Why Scanning Your Photos at 300 DPI Isn't Enough — and What 600 DPI Really Means for Restoration

If you've ever looked into having old photographs digitised, you've probably seen companies advertising 300 DPI scanning. For many everyday scanning services, 300 DPI has become the industry standard. However, if your goal is to restore treasured family photographs, repair damage, create films from your images, or preserve them for future generations, it's often only the starting point.

At Cherish Me, we scan photographs at 600 DPI as standard (and even higher for particularly small photographs) because this resolution captures significantly more detail for restoration while creating a true archival-quality digital master.

Many commercial scanning services choose 300 DPI because it offers an efficient balance between quality, speed and cost.

A 300 DPI scan is quicker to produce, creates much smaller files, reduces storage requirements, and is faster to upload, download and process. For customers who simply want a digital copy to view on a computer or phone, or to print at roughly the original size, that approach often meets their immediate needs.

Our philosophy is different.

Most family photographs are only scanned once. They are often irreplaceable, and every scan is an opportunity to preserve as much of the original image as possible while that opportunity still exists.

Rather than optimising our workflow for production speed, we've chosen to optimise it for preservation.

A 600 DPI archival scan contains around four times as many pixels as a 300 DPI scan, providing substantially more image information for restoration today while preserving as much detail as possible for the future.

What does DPI actually mean?

DPI stands for dots per inch (or more accurately, pixels per inch when scanning photographs). It describes how much detail is captured from the original print.

Imagine looking at a photograph through a window.

A lower-resolution scan is like looking through a smaller window. You can clearly see the overall picture, but much of the fine detail has already been lost.

A higher-resolution scan opens that window much wider, revealing tiny textures, individual strands of hair, facial features, clothing detail and subtle tonal changes that may not be captured at lower resolutions.

More detail today. More possibilities tomorrow.

Technology never stands still.

Twenty years ago, most family photographs were viewed as small printed snapshots. Today they're displayed on large 4K televisions, shared with relatives around the world, incorporated into cinematic tribute films, enlarged for wall art, and restored using increasingly sophisticated AI software.

None of us knows what technology will be capable of in another twenty years.

By preserving as much detail as possible today, you're creating a digital master that is ready not only for today's technology, but for whatever comes next.

That additional image data provides a stronger foundation for:

• repairing scratches, tears and creases

• removing dust and marks

• restoring faded colours

• enlarging photographs without sacrificing quality

• creating high-quality slideshows and tribute films

• displaying images on today's large, high-resolution televisions

• benefiting from future advances in restoration technology

If detail isn't captured during scanning, it can't be recovered later. Other than faking it, no software, however sophisticated, can recreate information that was never recorded in the first place.

Restoration isn't just AI

Modern AI tools are impressive, but they aren't magic. Used without care, they can easily produce photographs that look synthetic, over-sharpened, or unlike the original.

At Cherish Me, restoration combines modern AI-assisted tools with careful manual editing in Photoshop. Just as importantly, it requires restraint. The aim isn't to remove every tiny mark or create an artificially perfect image, but to preserve the character of the original photograph while improving the things that matter most.

Depending on the condition of the photograph and the level of service chosen, this may include careful colour balancing, contrast and exposure adjustments, improving sharpness, reducing distracting scratches or marks, repairing small areas of damage, and enhancing important facial features where appropriate.

Every restored photograph is assessed individually rather than batch processed. Some images require only subtle correction, while others benefit from more detailed manual work. The goal is always the same: to produce a natural-looking result that respects the original photograph rather than overwhelming it with heavy-handed processing.

This approach becomes particularly important when photographs are enlarged for display on today's high-resolution televisions or incorporated into family timeline films and tribute productions, where small imperfections can become much more noticeable than they were in the original print.

The goal isn't to make an old photograph look brand new.

It's to create the most faithful and enjoyable version of the memory it contains.

Storage is inexpensive.

Time isn't.

Photographs continue to fade, deteriorate and become more fragile as the years pass. The opportunity to capture every possible detail exists only while the original photograph is still in front of us.

That's why we believe it's worth creating the highest-quality archival master possible from the outset.

A 600 DPI archival scan isn't simply about producing a better digital copy today. It's about preserving your family's history with as much fidelity as possible, giving future generations and future technologies the very best foundation to work from.

Next in this series: Why restoration isn't just one click — what actually happens when we restore an old family photograph.