We collect. We scan. We return. There is a bit more to it than that — but you can leave the details to us. Whether you’re sending a single shoebox or a lifetime of albums, the process is simple, secure, and handled with care every step of the way.
Loose photos (or “prints”) are the most common items we digitise — from decades of family snapshots kept in old developer envelopes to shoeboxes full of mixed-year memories. If it’s an individual photograph up to A4 in size and not mounted or framed, we can scan it.Our high-speed professional scanners gently handle large volumes, producing crisp digital files you can easily share, store and enjoy.
A loose photo is:
If your photos tick those boxes, they go through our fastest and most economical scanning route.
Some prints need a little extra care — for example:
We can absolutely scan these too — they just need a different workflow, and pricing is slightly different. You don’t need to remove anything yourself; just keep these together in clearly marked bundles.
Loose prints are scanned on our custom-built, high-speed equipment. This allows us to:
To protect both your originals and our scanners, loose photos must be free from adhesive, sticky residue, or glue. If some of your photos have this, simply place them in a separate bundle and we’ll handle them manually.
Very little:
As a guide, a well-packed shoebox holds around 1,000 loose photos.
If you’d like us to capture the writing or notes on the reverse:
The scanners cannot switch modes selectively within the same bundle.
Loose photos are our most economical format to digitise. Prices start at:
All unit pricing and volume discounts are listed on our Prices page.
When you place an order, you pay the minimum order value upfront. Once your photos arrive and we’ve scanned them, we bill only for the number of images we’ve actually digitised.
You can book online in minutes. If you have a mix of media types or aren’t sure how to bundle things, just drop everything into clearly separated groups — we’ll take care of the rest.
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Loose photos, or prints, are the kind of photographic media we handle most often. For the purposes of your order we define them as any individual print photographs up to A4 in size. Most importantly they are not mounted on, or in, any other container or backing material such as cardboard or a frame or wallet holder. Loose photos in reasonably sized batches are fine, the most common being the original developer pouches from when they were collected upon printing. Or they could be batched together in envelopes as per your own organisation. They don't need to be sorted into any size, shape or colour order, but can be if you wish. You should be able to pick up each batch of loose photos and shuffle through them easily. i.e. not clustered with other types such as slides or negatives. See later for information about this in the form of micro-batching.
Photos/ prints that require additional handling in order to access them ready for processing. The most common examples include photos in frames, photos in wallets or pouches and photos in flip-style albums which slide into the pouch back to back in pairs. We can still process all these types of photos but there is a slightly different process, hence slightly different billing.
Most loose photos we receive come in relatively large volumes. To process them efficiently we use custom-built scanners operating at high speed. This means it is essential they are not sticky or have any residual glue on the back from being previously mounted or stuck into albums. And to ensure our scanners – and your photo – doesn't risk getting damaged, they should be free of tape, Blu Tack and photo corners. Please do not worry of you have any photos fitting this description. We can still handle them but please keep them in separate, clearly marked batches.
Unless your order is relatively small – or you want to – we don't need you to count your photos; our scanners do this as they work their magic. But as a guide, a well-packed shoebox will hold close to 1000 loose photos, depending on any additional pouches and batch envelopes. Our scanners are capable of scanning the front and back of a photograph so if you require this for photos with annotations or writing on the back, please be sure to let us know. The scanners cannot do this selectively so we require you to either provide a double-sided batch or to process your entire order with a front and back scan. Sometimes, customers like to count their loose photos so they know which service to order. Very occasionally, we receive loose photos which have been numbered on the reverse side, sequentially starting at 1. If you haven't already done this PLEASE DON'T. The ink from the back of the photo will likely come off and mark the front of the next one which will be visible in the scans but also risks marking the surface permanently.
Loose photos are our most economical media format with unit prices ranging from £1.20 per scan for small batches, to 20p for larger volumes. All our unit pricing can be found on our Prices page.