PRESERVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS — ONE sNAP AT A TIME

300 DPI • 600 DPI • 1200 DPI — Automated Single Duplex Pass Flat Feed, Flatbed & Camera Capture

Your printed photos fade, crack, and discolor over time.
We gently digitize your photo collection — albums, loose prints, portraits, and fragile items — using professional, high-resolution scanning equipment.

Your photos never leave Mason City, and every image is handled safely by hand.

North Iowa & Southern Minnesota’s trusted photo-to-digital service.

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641.200.4190

🛡️ Trusted Local Service

Serving North Iowa & Southern Minnesota

Why North Iowa Families Trust SnapCache

🛡️ Secure, In-House Digitizing

Your tapes never leave Mason City

⭐ 5-Star Google Rated

Safe, fast, and reliable

“Clients tell us they love our fast turnaround, clear communication, and the care we take with their family memories.”

Choose Your Photo Type and scanning Resolution

Quick pricing for every format.

    • $0.25 per photo

    • Best for basic archiving, sharing, and everyday prints

    • Suitable for most family photos

    • $0.45 per photo

    • Ideal for enhanced detail and reprinting up to original size

    • Best for important family archives, portraits, albums

    • $0.90 per photo

    • Designed for small prints (wallet-size), restoration work, or heavy cropping

    • Captures maximum detail and texture

    • Starting at $2.00 per photo

    • Used for curled, brittle, textured, glued, or valuable photos

    • Used when photos cannot be safely scanned by auto-feed or flatbed

    • Ideal for portraits, framed items, album pages you cannot remove

    • Ensures safe, non-destructive scanning

    • Color restoration included (basic)

    • Advanced restoration available upon request

    • USB drives starting at $5

    • Cloud delivery included

PHOTO DIGITIZING

Starting at $0.25 per photo

(300, 600, or 1200 DPI — Automated, Flatbed & Camera Capture)

Digitizing is performed in-house using professional equipment to ensure clear, accurate color and sharp detail.
No outsourcing. No automated “AI guessing”—only true preservation.

~📥 CHOOSE YOUR SCAN RESOLUTION~

🔵 300 DPI – Everyday Scanning

Best for:

  • Scrapbooks

  • Standard 4x6 prints

  • Photos intended for online sharing

  • Family albums where ultra-high detail isn't necessary

What you get:

  • Good clarity

  • True-to-original color

  • Excellent for viewing on phones, TVs, and computers

Use when: The originals are in good shape and you want clean digital copies.

🟢 600 DPI – High-Quality Archival Scanning (Most Popular)

Best for:

  • Older photos

  • Photos with fine detail

  • Portraits, studio photographs

  • Images you might want to crop or enlarge later

What you get:

  • Noticeably sharper detail

  • Better texture preservation

  • More flexibility for editing or restoring later

Great balance of quality + file size.

🔴 1200 DPI – Professional Detail Capture

Best for:

  • Small photos (wallet-sized, 2x2, etc.)

  • Photographs with handwriting or fine grain

  • Restoration projects

  • Archival-level preservation

What you get:

  • Maximum clarity

  • Ability to enlarge without losing quality

  • Ideal for professional restoration work

1200 DPI is recommended when your photos are heirlooms or highly damaged, or when you want the best possible resolution.

📸 IRREGULAR & OVERSIZED PHOTOGRAPHS

Large, fragile, or unusual images require special handling.

We support:

  • Photos larger than 8.5" x 11" (up to ~24")

  • Mounted photographs

  • Framed photos (glass removed when possible)

  • Curled, brittle, or stuck-together items

These require slower handling, specialized lighting, and stabilization—hence the tiered pricing.

🧼 OPTIONAL ENHANCEMENTS

  • Minor Photo Restoration — $20/image
    Color correction, dust/scratch removal

  • Moderate Photo Restoration — $75/image
    Tears, water stains, missing image areas, etc.

  • Metadata Tagging — $0.05/image

  • Backside Capture (handwriting scanning) — $0.05/image

  • Tape Repair/Splicing — $10/tape (for albums or frames held together with tape)

🧬 WHY DIGITIZING PHOTOS MATTERS

Most printed photographs are:

  • 20–70 years old

  • Stored in albums that use acidic glue

  • Fading from UV exposure

  • Discoloring from humidity and temperature fluctuations

  • At risk of sticking, tearing, or cracking

Digitizing protects against:

  • Color fading (especially cyan loss)

  • Paper deterioration

  • Mold growth

  • Accidental loss (fire, flooding, handling damage)

Digitizing preserves your family’s memories permanently, allowing easy sharing and safe storage.

