This is by far our most requested question. Its kinda complex and has some exceptions so bear with us...

Here at The Darkroom we do many kinds of scans --Standard and Enhanced are the most common. If you have film that requires the sprocket holes to be scanned or have panoramic images please see those faq's.

Our standard scan is a 1024x1536 pixel scan. This equals 4.5 MB when opened in an image editing program like PhotoShop. These scans come as jpegs so they will look small in the file browser, but will "puff" up when opened. Depending on your subject matter some images will compress more than others. This scan is great for prints up to 5x7, emailing, Facebook etc. We have produced tens of millions of these scans in the past several years.

Example of a "Standard" Scan Standard Scan

Our enhanced scan is a 2048x3072 pixel scan. This equals 18.1 MB when opened in an image editing program like PhotoShop. These scans come as jpegs so they will look small in the file browser, but will "puff" up when opened. Depending on your subject matter some images will compress more than others. This scan is perfect for prints up to 12x18. It's just 5 bucks extra for these scans.

Example of an "Enhanced" Scan Enhanced Scan

A couple of disclaimers.......If you have a square format the scans will default to the short dimension. So, the standard scan is 1024x1024 and the enhanced is 2048x2048. What we are trying to say is that if you do not have a 2x3 aspect ratio original your scan size will vary.

Our standard scan and enhanced scan are 72 dpi. Sounds low-it's not-here's why. It's the pixel dimensions that count, not dpi. If you get your scans and are still concerned, convert them to 300dpi in PhotoShop. Make sure you uncheck the "Resample Image" checkbox. You'll see the image stays the same.