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Color Copies on Photo Paper

Home » Genealogy » Pictures and Rare Documents - How to Share them with Future Generations » Color Copies on Photo Paper
Posted by Your Guide on July 6, 2006 9:52 PM

There are so many photo safe products on the market today that are designed to protect and preserve photos. However, there are other documents that are just as precious to our heritage as our photos. Land grant documents, original birth and death certificates, old newspaper articles and hand-written letters and journals are just a few examples. These irreplaceable documents are ours to neglect or preserve for future generations. There are a number of ways to protect them and to have copies available for viewing and sharing.

One of the easiest ways to protect a document is to put it away in a cool, dark, climate-controlled place. Safe deposit boxes are usually ideal for important papers, but ask your bank what would happen in the case of a flood, tornado or hurricane before leaving your precious papers with them.

Another way to preserve the information on a document is to copy it. Color copiers are available in many places these days and can make a color copy that is almost indiscernible from the original at first glance. Color copies can be placed in photo albums or files while the original rests safely in a bank vault somewhere.

There are times, however, in which copies of any kind would be detrimental to a document. Very old papers should not be exposed to the kind of light used in copiers. Check with your local archivist before copying any papers that are more than 25 or 50 years old and ask what effect those lights will have on the paper and the images on it. Ask about the proper way to preserve the document for the future.

When making color copies of documents, ask for the availability of photo paper for those copies. Photo paper is sturdy and will last longer than a copy made on bond paper.

Next Page: Creating Digital Copies

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