Economy Print Scanning Service
Why Does It Cost Less?
Originally designed to scan paper office documents, Kodak has released the 1220
scanner series as a new way to scan printed photos. These scanners can process a large
number of photos very quickly. Using document scanners isn’t a new idea, and you
can find a number of services offering to run your photos through a document scanner
to inexpensively capture your images. Using a document or sheet fed scanner to scan
photos has two major benefits. It's a lot faster and it's less labor intensive than other
scanning processes.
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We have long resisted using document scanners to scan our customer’s photos because
the quality is substantially inferior to our various traditional archival techniques
of scanning print photos. However, consumers are asking for a more cost effective
way to digitize their mountains of photos and the Kodak 1220 scanners can achieve
that feat, but not without some compromises in quality that we believe you should
be made aware of.
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DigMyPics is offering this service for customers who want a more cost effective
scanning solution and archival quality isn’t as important. If you are looking for
a quick, inexpensive way to get your photos on to a digital picture frame, for example,
this service may be for you.
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Important Differences Between Economy & Archival Print Scanning
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Economy Scanning
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Archival Scanning
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Best For
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Situations where archival quality is not necessary and costs need to be kept low.
Ideal for Digital Picture Frames.
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Those who are looking for the flexibilty of archival quality images. They can be
used for making reprints, photo gifts, or simply preserving your legacy with quality
digital images.
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Pricing
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19¢ per scan @ 300dpi
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39¢ per scan @ 300dpi
49¢ per scan @ 600dpi
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Print Sizes
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Can accomodate 3x4 up to 8x10
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Up to 8x10 are considered Standard*
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Print Condition
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Photos must be in excellent condition (No curled, sticky, torn, odd shaped, or fragile
prints)
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Photos in most any condition can be scanned (Curled, sticky, torn, odd shaped, or
fragile prints may be considered Non-Standard*)
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Print Thickness
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Photos must be no thicker than a Polaroid (No Mounted or Matted prints)
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Photos in most any condition can be scanned (Mounted or Matted Prints are considered
Non-Standard*)
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Color Correction
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Automated on the scanner
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Image-by-Image in Adobe Photoshop
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Cropping
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Automated
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Image-by-Image in Adobe Photoshop
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Rotating
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Yes, DigMyPics technicians will manually rotate each image
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Yes, DigMyPics technicians will manually rotate each image
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Prints In Albums
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No, loose prints only
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Yes, but there is a small fee for
removing prints from albums
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Image Quality
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Automated process: Lines, streaking, and discoloration may occur (See "Potential
Scan Quality Issues" below)
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Since this is a manual process, our technicians will rescan any images that have
issues due to scanner malfunction, and color correct images with color casts due
to fading.
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PLEASE NOTE: Economy Print Scanning is a high volume, automated
scanning process. We cannot guarantee image quality or individual evaluation of
your images based on this process. We have openly provided you, the consumer, the
pros and cons of using an automated, sheet fed scanner for photo scanning at a lower
price point compared to a manual, individually evaluated process at a slightly higher
per image cost.
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*Please visit our Print Scanning FAQ for Non-Standard
Print Pricing
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About Document Scanners
Consumers need to understand that the Kodak s1220 scanner, like any document scanner,
suffers with some serious quality issues so we aren’t considering the scans originating
from these devices as archival quality. This page gives some examples of the differences
between a scan from the 1220 and our traditional archival quality scans. Note: These
problems aren’t just problems with the Kodak i1220 and s1220; they’re inherent in
the design of all sheet fed type scanners. Kodak uses some software techniques to
try and compensate for some of the problems but there's only so much software alone
can do.
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How The Kodak i1220 Scanner Works
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Prints are fed through at the top of the scanner.
(Top View)
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It then pulls photos through rollers then over plastic and the glass covering the
sensor. (Inside View)
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It stacks the photos at the bottom when done. It's pretty fast! (Front View)
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Potential Scan Quality Issues
Because prints are dusty and the paper they are printed on sheds there's an issue
with the dust becoming stuck to the piece of glass covering the sensor. When dust
lodges itself on the glass it blocks light from striking the sensor on that pixel.
Because the print moves over the sensor the dust's effects are felt all the way
across the picture in the directrion of travel resulting in thin red, green or blue
lines spanning the entire length of the scan and every scan that follows. Cleaning
the glass between batches helps, but it's impossible to eliminate the problem. You
can see the lines when you zoom in on the image. If you are using your photos for
viewing on a TV or Digital Picture frame, you most likely will never notice the
lines.
There is also an issue with the scanner occasionally leaving "streaks"
(wide colored bands) on the scan. These are most obvious in light areas, like in
sky or snow as well as in dark areas and shadows. You would probably not notice
the streaks on a TV or computer monitor (until you zoomed in).
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Samples of Scan Quality Issues That May Occur
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The green line in the scan is not in the original print.
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Streaking in the scan not is in the original print.
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Green Line in the scan is not in the original print
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Streaked lines in the scan are not in the original print.
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These scanners typically capture less detail than we can acheive with our tradational
print scanning techniques. This results in having less "information" to
work with while making edits and color corrections. It also affects the crispness
of the image, resulting in artifacts in the scanned images. Again, these potentially
quality problems are only an issue when making reprints, doing restorations, editing,
or if you're looking for archival quality.
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Questions About Enconomy Print Scanning?
Visit our Print Scanning FAQs for more information...
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