Scan 12x12 Albums

Scan 12x12 albums to save as pdfs, jpegs or to print.

You have multiple 12x12 scrapbook albums that you put your heart and soul, creativity and money into.  Now, years later, they are still cherished albums, but there is only one copy.  Perhaps you have more than one child and you would like each of them to have a copy.   You can share your love and hard work and, if necessary, reduce the amount of space they take up by scanning them and saving the digitized copy.

You have recorded the family stories, now prepare those albums to share.  

Several 12x12 photo albums in my collection that I created for my family: First years for each child, family albums, an album for each parent...Each one of a kind...but what if I want to copy them to share with more than one person??

How do you Scan 12x12 Albums? 

Recently, I tried to scan my mother's 12x12 scrapbook album to create copies for my children.  My Epson V550 is good quality but the maximum readable area is  8.5" x 11.7", which still shaves a bit off the full page.  By scanning in 2 parts, Adobe Photoshop Elements was able to merge the 2 halves as a panorama.  It did the job, but so much hassle.  And the files were too big, even after compressing, to merge into one pdf document!  

A professional quality scanner does the job.  The entire area of the 12x12 album page is captured and the files can be combined into one .pdf document. Then the document can be shared as a pdf or converted into a flipbook.  The flipbook also can be shared with a link or embedded on a website.

 Click on the image below to see the album converted and hosted by FlipHTML5..

When it opens, click on the three dots on the bottom right side to choose something that looks a bit like [ ] to open in full screen mode.

Click on the image below to see how a flipbook looks and functions at Issuu:

Here is an image of a 2-page spread after scanning. The scan was done at 300dpi. It is displayed here at only 72dpi

Scan 12x12 Album pages:  The Process

The albums that I used have page protectors on each sheet and the pages can be removed from the binding.

1. Remove the page protectors
2. Remove the pages from the binding, carefully maintaining their order
3. Scan the 12x12 pages to pdf or jpg
4. Each scan must be checked for quality, sometimes straightened, or rescanned
5. Do you want the scans named to keep them in order? ie: KPA_p1 = Keith's Photo Album, page 1
6. Return pages to binding
7. Put page protectors on pages
8. Do you want both pdf and jpg? Pdf files can be converted to jpg*

*pdf scans are higher quality than jpg scans, so it's a good idea to start scanning with pdf.  They can also be combined into one pdf document.  Jpg on the other hand, can be more easily used to make a slide show or similar product.  They can even be used to print if that's your preference.

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