Apps For Scanning Photos, Who Has A Good One?

Discussion in 'Photos & Video' started by Yvonne Smith, Mar 9, 2017.

  1. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    I have a lot of old photographs that I want to scan, and I do not want to spend forever with the big printer/scanner to do this. I do not need that perfect of quality, I just want good copies of the photos.
    I have been looking at the scanning apps that will work with my iPad and iPhone, and from reading the information online, they all sound like they will work just fine.
    I am still trying to decide which one to get for the iphone; and I thought I would ask and see if anyone else has an app that they recommend for scanning in the old photos ?
     
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  2. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Just an update here.
    I read the information about some of the scanner apps that seem to be the most advertised, like Photomyne, and another one I can't remember right now.
    First you have to buy the app, or you are limited in how many scans you can have of you just get the free version. Some of them also wanted you to pay for an annual subscription after you buy the app if you want to take advantage of all of the features.
    I finally ended up getting a free one called "Heirloom", and it does everything I need it to do, and I can scan to my heart's content. No cost, no subscription necessary.
    It just does the basic things; but that is really all I wanted to have anyway, and you can use the app's storage in the cloud if you want. I didn't need to do that, and there are some other editing tools that come with it; but I am using the editing apps that I already have to do all the necessary editing with.
    All in all, I am pleased with this app, and recommend it for anyone who wants to scan photos into their tablet or computer.
    I put it on both the iphone and the ipad, and that way I can do the scanning with the phone, but use my ipad to edit the pictures.
     
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  3. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    I just saw this @Yvonne Smith ...I want to scan photos also. I'll take a look at the one you suggest. I'm going to my daughter's soon and she has all my photos so it's perfect timing. Thanks.

    I think there are some pics of me from my first Holy Communion, have a vague memory of one or two...even pics from when I was in Argentina as a baby....it would be nice to have them on my iPad.

    They're all in an original album that's about 60 years old and you can't even touch the black pages they're on because they crumble.

    Hope I don't cry though because my beautiful mom is in a lot of them with me when I was little. :(
     
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    Last edited: Apr 2, 2017
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  4. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    I think this would be perfect for you, @Chrissy Cross , and you should be able to scan the photos even in the album. If you check out some of the other scanning apps, you might find one that you like even better; but this one worked just fine for me. Once you scan the photo, it goes right into your iPad photo stream and is easy to crop and edit. I use the Aviary app to edit my photos; but I think that there are some editing capabilities right in the Heirloom app.
    Then I have a Flickr app, and all of the photos automatically upload into Flickr. I like Flickr because I can make albums, put the pictures into what ever albums I want them in, and also write titles and information about the pictures. My kids have a Flickr app, too; so we can all see what is shared from each other's apps.
    You can set the privacy on each album, so if you want something private where only you can see it, you can do that, or you can share with friends/family, or you can make it public so that anyone can see it that it on Flickr.
    My mom had old photos in those albums with black paper, and some of hers were back in the 1930's; but most of them were just loose pictures, some labeled and some of them were not labeled. As I upload the picture, I am writing what I know so that my kids and grandkids wouldn't have to look and wonder what the pictures are, or where they were taken.
    I think that I cried with some of the old pictures, too; but it was overall, a wonderful experience. I still have more to scan in and label; so it will be a project for a while yet; but I did already look through all of the pictures as I went through them the first time and scanned the most important ones I found.

    To check out the Heirloom app, go to www.heirloom.net .
     
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  5. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    I may have had Flickr a long time ago but not sure now. For sharing photos I use GroupMe with my son. I'll also look at the aviary app, always looking for good editing apps.

    Thanks for the info.
     
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  6. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Here is the link for the Aviary app. You can do basic edits with this, plus enhance color and even add different effects. There are a lot of add-on effects that you can use with this app, and most (if not all) are free. It is easy to use, and I really like it.

    Photo Editor by Aviary by Aviary
    https://appsto.re/us/W-cCF.i
     
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  7. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    Is it better or different than photolab? Ive been using that, even paid $4.99 for the upgrade.
     
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  8. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Yes, it is different than Photolab. Photolab is basically a way to add frames and such to your photo and makes it look pretty as well as resizing it to a size that can easily be uploaded to the forum. This is mainly what i use Photolab for, although I do like some of the frames and background effects.
    Aviary is more for cropping off unwanted edges and making the picture look better by brightening it, or enhancing the colors.
    When I was scanning in the old photos using the heirloom app, you take a picture of the photo with your phone and then it processes it with the app; but sometimes, it did not get the edges exactly right, and then I had to crop off the parts that were not part of the picture. I think that one of the more expensive photo-scanning apps might do better at recognizing the edges of the photo; but I am not sure about that since Heirloom is the only one I have actually used.
     
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  9. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    I just want something basic and easy to use, heirloom sounds good to me. I'd also rather try something that someone with an iPad has already used and likes. Thanks.
     
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