How to scan several photos at once and split them
Split and Straighten Photos in Paint by Zaweba takes one flatbed scan of several prints and opens each print upright as a document of its own.
Lay several prints on the scanner glass, scan them as one picture, then run File > Automate > Split and Straighten Photos in Paint by Zaweba. Each print is found, turned upright and opened as its own document, so a single scan of four or five photos becomes four or five separate pictures without any cropping by hand.
Scanning prints one at a time is slow, and an album or a shoebox of family photos can take days that way. Scanning a few together is far quicker, as long as something sorts them out afterwards.
What you need
A flatbed scanner, the prints, and Paint by Zaweba on Windows. Paint can scan directly: File > Import offers scanner or camera through Windows' own dialog, so you don't need separate scanning software. Everything happens on your own PC, which suits private family pictures.
Laying out the prints
Leave a clear gap between the prints, at least a finger's width, so each one can be told apart from the next. Don't worry if they sit a little crooked, since straightening is part of the job. Keep them away from the very edges of the glass, which are often slightly out of the scanner's range.
A plain, light background helps. If the scanner lid is white, that's ideal. Dark photos with dark borders can be harder to separate, so give those more room.
Step by step
In Paint by Zaweba, choose File > Import and pick the scanner. Scan at a resolution high enough for the use you have in mind: higher if you might print enlargements, lower if the photos are only for sharing on a screen. The whole glass comes in as one picture.
Choose File > Automate > Split and Straighten Photos. Paint finds each print, turns it upright and opens it as a new document. You end up with one tab per photo.
Go through the tabs. Check that each print came out whole and level. If one was missed because it touched another, scan that one again on its own, or select it and crop it by hand.
Cleaning each photo
With the prints apart, each one can be tidied. Dust Spot Finder finds dust on smooth areas, lists the spots and heals the ones you tick. The Scratch Remover rebuilds a scratch from both sides when you drag along it. If a print is still slightly crooked, Image > Auto Straighten levels it, or the Crop tool's Straighten lets you draw along a line that should be level.
Faded prints often have a colour cast. An adjustment layer such as Levels or Curves can bring back contrast and neutral tones, and because it's a layer, you can turn it down if it goes too far.
Saving and naming
Save each photo before closing it. If you have many to save, File > Automate > Batch Rename can rename a folder of files afterwards with patterns such as a running number or a date, with a preview so you can check the names before anything changes. Naming by year or by album page makes the collection far easier to find later.
Getting a good result
Scan at the same settings for a whole batch so the photos match. Keep an untouched copy of each scan before cleaning, in case you want to redo something. And keep the originals safe, since a good scan doubles as a backup only if you look after both.
Scanning a family archive is a big job, but with Paint by Zaweba splitting each scan for you it becomes a steady routine rather than an endless chore.
