Family Photos - Large Digitizing Project

[decsurvey]

My uncle recently and finally found our grandmothers box of photos. There are 100's of old photos dating back to 1880's up to the 1960's.

I am planning to scan all the photos at 800 dpi and save in TIFF format.

Would 800 dpi be sufficient or overkill in scanning all the old photos at such level? The print size of any future reprints will be limited to nothing larger than an 8 x 10 if that large.

The tin-types will be going to a local photo restoration for preservation and digitizing.

[mistermonday]

Print quality is generally considered 300 dpi. If your max print size will be 8x10, then your scan should be 2400 x 3000 px. You did not mention the size of the originals. So if they are 4 x 5 you will need to scan at 600 dpi. If they are 4 x 6, you will still need to scan at 600 dpi so you can crop down to an aspect ratio of 8 x 10. If the originals are already 8x10 then 300 dpi is all you need. I suspect some of the older images may be 3 or 3-1/2 in on a side. Most scanners have settings for 300/600/1200 but not 800 or 900, so you will likely need to scan at 1200 dpi for the smaller ones.
Regards, Murray