where can I scan or digitize large paper sheets (genealogy charts)?

[DianeB1848]

I'd like to scan (or otherwise digitize) and put on a disk, 3 large sheets of paper. They are genealogy charts hand-written by my late mother-in-law.Kinko's has quoted a price of about $25 per sheet (eek). I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas about where I could get them more inexpensively.Perhaps there are other "stores," or offices/etc. that normally scan blueprints, or old maps, or art pieces, or simliar large flat items where I could pay a lower fee. I probably should ask at my local library at least, and perhaps at a local university (but not sure where to start there). (the sizes of the papers range from 24 x 28" to 24 x 40"--though I could probably make that one less than 40)Thanks for any ideas!(for scans, I'd need no color or editing )Don't want to make 9-12 scans of each of the large sheets, then have to stitch together digitally in a grid--not even sure if my Adobe Elements will stitch in 2 directions. And since there are 3 sheets, the cost would actually be $75!

[youngboy16069495]

Cut them down to fit on your scanner. Scan them ind. Use a program like photoshop or photoexpress to paste them back together in one large page. Save that file to your hard drive.**************Sorry missed the hand written part. If you can fold them and scan them as I already said its easy to put them back together.Otherwise 25 isn't expensive when you consider its done in seconds and you have what you want.Heck I can't even fill my car 1/2 way up on 25 anymore.

[Blessd]

Can't say whether $25 per sheet is too high--you didn't specify if you requested scanning in color, required image editing/processing, etc.If you need scanning in color, I recommend checking with Ritz Camera (aka Wolf Camera) to find out if they offer the service, and, if so, at what rate.Also perform a Google search for "Scanning Service Bureau" and find out if there are any located near you. Check with them, too.Otherwise, I recommend going to www.scantastik.com (physical location is in Georgia) and submit a request for a quote online. If you're not located near them, you may have to ship your documents to them.I assumed you wanted to avoid cutting them down to size just to scan them; that it was important for you to keep the documents intact; and that you wanted to "archive" and reproduce the physical document for sharing with family members. Otherwise, you would have opted to re-create the genealogy chart using MS Publisher or some other desktop publishing program and then printing the newly created charts. (You can choose to create the desktop publishing document on a large paper size or poster size.)But then, they wouldn't be as personal as the charts done by your deceased mother-in-law and in her handwriting which gives insight to her personhood.Good luck!

[norlore8629]

If you know how to save as a JPG, you can scan the charts in pieces with some overlap and this will glue them back together as 1 large image, it's free so maybe??http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html