated Epson 4490 flatbed scanners.

The more information that you capture in a scan, the larger the file size will be. Information is defined as clarity, sharpness, color depth etc. A high resolution scan at 600dpi would give you a file of 5-7MB in jpeg and 30MB in TIFF format. Therefore, we do not recommend TIFF for the average customer. At the lower jpeg file size, you will be able to share images online and take up less space on your computer hard drive.

ScanCafe gift cards are prepaid credits to apply to ScanCafe services. Purchasers select an appropriate dollar value for gifting and the recipient will be allowed to purchase services up to that amount without being charged. Because ScanCafe charges users for only the scans that they keep, a ScanCafe gift card can go a long way to digitizing a friend's or family member's boxes and boxes of old photos.

ScanCafe gift cards are that perfect gift or helping hand to provide to a friend or family member to help them to preserve their most precious memories. Many folks look at their shoeboxes of photos, negatives and slides and think to themselves "maybe I should scan them one day." Unfortunately, "one day" never comes and the next thing you know, your basement floods, the attic leaks or the movers lose a few boxes and all your memories are gone. By giving a ScanCafe gift certificate, you're saying "let's get those photos scanned now" and with ScanCafe's hassle-free and time-saving process no one needs to rummage through the boxes before having the images scanned. Just send in the entire box and pick the scans you want to keep through our easy online review tool. We'll return all of your photos, negatives and slides along with an archive DVD of all the digital images you purchased.

No. Anyone with a valid credit card can purchase a ScanCafe gift card.

ScanCafe currently accepts Visa, MasterCard and American Express.

Yes. ScanCafe gift cards are redeemable for scanning of photos, negatives and slides. We require users to register when they place an order. You will be able to use your gift card when you place the order or when you checkout.

ScanCafe Gift cards can be redeemed for scanning services, specifically for photo scans, negative scans, slide scans, extra archival DVDs, hard drives, USB drives and professional scanning options. Use the gift card code during the order process and we’ll apply your available credit amount to the order. NOTE: Gift cards can NOT currently be used on restorations, shipping costs.

Your gift card cannot be used to cover shipping costs. Also, the total amount of your transaction may exceed the amount of your gift card, therefore you will need to enter your credit card information.

ScanCafe keeps track of the running balance available to the owner of the gift card. If the user spends less than the available amount of the gift card, an available balance of the original gift card minus the purchased amount (including shipping charges) would remain.

No, ScanCafe gift cards do NOT expire.

We understand that people occasionally misplace their gift cards. Should this happen to you, please contact us at admin@scancafe.com.

We’re here to help and make sure your process is easy and rewarding. If you encounter any difficulty when using your gift card, please contact our support team by email at admin@scancafe.com or by phone 866-745-0392.

If your purchase exceeds the value of your gift card, either at the time the order is placed or at the time images are selected for checkout, ScanCafe keeps track of the available balance and asks for you to cover the remaining purchase balance with an authorized credit card.

No, your gift card can be redeemed when you check out with the images you'd like to keep. However, if you apply your gift code during final checkout, the amount of the gift card will only be applied to the second set of charges. To most efficiently utilized your gift card, we suggest you use it at time of order placement. However, ScanCafe will fully acknowledge the value of your gift card and any remaining balance can be used on future orders.

Gift cards can be redeemed at the time an order is created (to apply to the entire order) or at final checkout (to apply only to the second payment). Any remaining balance can be used on future orders.

Providing us with guidance on what to restore in your image is optional. Our restoration artists are very experienced and know how to repair damaged/poor images. However, if you have special requests, you can include instructions like: "remove blemishes", "remove frame border", "make the hair blonde", etc.

You can upload images in jpeg format. Any image must be less than 20MB in size. Please ensure that your images have enough clarity (we cannot restore a complete blurred image into a sharp image). If for any reason your file cannot be restored, we will let you know during the quote process and you won't have to pay for any images that aren't restorable.

ScanCafe will typically send you a quote in 1-2 business days from the time you upload your images.

We are usually able to complete the restoration of your images within a couple days to a week from the day you approve the quote.

You will be able to download them instantaneously after checkout from your online account. We send you an email notification when the restoration has been completed and is available for your review.

There is no risk. You will get a quote from us and you get to review and accept the quotes prior to making any payment. Our quotes are final and there are no hidden charges. You can review our restoration pricing page to get an overview on pricing. Pricing is based simply on the time spent by the artist and the skill required to restore the image.

We are not offering CDs/DVDs right now. We are offering instantaneous download as soon as you check out.

Once you have downloaded the completed restoration work, we will erase the images from our servers after 10 days.

Yes, we can restore black and white images as well as sepia images.

Absolutely. It is critical that we get as much of the original photograph as possible. You can refer to our restoration gallery for examples of torn photos that have been restored.

If you need help in learning how to select images off of your computer and loading them to ScanCafe, then please click here.

Our artists have been through formal training in color concepts, restoration tools, image enhancement techniques, highlight/clipping management, grain reduction and calibration routines. They are proficient and expert in Adobe Photoshop and Corel Draw. All artists must pass ScanCafe's proprietary restoration skills test prior to working on customer images.

Our restoration team is expert in the use of Adobe Photoshop.

We use Nikon sRGB as our default.

We use a "wet mount" process for the scanning of black and white negatives. We encase each of your negative frames in a special solution between two transparent surfaces, and then scan them using our Nikon 5000 ED scanners, and the resulting scans have extraordinary image detail. However, the nature of this process is not conducive to the scanning of curled negatives. If you are not sure if your negatives are curled, go ahead and send us a snapshot of your negatives to admin@scancafe.com and our customer support team will be able to assist you. For more information on our black and white scanning, visit http://www.scancafe.com/services/black-white-scanning.

