Using Picasa and AutoHotKey to scan Photo Albums Part 1

I’m in the process of digitizing my family’s photo albums, and since I really hate repetitive processes, I was looking for a way that I could make the process go a little faster.

I also prefer using Picasa as my photo management software. It has just the right combination of power and ease of use that allow me to fix up most pictures quickly. Reserving the more time consuming photoshop for the tougher retouching / color correcting jobs.

Since scanning photo albums is such a time-consuming and repeptitive task, I used AutoHotKey to record many of the mouse clicks and keystrokes needed to perform the scan. In this post we’ll concentrate on getting the full-page scans into the computer, in part 2 we’ll look at how to get the full pages into individual pictures.

Best of all both PIcasa and Autohotkey are free (as in beer)!

You’ll also need a flatbed scanner. You could probably use a camera an tripod to photograph that pages, but then you’ll just need to go to Part 2.

I’ll assume you have downloaded and installed Picasa, Autohot key, attached your scanner, installed it’s drivers and have confirmed you can actually scan with it.

Step 1: Record your Autohotkey Macro.

1. Open Picasa, select File > Import From.
2. Open AutoScriptWriter from your Start menu
3. Click the “Record” button in Auto Script writer.
4. Return to picasa and scan the picture.

Here is a little video of the process:

In my script, I prefer to click the close button on my scanner software
window, which returns to Picasa. You may prefer to include that step in
your recorded macro. Up to you. YMMV.

Step 2: Associate with a Key Combination.
Once you have recorded the macro, associate your macro to a particular key stroke. I use Ctrl+Alt+S for mine.

1. In the Auto Script Writer window, where you see the steps the script recorded, place your cursor on the the First line, and hist enter to create a new blank line.
2. On this new line, type “^!s::” (without the quotes). This is the syntax to associate with a keystroke. Here the ^ is for Ctrl, and ! is for Alt, S is for the S key, and :: indicates the end of the sequence.
3. Save the Script in a memorable place (I have created a folder in my Documents called “My Hot Keys”) and save it with a memorable name like “Scan”

Now whenever you are scanning photo albums, go to this folder, and double click the script to load in the the system tray.

Step 3: Start Scanning.

1. Place your photo album on the scanner bed, and press “Ctrl+Alt+S” and watch in amazement as AutoHotKey clicks all the right buttons.
2. Once the scan is complete click “Import All” in Picasa (again, you could have this as part of your recorded script if you want. )
3. In the “Finish importing” window that appears, select a photo to drop the scan.

Repeat Step three until the photo album has been completely scanned. You can right click the Autohotkey icon in your tray and close down the macro if you are finised your scanning duties for the day.

In the next part, we’ll look at how to separate all the photos on the scanned album page into individual photos.

I always back up the scanned photos right away, too. I have no interest in rescanning the albums. See my post on how to do this with Picasa.