🧠 HOW WE scan your photos

We capture your photos using:

Automated Feed Scanning

Used for smooth, modern photo prints in good condition.

  • Fast, high-volume scanning for large collections

  • Front and back can be scanned in a single pass (duplex)

  • Ideal for 3×5, 4×6, 5×7 modern photo paper

  • Gentle, low-pressure rollers designed for photo stock

  • Automatic skew correction and dust detection

Great for shoebox photos, envelopes, or loose stacks of prints.

Flatbed Scanning

Used for:

  • Standard prints that have are on heavy paper stock, like postcard images,

  • Photos that require exact flatness

  • Delicate or curled items

Produces sharp, consistent detail.

High-Resolution Camera Capture

Used for:

  • Large portraits

  • Oversized prints

  • Mounted or fragile images

  • Stuck/taped items

Provides excellent clarity without stressing the photo.

THE HISTORY OF PHOTO PRINTS

Before digital cameras and smartphones, photo prints were the heart of every family’s story. Understanding their history explains why they fade — and why digitizing is now urgent.

📜 THE EARLY DAYS OF FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHY (1900s–1930s)

When Kodak introduced the Brownie camera, photography suddenly became affordable for everyday families. Millions of early prints captured:

  • Childhood portraits

  • Weddings and anniversaries

  • Family farms and early homes

  • Relatives whose stories might otherwise be lost

These black-and-white photos were printed on silver-based photographic paper, which was beautiful — but sensitive to aging.

Common problems with photos from this era:

  • Silvering (a shiny, metallic sheen)

  • Cracking and brittleness

  • Fading due to unstable chemical fixing

Each print is now 80–120+ years old and at high risk of permanent loss.

🌈 THE COLOR BOOM (1940s–1970s)

The introduction of color film changed family photography forever. Suddenly, moments came alive with real color:

  • Holidays and birthdays

  • Classic cars, clothes, toys

  • Vacations and summer memories

  • Early color portraits

But early color chemistry relied on fragile dyes, never designed to survive 50+ years.

What happens to color prints as they age:

  • Reds fade first

  • Skin tones shift yellow or green

  • Blues turn cyan

  • Heat and humidity accelerate decay

Most American households still have boxes of prints from this era — and the vast majority are already fading.

📷 THE 1-HOUR PHOTO ERA (1980s–2000s)

The 1-hour mini-lab made developing fast and cheap. Families printed entire rolls, often without duplicates.

These prints hold the most emotionally powerful memories:

  • First days of school

  • Graduations

  • Family pets

  • Vacations and road trips

  • Loved ones who have since passed

However, 1-hour photo chemistry was even less stable than earlier processes.

Typical problems today:

  • Severe color shifts

  • Sticky surfaces (“tacky prints”)

  • Image bleeding or blotching

  • Mold from basement/attic storage

  • Loss of fine detail

Most photos from this era are now 25–45 years old — and deteriorating quickly.

🧠 WHat PHOTO HISTORY means TODAY

Each era of photo technology brought its own weaknesses:

EraType of PrintAging Problems1900–1930sSilver-based B&WSilvering, cracking, fading1940–1970sEarly color printsDye fading, color shifts, brittleness1980–2000s1-hour printsRapid fading, mold, sticky surfaces

Your family’s prints are 40 to over 120 years old, depending on the generation.

Digitizing them now captures the image before the damage becomes irreversible.

❤️ WHy DIGITIZING now MATTERS

Your photos contain memories that cannot be replaced:

  • Parents and grandparents in their youth

  • Childhood homes and family farms

  • Pets, holidays, and everyday life

  • Relatives who are no longer here

  • Moments you didn’t know were priceless at the time

Digitizing also ensures older family members can help identify:

  • Names

  • Dates

  • People

  • Places

  • Stories

…before that knowledge is lost forever.

🛡️ DIGITIZING YOUR PHOTOS PRESERVES THEM FOR GENERATIONS

Digitizing protects your prints from:

  • Fire

  • Flood

  • Mold

  • Heat

  • Fading

  • Physical decay

  • Accidental loss or damage

And once digitized, your photos can be:

  • Shared instantly with family

  • Organized by date or event

  • Viewed on TV, phone, tablet, or computer

  • Preserved permanently in multiple backup locations

Your old Photos are not getting any Younger

You remember the moment… the people, the place, the feeling.

Don’t let time erase it

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