The best apps to convert old photos and negatives to digital

Forget scrolling through your phone’s endless photo gallery to find something. Here’s a pro trick to locating any photo you want in 30 seconds or less.

If your photos aren’t backed up, this is your friendly reminder to do so now. It would break your heart if you lost all those memories. Just tap or click on the foolproof steps to make the job that much easier.

When it comes to those old photos lying around, you don’t need to pay for an expensive scanning service or buy a scanner. You can use an app to get the job done. Here are three great options.

PhotoScan from Google Photos

Google’s PhotoScan is a free app for iOS and Android that scans your photos multiple times, then stitches all the images together to remove glare and improve the quality of the final image. The app works on matte prints, glossy prints, and photos in or out of albums.

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Here’s how it works: take a photo, then take four additional photos according to the app’s instructions. PhotoScan uses an algorithm to detect and crop the photo, automatically detect the edge, correct rotation, and correct perspective to display a front view.

  • Open the photo scan app and hold your phone over a photo.
  • tap on the capture button to take photos, which will be saved on your device.
  • Move your phone to place the circle on each of the four points.
  • Once the photo is processed, touch the button photo thumbnail.
  • Select a photo to rotate, adjust corners or delete.

You can then use Google Photos to store and organize your scans. From there, you can edit your images and share them with others.

Tap or click here to download for iPhone.

Tap or click here to download for Android.

Microsoft Lens

Microsoft Lens (formerly Office Lens) is a free business-oriented scanning app that works with documents, whiteboards, business cards, receipts, menus, signs, handwritten notes, or anything else containing text that you want to import into your telephone. It’s certainly better than typing everything by hand.

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The app also works with photos, automatically correcting things like shadows and awkward angles.

Microsoft Lens makes it easy to digitize photos in just a few steps:

  • Open Microsoft Lens and swipe left or right near the bottom of the screen and select Photo.
  • Point your camera at the photo you want to capture, making sure it’s in the frame. you can turn on the flash in Y off before tapping the camera button to take the photo.
  • now you can Add a new image to your scan, apply a filter to the image, crop, rotate or delete the image. You can also annotate it or add text.
  • Play Done when you’re done.

You can save images to your phone gallery.

Tap or click here to download for iPhone.

Tap or click here to download for Android.

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A Solid Choice for Negatives: Photomyne’s FilmBox

FilmBox is a scanner app for iOS and Android that digitizes your camera’s film negatives using just your smartphone.

You can view, capture, and save film negatives, making it easy to find, organize, and share. FilmBox inverts negative colors in the image into positive ones, then enhances the overall appearance.

Note: The first few scans are free, but you’ll need to pay a subscription if you want to capture more. A two-year plan costs $39.99 and provides unlimited access to the app and its features.

All you need is a light source and your smartphone to get started:

  • Place your negatives in a dimly lit or dark room. Open the FilmBox app.
  • The only light source should be a backlight, which you can get by opening a white screen on a tablet or computer. You can also use the photomyne.com/backlight link provided in the app. Set your backlight device to the highest brightness setting.
  • Hold your film strip vertically up to the light and hold it steady. Make sure the perforated edges are included on the scanning screen.
  • Hold your negatives about two inches from the light source and tap the app button. capture button.
  • Your image will be saved as a digital photo in the app.

Tap or click here to download for iPhone.

Tap or click here to download for Android.

Keep your tech savvy on the go

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Do you use navigation apps when driving? Seat belt. You may have to deal with ads cluttering your screen. In addition, Ford wants to make night driving easier with its smart headlights. Also, is someone watching you with a hidden tracker? These are the signs you should be aware of.

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