Archiving Digital Photos

“There are two types of data: those that have already been archived by backup and those that have not yet been lost” –Unknown.

In a world of digital imagery something that we may not have given enough thought to is archiving our images. When all the photography that was being taken, was 35mm film, we all had the comforting thought of a back up negative that we could dig out and get reprints from at any time. Do you have a similar comfort with your digital photos?

3 ways to archive:

1. The best way for you to archive your photos is to print them out. With our 75-year Crystal Archival Paper you are guaranteed that your images won't fade in your lifetime.
2. Save your images on your hard drive, but also have your hard drive backed up by another reliable source. This saves that unknown storm coming and you not having your computer turned off or not having a surge protector on your computer and loosing your images.
3. Putting your images onto CD. Be really careful with relying on a CD as an archive solution. Because they are an untested medium it is hard to say how long they are going to last and all it takes is putting them down on the wrong surface and then they are scratched and your images are lost. 10 years ago we archived information & images on floppy discs nowadays you couldn't buy a new computer with a floppy disc drive in it. In 10 years time will we have CD drives? Possibly not.

Don't wait until it is too late or you may be the one in a few years time that is answering to the question of “Mum was I adopted? Where are my baby photos?”

Give your photos every chance to survive generations. Print on archival paper.