FrontBack Scanner Free
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FrontBack Scanner · Application Help

Every Control, One Page

The everyday flow is four clicks: Preview, Scan, flip the photos, Scan. This page covers the rest: a missed photo, a print bigger than the glass, scans you already have, zoom, pairing by hand, and every shortcut.

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Mac 53 MB · Version 1.7Windows 120 MB · Version 1.7Check yours in FrontBack Scanner → AboutLast updated: October 1, 2026

Orientation

The Window at a Glance

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The FrontBack Scanner window: toolbar on top, scanner bed with four detected photos on the left, output settings and region list in the sidebar on the right
Four photos found on the glass, one selected, two flagged to turn upright.

Toolbar (top). Scanner picker, Preview, Detect Regions with its Auto lock, Pair Backs, and a status line saying what just happened.

Bed (left). A live preview of the glass. Each photo found gets an amber box, a name tag and its own handles.

Sidebar (right). Output settings, the draw-side switch, the Scan button, one row per box, and your latest saves.

Zoom cluster (bottom right of the bed). Reads FIT, or the zoom level when you are in close.

Regions

Boxes on the Bed

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Auto-detect draws the boxes. You can change every one by hand.

Draw Drag on empty glass. The draw-side switch decides front or back.
Select Click a box. Click again for the one underneath.
Move Drag the selected box.
Resize Drag a corner or an edge, on any box.
Rotate Drag the knob above the box. It snaps square only within a third of a degree.
Fine rotate Hold ⇧ Shift on the knob: geared 8 to 1, no snapping, for sub-degree nudges.
Draw over Hold ⌥ Option and drag to draw a new box on top of another.
Delete Press ⌫, click the row's trash can, or right-click the box.
A selected region on the bed showing corner and edge handles and the round rotate knob above it
Corner and edge handles, and the rotate knob.

Precision

Zoom & Pan the Bed

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Zoom in to nudge a crop edge by a hair, up to 800%.

Zoom Hold ⌘ and scroll, or pinch. The spot under the cursor stays put.
Quick zoom Double-tap with two fingers: 250% at the cursor. Again: back to fit.
Pan Once zoomed, plain scrolling moves around the bed in any direction.
The cluster − and + step the zoom. The last button snaps back to fit.
The floating zoom cluster at the bottom right of the bed, reading FIT
The zoom cluster, bottom right of the bed.

Detection

Auto-Detect, Locked or Manual

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The Detect Regions control

  • Detect Regions boxes every photo on the preview, with its tilt and name. It replaces any boxes already on the bed.
  • The lock beside it: Auto (the control glows amber) re-runs detection after every preview. Manual leaves your hand-drawn boxes alone. The app remembers your choice.
  • Back sides too: with the draw side on BACK, it looks for handwriting instead of photo edges, so faint pencil notes get boxed.
The Detect Regions control in the toolbar with its Auto lock lit amber
Run detection now, or choose Auto or Manual.

Missed one? Double-click it.

  • Double-click the spot where the print lies (or right-click it and choose Find photo here).
  • It looks right there, which catches the pale, faded prints a full-bed pass can miss.
  • You always get a box. If it finds nothing for sure, a standard box lands on your click, ready to adjust.
  • Already boxed? It selects that box instead of adding a second.

Auto-orientation

Sideways Photos Fix Themselves

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Lay photos any way they land. Each print is checked and saved right side up (99.8% accurate in our benchmarks).

  • The ↻ badge. A sideways or upside-down print gets a badge like ↻180° AUTO and previews upright on the bed, so you see what will be saved.
  • Trust it or veto it. Click the badge (or right-click and choose “Keep original orientation”) to save the photo as it lies. Click again to undo.
  • Unsure? It leaves the photo as it is rather than guess.
  • Always current. Moving a photo or a new preview re-checks it. The sidebar row shows the pending turn as an amber ↻.
A photo that was placed upside down shown corrected upright on the bed with a badge reading 180 degrees AUTO
Placed upside down, previewed and saved upright.

Fronts & backs

Pairing Fronts With Backs

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How to scan front and back: scan the fronts, flip each photo where it lies, scan again. Each back pairs with its front by position.

The draw side

  • The FRONT / BACK switch in the sidebar sets the side for new boxes, drawn or detected.
  • ␣ Space flips the selected box between front and back. With nothing selected, it flips the draw side.
  • All fronts, All backs and Clear (under the region list) change or clear the whole bed in one click.
Two back-side regions on the bed with cyan dashed outlines, hatched fill, folded corners, and BACK keycaps on their name chips
Back sides are unmistakable: cyan, hatched, dog-eared.

Rewiring a pair by hand

  • Right-click a box and choose Link to front… (or Link to back…), then click its partner. Esc cancels.
  • Or in the sidebar: click a row’s FRONT / BACK capsule to flip its side, or link a back to a front or a saved file.

Pairing mode

  • After scanning fronts and previewing the flipped pile, click Pair Backs. Fronts show on the left, backs on the right, each pair in one color. Gray means unmatched.
  • Hover a front to trace its link. Drag from a front onto a back to re-pair them. ALL LINKS shows every pair at once.
The sidebar draw-side switch set to FRONT with gesture hints listed beneath it
The draw-side switch and its gesture hints.
Pairing mode: the previous scan's four fronts on the left bed and the four flipped backs on the right bed, each matched pair outlined in the same color, header reading 4 of 4 matched
All four backs matched: each pair shares a color.