Your digital frame is shipped directly from PanDigital, the world’s largest digital frame company. It will arrive separately from the rest of your order, as your order is fulfilled from our imaging center. You are not incurring any additional shipping charges.

Once your order has been scanned and you have completed the review process and decided which scans you want to keep, then you can check out and pay for your order. Once you have checked out, the digital frame will ship approximately one week later from the PanDigital warehouse in California via UPS ground. Transit times to you will vary depending on where you live.

The images you discard will not be loaded onto your digital frame. Only the paid images from the order in which the digital frame was ordered will be included. We cannot include any images from other orders on your frame.

Unfortunately, at this time we can only add the entire order to your frame. However, once you receive your frame, You can also delete the images directly on the frame using the functions of the digital frame. Alternatively, you will also be able to connect your digital frame to your computer using the software that comes with it and delete some of the images yourself.

Our digital frames are a great deal. For the retail price of $79.99, we include free Ground UPS shipping to you, as well as preloading the frame with your images. This is a value of more than $20. Compare this with purchasing one in a store, where you will still have to take time to load the images onto the frame.

Yes, every order still comes with a DVD/CD or hard drive of the high resolution scans. Ordering a digital frame does not change that.

No, currently you can only ship the frame the same address that you specify at the time of final checkout of your order.

The frame is a PanDigital PanImage 8.0" Digital Photo Frame, model PI8004W01. It can play images, video and audio and has 512MB of internal memory, which can hold up to 3200 images, plus a 6-in-1 card reader to add additional capacity. It comes with a stylish black wood frame to fit seamlessly into any décor. For more information about the digital frame, go to the PanDigital site at: http://www.pandigital.net/galleries/74

The organization of the images on the frame will be the same as they are in your on-line gallery when you check out your order.

The frame comes with software which allows you to change the images on it. Once you get the frame, you can use it to add your own digital photos to the frame. The frame also has a memory stick slot that you can use to directly load images if you don’t have a computer.

Currently, our system is set up to preload your order’s images onto the frame. If you want a blank frame, simply wait for your order to be fulfilled, and then reset the frame and delete all the images according to the instructions included with the frame.

The 8” Photo Frame can hold up to 3200 images.

Please try the following: Confirm that the AC Adaptor is fully pressed into the frame and the AC Adaptor is plugged into the wall. Try a different Wall Outlet. Call PanDigital Technical Support at 800-715-5354 for further assistance.

The scanners that we use are the highest end CCD (charged coupled device) technology based scanners. These CCD based scanners will give you very high quality digital images that are ideal for large prints and photo books. Technically, you can print up to a 13x10. Moreover, if the original slide/negative has not deteriorated, even 30x20 prints look great in our opinion. For commercial or stock quality scans we strongly recommend choosing a service that does "drum scanning" (this is a technique where a laser light source is used that is then detected by photo multiplier tubes rather than CCDs) which on average will cost around $25/scan.

No, we scan APS film using the latest high end Noritsu scanners. Noritsu is the industry leader in photographic film processing equipment for minilabs and print studios. Your original films are returned exactly the way they were sent to us.

We scan APS films at a higher dpi of 4000 while the usual is at 3000 dpi. This is because, the quality of the images is enhanced when we use a higher dpi scanning. Scanning at 4000 dpi gives an image quality which is equivalent to that of a 12 mega pixel image.

We scan APS film using the latest high end Noritsu scanners. Noritsu is the industry leader in photographic film processing equipment for minilabs and print studios. Scans are at 4000 dpi for APS rolls

dpi stands for dots per inch; it is a measure of the resolution, accuracy, sharpness and clarity of your scanned picture. Up to a certain point, the higher the dpi resolution, the better the image; but this also takes longer to scan and process. With higher resolution, you can enlarge your image to larger size. With ScanCafe's dpi resolution, you can enlarge a paper photo to twice its original size, and print a negative/slide to 20x30 inches.

Yes. We offer an express scanning service (the “Express Service”) where you will be able to see your scans online for review and digital download no more than eight (8) business days after we receive your photos (the “Express Guarantee”). That’s approximately 30 days faster than our normal turnaround time.

Yes. There is a per image premium for the Express Service and the current pricing can be found at our pricing page located at http://www.scancafe.com/pricing/scanning (the “Express Fee”).

No. The Express Service is currently only available for standard media types, that is: (i) 35mm color negatives, (ii) 35mm slides (paper or plastic) and (iii) paper photos (up to 8” x 10”) (the “Standard Media”).

If your order contains images which are not among the Standard Media type, we will process the Standard Media images and will contact you regarding the processing of the non-Standard Media, provided, however, the Express Guarantee will not apply to the non-Standard Media.

Yes. The Express Service is only available for orders of 400 images or less.

When we receive your order (and before we begin scanning), we will approximate the size of your order. If we determine that your order contains approximately 400 to 600 images, we will contact you regarding the overage and will make every effort to process your entire order within the eight (8) day period. However, the Express Guarantee will not apply to any orders which contain more than 400 images. If, however, we determine that your order contains approximately 600 images or more, your order will not qualify for the Express Service and we will contact you to discuss the handling of your order.

Yes. The Express Fee applies to every image scanned regardless of the size of your order.

No. You must pay for every image scanned.

The “express” portion of the Express Service refers only to having your scans available for online review and digital download eight (8) business days after we receive your order at our facilities in Burlingame. Therefore, you can send us your Express Service order using the standard system generated UPS label that you receive as part of your order.

The “express” portion of the Express Service is completed after your order is available for your online review and digital download. After that, your order will be handled like any other order, which includes returning your original media and CD, DVD or hard drive via UPS Ground.

If your order is not available for your online review and digital download within the eight (8) business days, we will refund you the price that we charged you for the Express Service.