Scanning in Walthamstow, by appointment

People photograph artwork and old plans because it is quick, and then wonder why the print looks wrong. There are three reasons, all of them physical rather than fixable.

Perspective. Unless your camera is dead centre and perfectly parallel, a rectangle photographs as a slight trapezoid. On a painting you might not notice until it is printed and the frame does not sit right. A scanner sees the whole surface flat, so a rectangle stays a rectangle.

Uneven light. Lighting a large flat surface evenly is genuinely hard. Window light falls off across the sheet, ceiling lights create a bright patch, and a phone flash produces a hotspot. It shows up as a gradient across the print that no amount of editing fully removes. A scanner lights every part of the surface identically.

Colour cast. Daylight, tungsten and LED all have different colour temperatures and a phone camera guesses. That guess is why photographed artwork so often prints warmer or cooler than the original.

Scanning removes all three at once. Large format up to A0 is £6 a scan, and A4 and A3 are £1 each with a minimum order of 15. Given what a bad file costs you in reprints, it is the cheapest quality decision available.

By appointment, and that is deliberate. You bring originals in and we handle them properly, including fragile paper, mounted pieces and things that should not be rolled. Call 020 8520 0996 or 07391 970040 to book a time rather than turning up, because we do not run a walk in counter and we would rather give your originals proper attention than rush them.

You get PDF, JPEG or TIFF, your choice, by email or download link: TIFF if it is going to be printed large or archived, JPEG for web or reference, PDF for documents and drawings.

Artists, most often. Scan the original once, own the file forever, and print art prints and postcard packs from it whenever stock runs low. One £6 scan can underwrite years of print sales, and it is far and away the highest value thing an artist can do with £6.

Builders, architects and homeowners with paper drawings: old surveys, previous extension plans, drawings that only exist as a fragile original in a filing cabinet. Scan them, email them to your architect, and stop carrying the only copy around. Then reprint at any size, true to scale, whenever you need a fresh set for site.

Anyone with something old and irreplaceable, such as vintage posters, hand drawn family documents, certificates and maps. Once it is a high resolution file it is safe, and it can be reprinted, restored or enlarged without touching the original again.

Documents in bulk, at A4 and A3 for £1 each with a 15 minimum, for archiving paperwork you need digitally but do not want to keep in boxes.

Cropping, straightening and editing are available on top of the scan. If the original has a stained margin, a fold line, tape marks or foxing, we can clean it up digitally from £15. The original stays as it is and the file comes out as it should have been.