I have received three queries of general interest and a note of clarification. Thank you all, you have made me think of some other points that are in the notes at the end. I hope the answers and responses are useful. 1- i have an another problem. i have about 200 old negatives. some are at least 60 years old. i know that there might be a real treasure in there some where. could you suggest how i can see these negatives good enough to pick out some i would want to print? the local film store [Walmart] told me it would cost a lot of money to have them all printed. of course i would not want but a small number of them. any suggestion will be appreciated. tom cheek walnut cove NC ANSWER Black & white negatives can be scanned too, you'll have to tinker with the lightness/darkness settings so write them down before you start. Anytime you're tinkering with any settings it should be with ONLY ONE SETTING AT A TIME. That way you will always know which change had the HORRENDOUS result and you can then change it back. <grin> To begin with, change the lightness setting to be about 25% lighter than normal. After you've scanned one you can invert the page (that is to change all the black to white and white to black [see notes below]). If it is too dark/light, change the setting another 25% and repeat. You'll quickly see which is the right direction for a given negative. 2- I hate to bother you but you may be able to help me with a problem. I have a visioneer scanner also, how do I save the .max file that is created in .jpg format? Thank you! Sarah Goodman ANSWER Not bothered. This answer is specific to Visioneer 5.2 software but the features mentioned should be implemented in most scanner software. Highlight or view the photo as a page; Click on "File" in the menu bar; Click on "Export" in the dropdown menu; When the dialog box comes up look just below the block where you put the file name. There is a block there labeled "Save as type:", it has a down pointing arrowhead at the right end. Click on the arrowhead, a dropdown list will appear. Click on the one labeled JPEG image files (.JPG). You may be asked about resolution, anything less than 100% saves disk space, but gives up clarity in the image. You will see that there are a number of other file types supported, I use the JPEG format because it is supported in every piece of graphics software of note, and I've always had good results with it. Not so with some of the others. 3- I have an ink jet printer, what do you think of laminating the photo's for protection? Ruth Campbell RESPONSE I don't know much about the laminating materials currently available. My own experience with laminating is limited to some laminating I did about 25 years ago with terrible results, the drivers licenses we all have, and obituaries laminated by/for funeral homes. The DLs and obits seem to hold up well, but I don't know if their process financially reasonable. Perhaps someone on the list with more experience will share with us. 4- Most graphic software will convert a color scanned photo to black & White so you won't have to re scan your photos. Bryce L Hager RESPONSE That is correct, I did not mean to imply that re-scanning was necessary. NOTES: On my scanner software the "Page Invert" button is on the lower right side of the screen when viewing a given negative. The icon is two pages one white on black, the other is black on white with a red double ended arrow between them. You can scan color negatives too, but as black & white, if scanned as color they look really weird when you invert them. Whether you export them to files or not scanning images uses a lot of disk space, higher resolutions and/or larger images increases the disk space used dramatically. When I mentioned scanning photos in groups previously, I forgot to say that you should consider separating them before saving them permanently as files (this is after you've done the printing for posterity). This reduce the file size and makes them much easier to view or manipulate. This can be done by "Duplicate"ing the scanned image select the first photo and crop off the rest of it. Repeat this for as many photos as there are in the group. I have scanned almost all of my "old" (from when color was not available or was expensive and my parents didn't buy it). Of more recent photos, I pick and choose carefully. Few of individuals, unless I don't have them in a group from the same time frame, or they are not clear in the group, or the group photo is uncomplimentary to them. Few of places unless the place is special in a definable way. When you view group photos of the same people over time they tell a story of their own. One of my goals is to obtain a Video Capture card so I can create photos from family video tapes. Now that CD writers and rewriters are not tremendously expensive, we now have the opportunity to create family photo CDs for distribution within the extended family (be sure to offer to include their photos as well).