Old Letter Scanning Services
EverPresent scans your old letters, holiday cards, and lots of other handwritten documents. We love scanning photos and digitizing VHS tapes, but there’s something special about letters. They’re a sneak peek into the minds and lives of their writers.
We’ve digitized wartime love notes, postcards with travel updates, and best wishes for weddings and newborns. Most of these are written on paper that quickly fades and breaks down, so scanning them right now is the best way to preserve them. You can have your letters and cards scanned into JPEG image files or PDF document files, and saved onto DVDs or flash drives for easy storage. We’ll even put them on the cloud for you!
Families trust our old letter scanning service to preserve their collections, no matter how fragile. EverPresent has scanned letters from Albert Einstein, Hillary Clinton, comic book legend Stan Lee, and six U.S. presidents. These letters are rare because they’re much more personal than a book or a press release.
Our white-glove technicians use flatbed scanners to keep these treasures from bending and ripping while we preserve them. When they’re digital, your letters would make a great addition to a slideshow, photobook, or memorial service for a loved one.
Common Questions
about old letter scanning services
Why Scan My Old Mail and Envelopes?
Letters capture a person’s voice in a way that can’t be done with photos and videos. They’re an intimate way to communicate that can teach you a lot about the people who wrote them. Handwritten notes are often penned on fragile paper that won’t last long. Scanning these items will help you protect your family’s past. Don’t know what to do with fragile cards and letters? Ask us about the best way to store and display your vintage mail!
How Old Are My Vintage Cards?
Believe it or not, we preserve vintage mail from the 1800s all the time! It’s common for people to put these dates at the top of the notes they write. The cities and dates inside of hand-stamped postmarks can also tell you when and where a piece of mail came from. Some wartime postmarks, though, leave out places and dates to guard classified info. Even if you can’t find a date, an address might give you a sense of time based on when someone lived there. EverPresent can copy these dates into the folders and filenames of your digital archive, letting you sort and store your letters by year. We can also save handwritten captions in each file’s metadata, so you can read the words without needing to view the images.
The Writing Is Faded – Is It Still Worth Saving?
The short answer is yes. We’d prefer to give you digital files that match the originals, but we can tweak the writing to be more legible. The results are uncertain and if we darken the text too much, the blank space around the words can become muddy. Every old document is different, but our expert consultants can give you more insight on what we can and can’t fix.
What About Envelopes and the Fronts of Cards?
We will scan whatever you want to save. Some people don’t care about the addresses and postmarks on old stamped envelopes. Others like having that extra info handy in case the sender moved quite a bit, or if the letters don’t have any handwritten dates. The same goes for postcards and greeting cards – you get to choose whether your digital files include the pictures and text from the fronts.
Sharing & archiving after converting old letters to digital
Scanning is just the first step toward making your memories come to life! We’ve digitized hundreds of love letters from one client and her husband. And because our design experts know how to display old letters in a photobook, this client can cherish her love life again and again. These books are one of the most creative ways to display love letters!
“I brought several sentimentally precious items in various states of decay to Everpresent. They were excited to work on several projects, including reproducing albums (one from the 1920s), reproducing a college art project from 1945 [shown above], creating a wedding album for my mother with 60 year-old photos. Katie and Susan were always patient and enthusiastic. I never felt pushed to spend more money. They only wanted us all to be happy. They cared about our materials as much as we did. I am going to give them all of our keepsake projects always.”
– Donna R.
Visit one of our Northeast locations:
MassachusettsHEADQUARTERS - Newton
Ashburnham
Beverly, MA
Back Bay & South End
Braintree
Burlington
Cambridge/Somerville
Dartmouth
Falmouth
Great Barrington
Natick
Northborough
Northampton
Worcester
Old letter & postcard scanning pricing
We’ll scan your old letters to DVD, USB or digital and maintain your organization!
- Preserve front & back
- Scan the envelopes too!
- 300 DPI on professional scanners
- Dust removal, cleaning & orientation
- Oversized scanning available
- Scanned flat & handled with care
- Dust removal via brush
- Clip out headings and photos from full pages for use in projects
- Scanned flat
- Oversized scanning available
- Returned as is or organized box
- Standard paper and fragile documents
- Items larger than 8.5″ x 11″
- Professional art handled by experienced techs
- We can unframe and reframe
- Ask us about stitching!
WE ORGANIZE AND DIGITIZE ALL OF YOUR MEMORIES
