Yes, there is something magical in old photographs that evokes memories and brings a smile to your face. But in order for photos to preserve their magic, it is necessary to store them properly and take little care of them. And who else has time for that? That is why one of the safest ways to save your precious moments from forgetting is to digitize old photos. So, if you happen to end up taking real photos in some damp basement and get damaged, your memories will still be there.
The next question is how to do it? You have two solutions: one is to take all the photos to a professional to do it for you, and the other is to do it yourself. If you decide on the second, cheaper option, we have great news for you – now you can digitize your old photos with the help of your smartphone. The process is very simple and all you need to do this job successfully is a good application that digitizes old photos.
To help you, we decided to present you with the best applications today that will help you quickly, easily, and simply digitize your old photos and save your memories. Here are the applications in question:
- Cam Scanner ( Android, iOS ) – Cam Scanner is the number one app when you want to digitize old photos. In addition to being able to accurately scan a photo, the application also offers various types of processing of the photos themselves, as well as the option of saving files within the cloud space… What is most interesting here is the photo processing itself, which includes cropping, adjusting the lighting, and mid-tones. For example, the Gray Mode option is great if you want to reduce the reflection on a photo, and you can always use Smart Enhance to automatically improve the image quality. You can sync Cam Scanner with multiple different platforms and use it on all your devices. If you want, you can scan some documents or letters through this application. Note that all the documents and photos you scan will be saved as PDFs. The application does not offer the ability to save the scanned document as JPEG. Cam Scanner is free for Android and iOS users, but there is a Premium version, which pays $ 4.99 per month and offers more storage space and additional options in document processing.
- Google PhotoScan ( Android, iOS ) – Have you doubted that Google will make one of the better apps to help you digitize old photos? Of course, the giant from California got his fingers in here too and made a great tool that you can use completely free of charge. Google Photo Scan works quite easily and allows you to easily take a photo of an old photo. What follows is the reason why you need this application – these are the options for image processing and improving its quality. In addition to the ability to adjust colors and remove glare from photos, there are options to recognize the edges of the photo and improve perspective. What makes Google PhotoScan so tempting is the fact that the app takes several photos in a row and chooses the best one for you, which gains in quality. As expected, the app has been synced to Google Photos.
- Photomyne ( Android, iOS ) – You probably haven’t heard of this app yet because Photomyne still only has a beta version for Android users, while for iOS users it’s free when purchased as part of another app. Although relatively unknown, it is a great choice if you want to digitize old photos. The main advantage of the Photomyne app is that you can scan multiple photos at once. There is of course an option to do it with each photo individually, but why not take advantage of such a handy option, especially if you are short on time. Of course, there is also an option that allows you to process all the photos later and beautify them with some of the offered filters. Another handy option you have is to write a little story about each photo and thus completely personalize your albums.
- Pic Scanner ( iOS ) – Pic Scanner is an application through which you can digitize old photos, but only if you have an iPhone and/or iPad. This application can scan up to three photos at the same time without losing the resolution of any of them. The photo processing options that Pic Scanner has are very impressive – photo rotation, brightness and contrast adjustment, an offer of several quality filters, image sharpening, and several others. Photos stored and processed this way look really impressive. You can find this app in the App Store for $ 2.99 and trust us, it’s worth every penny.
- Shoebox ( Android, iOS ) – Shoebox is a symbolic name for this free application because we often keep our old photos in shoe boxes. This app acts as your personal assistant when you digitize old photos and gives you the ability to enter some additional information about the photo itself and thus tag the file. This way you can indicate where that photo was taken, when, and who is in the picture. Shoebox has no filters and does not offer a change of contrast and color, but it is very easy to find the edges of photos, correct perspective, and easily recognize the faces in the photo itself, which makes it very easy to tag people in the picture. Ancestry, the company behind this app, offers you the option to save photos for free within ancestry.com and create your family tree there. Another option you have is to save the photos in the gallery, on your phone.
Whether you want to give someone a digital photo album with old memories, save your photos from decay, or just play around with one of the listed apps you now know how to do it. When you decide to digitize old photos, we will be there to advise you and recommend the best tools for this job.