Okay, so you want to get your pictures into the computer—you can email them to people, enter contests (like ours), and do all kinds of fun stuff. What's the best way to do it without breaking the bank?
As with most endeavors, you can do it yourself, or pay someone else to do it for you. Either way, it doesn't have to be expensive. Flatbed scanners (for the DIY types) can be had for less than $100, and are fairly easy to use.
Kodak's PictureCD and PhotoCD technologies are also inexpensive ways of getting your pictures digitized, and the quality of the scans is much higher than you can get from an inexpensive flatbed scanner. PhotoCD has been around longer and offers more options (size and color adjustments), but cost more (from 40 to 60 cents each). PictureCDs can be ordered at the time of processing, but you have to send off your negatives or slides to have PhotoCDs made.
Once you have your pictures in the computer, use your image editing software to optimize your pictures for viewing on screen. The resolution (dots, or pixels per inch) should be 72dpi. Keep in mind how big your monitor is (and that of your viewers)—an 800x600-pixel image is plenty big.
Save your picture as a jpeg file (set the quality level fairly high), so it can be viewed with a browser, or in any image editing program. Jpeg files are small, and are easily emailed.
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Updated: Feb 24th, 2006 - 14:18:11
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