3 Ways To Preserve Handwritten Photo Captions

A photo can say a thousand words, including the scrawled-out writing on the back of a polaroid. These captions are good indicators to track a family member and give context to a photo. Without an organization system for these pictures of ancestors, you might mix them up and lose them. You need to know the three best ways to preserve handwritten photo captions while making your family tree or condensing physical copies.

Crop the Photo

You might be used to cropping photos of certain family members so only they appear in the image. While that can help, it's mostly confusing. Not knowing who is in the photo or what's going on can be frustrating.

In this case, the best thing to do is to create two copies of the same photo. If there is one particular person you'd like to crop, write down that person's name. Even if it's not on the photograph, you can add it to your digital copy. On the second copy, you can crop the image like a snapshot.

The reason to crop the photo like a snapshot is to remove the extra room and store it in scrapbooks and photo albums. If you accidentally crop out some of the writing, don't panic! Just redo your last change and crop again carefully.

Name the Digital File After the Caption

Your file name could be the photo's caption—this is the best way to keep track of your images, especially if you have only one version of a photograph. Since you will be digitizing these images, ensure the names are legible to avoid inaccurately naming the file.

Always Scan the Back of Photos

Checking the backs of images is essential for finding dates, names, and events. Sometimes, a photograph could depict a day at the beach with the family, but there is no clear indication of who the people are. Don't forget to scan the backs when creating digital copies of photos.

Scanning the back of the photo can help you remember the date and people who were there. It also preserves the unique handwriting of a loved one. You’ll come to realize your and your family members’ writing on pictures helps you remember particular memories and creates stronger connections to the past.

When teaching yourself how to preserve handwritten photo captions, you ought to consider looking into a video and photo transfer service that preserves memories of the past by transferring physical videos and photos into digital files. DiJiFi has worked with many families looking for ways to preserve old photos, handwritten notes, and video files. We're looking forward to keeping your family's treasured memories alive and strengthening links to the past.