Guide 1 of 3 · Digitize
Scan Your Shoebox
Digitize old prints, slides and albums at home, without wasting weeks or harming anything.
$14
- 29 pages, PDF, US letter, selectable text
- 6 printable worksheets at the back
- Every fact numbered to a source list (16 sources, checked October 16, 2026)
Want all three? The bundle is $22 instead of $40.
The problem it solves
You have boxes of prints, maybe some slides, maybe a few albums, and a vague plan to “get to them someday.” This guide turns that plan into a sequence of small, finishable jobs.
What this guide gives you
- A triage method, so you know what to scan first, what can wait, and what to leave alone.
- A decision chart for phone app vs. flatbed scanner vs. scanning service.
- A settings cheat sheet built from published library and archive guidance.
- Handling rules for the day you actually have the photos in your hands.
- A batch workflow and scan log that keeps ten thousand files from turning into a mess.
Look inside
These are pages from the finished PDF.
What’s inside
29 pages
Start here: welcome, how to use the guide, and a one-page summary of the whole method.
- Before you scan anything
- Triage: what to scan first, and what to skip
- Phone, flatbed or service?
- Settings that make sense
- Handling while you scan
- The batch workflow
- Slides and negatives: the basics
- Quality check
- When a scan looks wrong
- When to stop and call a professional
- You scanned it. Now what?
- A worked example: one box, start to finish
The whole method on one page
- Inventory Count and label boxes. Decide what comes first.
- Choose Phone, flatbed or service, item by item.
- Set up Clean flat space, settings noted, naming ready.
- Scan in batches Handle gently. Log every batch.
- Check and copy Spot-check, then back up the same day.
6 printable worksheets
- Box inventory
- Scan settings cheat sheet
- Scan log
- Scanning-service comparison
- Scan-day checklist
- Session planner
What it deliberately does not cover
It does not explain how to clean, repair, flatten or restore photos, deal with mold, or handle fragile or very old film. It does not cover copyright or other legal questions. Where those come up, the guide tells you to stop and gives you a professional route.
Where the facts come from
Statements of fact in the guides come from public guidance by the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the National Park Service, CISA (the US cybersecurity agency) and the Image Permanence Institute, plus the help pages of tools named as examples. Each carries a small number that points to a Sources list at the back of the guide, with the date we checked it (October 16, 2026). Our own suggestions are not numbered, so you can tell the difference. We are not affiliated with or endorsed by any of those organizations.
Scan Your Shoebox: $14
PDF, 29 pages. If it is not right for you, email us within 30 days for a full refund (Refund Policy).
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