I am scanning hundreds of family slides (35mm) on an HP ScanJet 4C scanner ($1000 in 1997) which I am going to archive on CD. What is the best image format and resolution to archive these slides?

-- Mark West (west7@aol.com), June 02, 1999

Answers

I would recommend either PNG or TIF, as they are both completely lossless. ALso, if it is an option for you, considering that these slides are probably pricelesss family shots, you might want to consider a dedicated slide/film (transparency) scanner. These things do a MUCH better job of scanning slides than ANY flatbed. They are, relatively, expensive. A good one will probably cost you around $1000 or so.

-- Alan Stater (stater@worldnet.att.net), June 03, 1999.

Hi, Agree with suggestion about TIFF, though if you're using Photoshop you might want to save in PSD format which preserves some PS features that TIFF cannot handle. (Like layers etc) Regards, Howard

-- Howard (hposner1@swarthmore.edu), June 08, 1999.

Why not bitmaps? I was under the impression that there was no compression (and therefore no loss) with this format.

-- Brent (blf9751@usl.edu), June 09, 1999.