Many photos have borders that were added during the printing process. When batch scanning multiple photos, with photo scanning software, many of us want to preserve the photo image and the border. It's a common practice to write pieces of information in the photo's border to give the context of the photo; such as: the date the photo was taken, who is in the photo, what is happening in the photo, or where the photo was taken. Since the border is an artifact of the printing process and not the photo itself, how can we scan both the photo's image and scan the photo's border together using software designed for photo scanning?
By default, ScanSpeeder (click here to learn how to download) scans the image of the photo; hence, the photo itself. The border, which is sometimes added when a photo is printed, is not actually a part of the image so we created a feature to allow the easy scanning of a photo's border, called, the Auto Expand feature. Therefore, when scanning many photos that have borders in batches, we recommend the use of this feature to capture both the image and the border with its written contents. In addition, many people add a caption to the photo such that the detail in the border is also digitally embedded with the photo. This means the details in the border can be preserved visually with the image itself and embedded digitally.
In the examples below, I show step-by-step how to batch scan several photos with borders of the same size and how to scan many photos in a batch that have borders of a different size.
How to Scan Multiple Photos with Borders in Batches:
These photos were scanned directly from the photo album into ScanSpeeder. Notice that, by default, the image that will be scanned in both photos is highlighted green. Considering that each photo is the same size and has the same border, I will use the Auto Expand feature in Step 1 to make the area that is scanned a bit larger. This will allow the scanning of both photos, capturing both of the photos' images and the photos' borders, with the hand-written comments. Let me show you.
How To Scan Multiple Photos with Borders that are the Same Size - within a batch
Please Note: This method is most useful when you have all the same sized photos and borders within a batch.
1 - Open Auto Detection Settings
- Click the gear icon to open the "Auto Detection Settings".
2 - Use Auto Expand %
- Click the UP arrow in the "Auto Expand %" box to increase the size of the area to be scanned. In this example, I want to scan many photos with borders that are relatively small, so I will click the "up arrow" until it reaches 4%.
3 - Click Detect
The result is a slighter larger green highlighted border around both the image and the border. Notice that the hand-written comments in the bottom of the border are now within the area of scanning for both photos. Repeat steps 1 to 3 until you have the photos highlighted capturing the border just on its outside edge. Once you know the amount to expand by, you can use this for all further scans of photos that are also the same size.
Please note: if your next batch of photos are different sizes, click the "default" button to the right of the Auto Expand arrows to return the auto detection settings to 0 in prep of scanning more photos. Only do this when you are finished scanning photos of this size as you only need to set Auto Expand once and it will keep scanning at this size until you change it back to default.
4 - Scan like Usual
- Now I scan like I always do with ScanSpeeder by clicking the "Extract Photos" button in the software's "Step 2 - Extract Photos & Preview Area". Notice in the screen shot below, I simultaneously scanned both photos capturing both the image and the border with its hand-written comments. I also typed in the details into the "Captions Field" such it will be digitally embedded with the photo. I can continue scanning photos of this size without having to change any settings because the Auto Expand feature will retain as its set until I return it to default.
What if you want to scan photos with borders that are DIFFERENT sizes and/or have DIFFERENT borders? Here we go!
How to Scan Multiple Photos with Borders that are Different in size - within a batch
Notice in the screen show below where I used photo scanning software, ScanSpeeder, to batch scan several photos all-at-once. The photos are different sizes and have different sized borders. ScanSpeeder detected all the images but I want to scan both the image and the border.
1 - Select Photos
- Considering that I have two photos of the same size on the left of my scanned photo album page, I will hold the Ctrl key on my keyboard and then use my mouse to click on the two photos that are the same size. This changes the green highlight around the photos to blue.
2 - Expand Area to be Scanned
- Click the + button to expand the area to be scanned on the selected photos. Continue clicking the + button until the blue highlighted boxes are just slightly outside the perimeter of the selected photos as shown in the screen shot below.
3 - Select More Photos
- To expand the photos on the right, I will select them individually and click the + button until the blue highlighted border is on the edge of the photo's perimeter. Notice in the screen shot below, the perimeter of each photo's border is highlighted indicating that the area to be scanned is both the image and the border. I am now ready to scan all four photos, and let ScanSpeeder automatically split each photo into a separate file (both .jpg and .tiff simultaneously) for saving.
4 - Extract Photos
The final step is to simply click "Extract Photos" to batch scan, automatically split, and separate each photo into its own individual file; both .jpg and .tff simultaneously.
Our final result - We batch scanned multiple photos of different image sizes and different borders capturing all the printed and hand-written details. Each photo was split and separated into its own file ready to be saved in both .jpg and/or .tiff format simultaneously. I can continue batch scanning my photos using both the Auto Expand feature for batches of photos with borders of the same size and the + button for batches of photos with different sizes.