Hi Katie,
Cazza's scanning tutorial (in the link posted by Patbot) was published in 2013 and is still targeted towards Rootschat members. Rootschat (still, I think) has a 500KB size limit on uploaded photos. The tutorial falls into 2 parts:
- scanning
- reducing file size (save as ...) to under 500KB
The scanning part is in general good, though both scanners, resizing-programs and scanner-control programs have changed a bit since 2013! The part on different file formats (jpg, TIFF, etc.) is very useful. If possible, try to scan to a 'lossless' file format like TIFF to get the best results.
The resizing part probably doesn't apply to MyHeritage. I can't find any 'size limit' on uploaded photos at MyHeritage or even recommendations. Video's can be uploaded up to 50 MB so I doubt whether there's any size limit on photos.
I've never used the various enhancement tools at MyHeritage but there's a general comment at the page on using the photo enhancer via the mobile app:
"When scanning your photos, do so in the highest resolution possible to maximize quality and achieve the best possible results". On the other hand, MyHeritage says that the photo enhancer automatically increases the resolution of uploaded photos.
I would think that scanning at 600 dpi would be more than enough. My guess is that you need to experiment a bit by scanning at 600 dpi and 300 dpi and comparing the results (by downloading the processed photos).
As a last point, the resolution of your scanned photos depends on their physical size and the intended use of your photos: purely digital or sharing with others who may want to print them.
For purely digital use, most screens are currently HD (1920×1080 pixels). Some screens are - increasingly - 4K (3840×2160 pixels). So even to display your photos 'full screen', any scanned & cropped photos don't need to have any more pixels than these.
The size of prints also depends on the number of pixels. A scanned photo of roughly 3500x2500 pixels can be printed at up to A4 size.
Hope this helps,
Mike
