Photos, Scans, Maps, and Illustrations
If you’re preparing a memoir, it’s very likely that you have a collection of old imagery to include in the book. How do you best prepare the images for your memoir? There are quite a few technical requirements to ensure that photos print with a crisp resolution, accurate color, and within proper copyright. Let’s work through it!
Scanning Physical Photos
Collections of old printed photos will need to be scanned into a digital format. To do so, you’ll need access to an at-home scanner, or utilize a local scanning service at FedEx, Staples, your library, etc.
If using an at-home scanner, these are the standards to follow:
- 600+ PPI (resolution)
- TIF file format recommended
- One photo per scan, unless intended as a collage
- Ensure that imagery is not skewed or sideways
- Scans should be cropped of extraneous whitespace
Do NOT:
- Attempt to take a photo of a photo with your smartphone
- Take scans through a glass picture frame
- Compile images via Microsoft Word
Image Rights Checklist for Your Book
To ensure your memoir or other non-fiction book can be published without delays or legal concerns, please review the following before submitting images:
✔ You MAY use images that are:
- Your own original photos or artwork (unless famous brands are captured in the image)
- Purchased through a licensed stock image provider (e.g., Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, Getty Images)
- Clearly marked for commercial use with proper documentation
- In the public domain or labeled CC0 (no rights reserved)
⚠️ Use with CAUTION:
- Creative Commons images that require attribution
- Images labeled for “non-commercial use” (these are NOT allowed in books for sale)
- Images that require specific credit or restrictions
If using these, please provide full license details and attribution requirements.
❌ Do NOT use:
- Images found through Google or social media
- Professional sports images (including NFL games, players, or team photography) without verified licensing
- Screenshots from broadcasts or websites
- Logos or branded materials without permission
- Any image you are unsure about
Important Notes
- Books are considered commercial products, even if used for marketing or education
- Image licensing must cover print and digital distribution
- Low-resolution or unclear images may need to be replaced
✔ Before Submission
Please confirm:
- All images are high-resolution (300 dpi for print)
- Files are final and properly named
- You have the legal right to use each image
Need Help?
If you’re unsure about any image for your memoir, please ask your designer before submitting. They will be happy to guide you toward safe and professional options.
Best practices for naming files for your memoir
Image files should avoid special characters, spaces, and punctuation to ensure compatibility across operating systems and web browsers. Key characters to avoid include /, \, ?, %, *, :, |, “, <, >, ., #, &, $, !, ‘, +, @, and spaces. Using these can cause broken links or errors when uploading.
Characters to Absolutely Avoid:
- Slashes & Backslashes: / \
- Angle Brackets: < >
- Question Mark: ?
- Asterisk: *
- Pipe/Vertical Bar: |
- Quotation Marks: ” ’ ‘
- Colon: :
Characters Best Avoided:
- Spaces: Use hyphens (-) or underscores (_) instead.
- Symbols: # (pound), % (percent), & (ampersand), $ (dollar), + (plus), @ (at), ! (exclamation), ~ (tilde), ^ (caret).
- Non-Latin/Diacritical Characters: These can cause 404 errors.
- Multiple Periods: Only use one period to separate the filename and extension (e.g., image.jpg, not image.final.v2.jpg).
Best Practices:
- Use lowercase letters and numbers.
- Use hyphens to separate words.
- Keep filenames short and descriptive.
- Label the beginning of each image with a number to indicate in-book chronology (001, 002, 003, etc.)
Improper file names:
frogger.2026.05.13.jpg
frogger+$2026.jpg
frógger.jpg
frogger/toader‘s.jpg
23423555_348763255%23.jpg
Proper file names:
001_Frogger-Crossing-Road.jpg
002_Frogger-Meets-Toader.png
003_Map-of-Interstate.jpg
004_Diagram-of-Cars.tif
005_Toaders-Idea.jpg
Sharing Images for Your Memoir with Your Formatter
Utilize a Cloud-based Service:
Make a dedicated folder for image sharing in
- Dropbox
- Google Drive (free)
- Google Photos (free)
If you’re local to your book formatter:
- Transfer files via USB drive
Do NOT:
- Include unnecessary or extraneous imagery
- Place photos directly into a text processor like Microsoft Word
- Store photos in an outdated storage device, such as a CD
Indicating Image Placement in Your Memoir
Instead of inserting images directly into your manuscript, there is a much cleaner, preferred method. Once your images have been properly prepared, numbered, and named, it is time to create in-manuscript “placement tags” for each. This shows your formatter exactly what image should be inserted and the accompanying caption, etc. Then the files will be placed using an InDesign script built by Kasayan.
First, you need to determine an extraneous special character that is not utilized anywhere else in your manuscript. We often recommend the @ symbol. It is imperative that this symbol’s only purpose is image placement. If @ is not available (e.g., you have several email addresses in the manuscript that use the @ sign), choose another, such as %, $, &, etc. Your find/change tool can help you determine this. You can even utilize a “string” of characters, such as <img></img>.
Improper file placement tags:
…This is an example manuscript and is just here for a sample. This text doesn’t mean anything, it just looks like something. There wouldn’t be a reason to read this, as it serves no purpose. So, simply ignore this and look at the image placement tag example below. 001_frogger.jpg
Insert image: @002_frogger .jpg
This is the caption for this image.
Insert images next to each other: 003_frogger .jpg & image of frogger + toader on the road together
This is the caption that is shared by both of these images.
Manuscript continues now after the images. This would be a new paragraph, likely discussing what was just shown in the above images and the relevance to the main work…
Proper file placement tags:
…This is an example manuscript and is just here for a sample. This text doesn’t mean anything, it just looks like something. There wouldn’t be a reason to read this, as it serves no purpose. So, simply ignore this and look at the image placement tag example below.
@001_frogger.jpg@
@002_frogger .jpg@
This is the caption for this image.
@003_frogger.jpg@ @004_frogger-and-toader-on-road.jpg@
This is the caption that is shared by both of these images. Images can indeed occur next to each other in this fashion.
Manuscript continues now after the images. This would be a new paragraph, likely discussing what was just shown in the above images and the relevance to the main work…
Ready to Turn Your Memoir Into a Professional Book?
A memoir is more than words on a page—it’s a legacy. The photographs, documents, and personal mementos you include help tell your story in a way that text alone cannot.
Over the years, we’ve helped memoir authors organize hundreds of images, improve photo quality, design beautiful page layouts, and prepare books for family keepsakes, local history projects, and worldwide distribution through print-on-demand publishing.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by image preparation, interior formatting, cover design, or the self-publishing process, you don’t have to figure it out alone.
Schedule a Book Design Readiness Review, and let’s discuss your memoir, your goals, and the best way to preserve your story for future generations.
Your story deserves to be presented with the same care that went into living it.
