Terms & Conditions

Please read our terms and conditions carefully before sending your slides. These policies help us provide high-quality scanning at affordable prices while ensuring we meet your expectations.

Order Requirements

Order Forms

We need you to fill out our online order form with your order. If you don't send an order form, it makes processing much harder and you won't have an estimate of return shipping costs.

For those who are computer challenged, you can print your information on a sheet of paper telling us what you need returned. You won't have a cost estimate, but we can work with you. Download our PDF form to print.

Counting Your Slides

If you're dealing with more than 50 slides, getting an accurate count can be difficult. It takes extra time to process refunds for undercounting. It's better to do a rough count and only pay the deposit amount on the order form. We'll bill you for the balance.

If you'd like any overpayment counted as a tip, please write a note on the order form copy you send to us.

Order Changes

Once we receive your order, any changes must be documented in writing via email or mail before we create disks. Please don't assume anything. Read the order form to understand your options and specifically request what you want. Please confirm any phone discussions in writing via email or mail.

---

Preparation Requirements

Please Clean Your Slides

We advise everyone to clean their slides with a very soft cloth before sending them to us. The slides are hit with compressed air before scanning, but that only removes loose material. Most slides have accumulated greasy residue where dirt and dust stick. Clean them with a soft cloth before sending.

The same is true for View-Master Reels. Because these get magnified even more than regular slides, dust will show up more prominently if you don't clean both sides.

Please Clean Your Paper Photos

We maintain very clean conditions, but any dust, lint, or debris on your scans comes from what you send us. We wipe down scanning glass periodically, but items stuck to your photos may transfer to our scanner. At our low pricing, we can't go back through thousands of photos to find and re-scan individual images with transferred debris.

Organization And Orientation

Follow these critical organization steps:

1. 99.9% of the time, the side with the "Logo" is the FRONT of the slide. When projected, light goes through the back and out the front onto the screen. Some slides say "This Side Faces Screen" on the front.

2. All numbering goes on the FRONTS, the logo side. Never on the backs.

3. Rotate slides so all films are oriented the same way. All rectangle slides should be oriented the same direction. Don't worry about what's in the picture. Don't rotate portrait photos "up" or you risk having heads cut off in scanning because the slide was rotated out of our scanning frame (which is a horizontal rectangle). We'll fix the orientation when we Photoshop each scan.

4. Stack with fronts facing up. The top slide (with the logo) will be scanned first as image #1, and the bottom slide will be last. All stacks should have slide fronts facing up.

Storage Containers That Incur Slide Prep Charges

These container types make it difficult to maintain our low prices because we can't just grab handfuls of slides to scan efficiently. See this link for more details.

Please take slides out of these containers and put them in stacks with rubber bands:

---

Scanning Process & Quality

Unedited Scans

We do not send out unedited scans under any circumstances. Original scans are deleted after the job is sent. All scans are worked by our Photoshop experts and nothing leaves our offices in a raw condition. No exceptions. We get your slide scans to look the best we can, and that's what we send you. If you want further editing, that's up to you.

Artists, Professional Photographers, Hyper-Critical People

Those who will be hyper-critical should realize you're not getting a $30 drum scan at our minimal 49¢ pricing. Because of the volume nature of this work, there are no do-overs at this low rate. Don't send more slides than you're prepared to pay for. Take advantage of our free sample scans or send a small order first to see our quality. At our low pricing, there are no rescans for any reason.

Thicker Than Normal Slides

Pricing is for normal thickness slides (equal to or less than a quarter coin thickness) in standard 2" x 2" cardboard or plastic mounts. Glass-mounted slides, 3D viewer slides, or extra-thick mounts cost extra. Look for that option on the order form or call if you need help.

Slide Condition & Final Images

We take whatever steps necessary to make your images look as good as possible. This may include changing grossly discolored images to black and white or sepia tone at our discretion. Because shadows tend to fill in during scanning, we open them up to reveal more detail. Sometimes contrast and color depth must be sacrificed.

All image editing is at the sole discretion of our Photoshop editors, with no do-overs whatsoever. We work your images as though they were our own. All color adjustments are overall moves, and some individual areas might be sacrificed for the good of the whole image. Sunrise and sunset photos are particularly difficult because dye fading makes it hard to know what the original looked like.

We don't look at the slide when color editing—we edit for "pleasing color" based on the Photoshop editor's judgment at that moment. We guarantee we'll do our best given the time we have. You can judge our quality by sending ten of your slides (good and bad) for free sample scans. Our major competitors don't Photoshop your images as we do. This makes a very big difference.

Monitor Variations: Every monitor or TV shows color differently. Walk into any Best Buy and you'll see multiple screens displaying the same channel with different colors. Our monitors are calibrated for precision color; yours is not. We can't adjust our work to look the way you want on your specific monitor. About 75% of slides we work on are faded or discolored. We do the best we can.

Slide Condition Issues: Many slides have dirt or fingerprints. Clean them with a very soft cotton or microfiber cloth before sending. At our low prices, we cannot be responsible for dirt on your slides. Warped film (often from projector heat) may result in partial focus issues. The damage is permanent and we can't "un-warp" films. Also check our page about slides that look good but scans are out of focus.

View-Master Reels

View-Master Reels sometimes warp and dry out. We flatten them for scanning. Because of age, the glue holding films in the reels might come loose and films may come out. We don't put them back in the reels. If they come out, they all go into an envelope for return after scanning. Clean both sides before sending because dust shows up more with the increased magnification.

Disc Camera Negative Reels

Disc camera negatives are notoriously blurry. We do what we can with them. The high charges are because we had to set up a special scanner station for them. We can't lose money on scanning. If the price is too high, we understand.

---

Delivery & Media

Slide Show Disks

We no longer make slide show disks. Most people don't use DVD players anymore. Most customers select either Data Disks or Flash Drives on the order form.

You're paying for conversion of film or photos to digital. Because of different hardware, software, and experience levels, we guarantee our DVDs and CDs meet universal standards and specifications. We use high-quality name brand discs and print titles directly on the disks (no stickers). Because of different computer setups, we cannot guarantee disks will play as movies on your computer, although they should with Windows Media Player. Images are stored on the disk and if your computer can read PC DVD disks, you'll be able to access and copy images.

Mac Computers

Since 2002, we've never had anyone say their Mac couldn't at least read our disks to pull images off. As with PCs, computer operator knowledge is important.

Return Shipping

We return everything you send to us and only charge what it costs us. It's difficult to know shipping charges ahead of time because we don't know what containers you'll use. It depends on weight. Once we receive final payment, we ship everything.

We Keep Backups of All Scanning Projects

We've kept backup copies of all image scans since 2002 on backup hard drives. If you have problems with disks or images in the future, we can very likely restore your images, though we can't guarantee it. There's a charge for restoration because of the time involved. We urge everyone to make their own backup copies and keep them somewhere other than your home.

---

Discontinued Services

VHS Tapes, VHS-C Tapes, Video8 Tapes, MiniDV Tapes, 8mm, 16mm

We no longer scan tapes or movies.

---