35mm Slide Prep: Organization & Orientation

Read all four pages, start to finish to get the most out of these tips.
If you’d rather not do this prep yourself, we can do it for a small fee per slide—just note it on your order form.

Page Listing

Slide Prep, Page #1 Storage Containers
Slide Prep, Page #2 Organization and Orientation (this page)
Slide Prep, Page #3 Packaging Slides for Shipment
Slide Prep, Page #4 We can do your slide orientation and stacking for you

Stacking Your Slides

If your slides are loose or in non-Kodak carousels, organize them into ~2–4 inch stacks (about 40 slides for a 2″ stack). Label sequential stacks that belong to the same “show” as 1A, 1B, 1C, etc.

Handful of slides arranged into a 2–4 inch stack for scanning

Tip: We include up to 12 “shows” per job. Additional shows may incur a small fee. Smaller shows make it easier to browse later—think in terms of future usability when you’re hunting for a specific image.

Find the Side That Faces the Screen

Most slides have the manufacturer’s logo or “This side toward screen” on the front. Stack slides so the front is up. The top slide is the first in the show; the bottom slide is the last.

Example of slide fronts aligned toward the screen

More examples of slide fronts that face the screen

Plastic mount with small text 'This side toward screen' on the front

Group of slide backs that should face down in the stack

Closeup of slide back; this side should face down

This white side on a plastic slide is always the "Back" of the slide.

Exception: Some mounts say “View from this side” on the back and they have a Logo on the back—follow the printed instruction even if a logo appears on the back. "View From This Side" means look through or project through this side..

Top-of-stack slide is the first in the show

Stack with the front side up. The top slide is Slide #1.

Slide Rotation

Turn all slides to a landscape position for scanning—even portrait photos.
We’ll rotate the resulting image file so it displays correctly.
If portrait slides are not rotated to landscape before scanning, the scanner will crop top/bottom. We can do the rotation prep for you for a small per-slide fee.

Wrong way: one slide not rotated to landscape among the stack

Correct way: all slides rotated to landscape in the stack

Example of cropped scan when portrait slide is not rotated to landscape

Landscape slide properly oriented for scanning

Portrait slide properly rotated prior to scanning

Get all your landscape slides rotated correctly and they will scan correctly. Same for portrait slides—rotate them to landscape before scanning; we’ll rotate the files afterward so they display properly.

Click here if you have 110 size slides.

Numbering & Order

You are responsible for the slide direction and order. If stacks are dropped or shuffled, we cannot guarantee re-ordering without clear numbering. Due to automatic feeders and occasional misfeeds, we cannot match your physical numbers to file numbers.