How to Scan a Photo and Upload it to the Internet

By Paul Bright

Updated September 22, 2017

Items you will need

  • Scanner

  • USB cord

  • Computer

  • Scanning software

With the quality of digital cameras getting better by the minute, the ability to send a great photo across the Internet becomes more and more useful. Instead of printing and sending a great photo to your family via traditional mail, you can actually scan them and send them through the Internet in an email to all your family or even to an online photo browsing site. This article will show you how to scan a photo and upload it to the internet.

Make sure your scanner is connected to your computer. Usually this is done with a USB cord that connects from the scanner to a USB port on the front or back of your computer. You must also make sure your scanning software is installed on your computer.

Create an easy-to-access folder for your photos. Just right-click on your desktop, click "New" and then "Folder." Name it something simple like "scanned photos."

Scan your photo following the manufacturer's guide. Most scanners do work the same, though. You just place the photo face down onto your scanner and hit the "scan" button. If everything is hooked up right, your photo will appear on your monitor via the scanning program.

Edit your photo accordingly. Most scanning programs have buttons that allow you to crop, brighten or enhance your picture. It's good to crop pictures if your subject takes up a small part of the photo. This will make your file size smaller while still keeping the subject in tact.

Save your picture to your "scanned photos" file. Name your photo something easy instead of the default photo name. When you take more and more photos it can be hard to find the specific one unless you immediately re-name it.

Open up your web browser and e-mail program you use. Start to compose an email to someone to whom you plan to send the photo. Click the "Attachments" feature that is on most email programs and select your folder from the desktop. Pick your picture and click "Save" or "Open". Your photo is ready to be emailed. Or if you are uploading it to a website, click "Browse" and go to your desktop folder. Pick your photo and click "Save" or "Open."

Tips

Close other programs you aren't using to speed up your photo loading time. Save your edited photo under another name just in case you need to use the original again. Date your photos for easy archiving.

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