Oversized mode

Photos Bigger Than the Glass

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An 11 × 14 portrait, a school panorama, an album page: Oversized stitches overlapping passes into one photo, with no visible seam.

Start the photo

Click Oversized in the toolbar. Lay any part of the print on the glass, press Preview, then Scan & Stitch.

Slide the photo

Move to the next part, keeping 1 to 2 inches overlapping (more for thick prints). Press Preview.

Watch it snap on

The new part appears as a ghost and snaps into place, even if crooked or turned. Adjust it if needed, then Scan & Stitch.

Finish

Finish & Save writes one full-resolution photo. For an album page, Chop It Up saves each mounted photo as its own file.

Drag the ghostPlace the new part by hand; it snaps from there
Arrow keysNudge the ghost (⇧ = coarse)
R / ⇧RTurn the incoming section 90°
⏎ ReturnScan & Stitch the aligned section
Re-alignSearch the whole photo again for the best match
Undo Pass / Start OverRemove the last pass, or all of them

Passes are exposure-matched and blended. Leaving Oversized keeps them until you finish or start over.

Files instead of the glass

Splitting Scans You Already Have

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Open old whole-bed scans, one file or a whole folder, and every tool on this page works on them. No scanner needed.

Open the scans

File ▸ Open Bed Scan… (⌘O) for one image or several, or Open Folder of Bed Scans… (⇧⌘O). Or drag them onto the window.

Check the boxes

With Auto on, each file boxes itself as it loads. Otherwise click Detect Regions. Every gesture above still works.

Split & Next

Click Split N Photos & Next (⏎ Return). Each box saves upright at full resolution, and the next scan opens already boxed.

Work the queue

The toolbar shows FILES 3 OF 40; its menu opens other files or returns to the scanner. ‹ and › step through the stack and keep your box changes.

Your originals are read-only. New files go to your output folder, never over a source scan.

Original pixels. Nothing is resampled and the DPI carries over. Resolution and color settings do not apply.

Backs pair the same way. Open the sheet of backs and set the draw side to BACK (or click All backs). Each saves as its front’s _b, and Pair Backs works across the two files.

Auto-orientation still runs, badge and veto included.

One folder, one stack: the images directly inside it, in natural filename order. Sub-folders are skipped.

Oversized needs the scanner. Return to Scanner brings back your live preview and its boxes.

⌘OOpen a bed scan, or several
⇧⌘OOpen a folder as an ordered queue
Drag onto the windowThe same, from the Finder or File Explorer
⏎ ReturnSplit this scan and load the next
‹ / ›Step back and forward through the queue
FILES n OF mOpen different files, or return to the scanner

Output

Scanning & Your Files

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  • Preview: a quick, low-resolution look at the whole bed. The scanner’s own button works too.
  • Scan N Regions: one full-quality pass, then each box saved losslessly as its own file, identical to scanning that photo alone.
  • Output settings (pictured): resolution up to full optical DPI, Color / Grayscale / B&W, and the back suffix (_b). JPEGs open at real print size.
  • Numbering picks up where the folder leaves off, after the highest name_NNNN file. Moved photos out? Type the next number (say 137) into Start. Files in the folder are never overwritten.
  • Saved means saved. Saved boxes get green checks, and the bed shows a SCANNED seal when all are done. Moving a photo or a new preview clears them.
  • LAST SAVE and HISTORY thumbnails at the bottom of the sidebar open the file.
The sidebar output settings: name, start number, resolution, color mode, back suffix, and folder
The OUTPUT section of the sidebar.
Region rows in the sidebar showing green SCANNED checks, an amber auto-rotate capsule, tilt and size readouts
Region rows: green checks, the pending ↻ turn, tilt and true size.
The green SCANNED seal at the top right of the bed
The bed’s SCANNED seal.

Reference

Keyboard & Mouse Cheat Sheet

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⌫ DeleteRemove the selected box
␣ SpaceFlip the selected box front ↔ back, or flip the draw side
EscCancel an in-progress link
⇧ Shift + rotate knobFine rotate, geared 8:1, no snapping
⌥ Option + dragDraw a new box on top of another
⌘ Cmd + scroll, or pinchZoom at the cursor, up to 800%
ScrollPan the bed while zoomed in
Two-finger double-tapZoom to 250%, or back to fit
Click againSelect the box underneath a stack
Double-click empty bedFind and box a photo detection missed
Right-click a boxFlip side, keep original orientation, link to a partner, delete
Right-click empty bedFind photo here
R / ⇧R · oversizedTurn the incoming section 90°
⏎ Return · oversizedScan & Stitch the aligned section
Arrow keys · oversizedNudge the ghost (⇧ = coarse)
⌘O / ⇧⌘OOpen scans, or a folder of them, to split
Drag files onto the windowOpen them as a queue
⏎ Return · filesSplit this scan and open the next

Now Point It at the Shoebox

Free, private, and fast.

Download for Mac Download for Windows
Download on the App StoreFree on the Mac App Store too: nothing to drag, and it updates itself.

Then let Timeline Scan put every photo in order

Why the backs matter: the FrontBack Scanner tour and our scanning best practices.

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