Today, you can save your files just about anywhere—to your flash drive, hard drive and even your favourite cloud storage. Despite all the good things technology has brought the world, there is still one best way to protect your photos, and that is to print them.
Back in the day, things were simpler. You just had to buy a roll of film, often in duplicate, had the pictures printed out and the best photos kept in a shoebox or photo album.
Even the “Father of the Internet” Recommends the Printing of Photos
Even Dr. Vinton Cerf, Google boss and considered as the “Father of the Internet,” has warned people that digital technology poses many risks as operating systems get upgraded and updated, making old tech become easily inaccessible. For posterity, he urged people to print documents and photos instead of saving soft copies of them.
“If we’re thinking 1,000 years, 3,000 years ahead in the future, we have to ask ourselves, how do we preserve all the bits that we need in order to correctly interpret the digital objects we create? We are nonchalantly throwing all of our data into what could become an information black hole without realising it,” Vinton Cerf said.
“If there are pictures that you really, really care about then creating a physical instance is probably a good idea. Print them out, literally,” Cerf added.
The Natural Enemies of Photographs
Beyond Preservation
While there is a plethora of storage choices for your files and photos, none of these, not even the cloud, is foolproof. Printing photos is still the best way to preserve precious memories. They can last for over 100 years and are more accessible than trying to find photos from a hard drive or website with a lot of photos in them.
Hundreds of millions of photos have been lost over the years. You should decide to print your photos and keep them in the years to come. Like using film back in the day, print your most cherished photos today and keep them in a photo album. You will sure be glad you did.