I just learnt an important lesson the hard way!
 

Do NOT write on the backs of your pictures in pen and then stack them up together...seems so obvious now! Looks like I'll be paying to develop many of them again...I suppose that's what I get for being so stupid!

one word. sharpie.

Swissmiss85: You ain't the Lone Ranger. We will never do that again, will we?

I'm 18...and I will never do that again.

Go to an art supply store and get a 16 oz. can of Bestine solvent. It should remove the ink but doesn't not harm the photo.

This forum is good for ANYTHING you want to know!

Is it okay to type the info on an address label and stick it to the back of a photo?

SalB: the typed label won't smear like the pen.

SalB, Just make sure the adhesive on the address label is acid free. I'm not one of those who want my photos to last for all eternity but some glues only take a year or so before doing damage to the paper.

I always write on the back of photos with ball-point pen and have never had a problem. That said, I once, by mistake, grabbed a felt tip, and being stupid a second time, a sharpie - well never again, as I had the same problem as swissmiss.

But the best tool for this purpose is a "pencil" - do you remember those. They work just fine and you can erase them whenever.

my solution; put the photos in an album!

swissmiss85, there's nothing wrong with writing on the backs of photos! One catch, though. Stack them face-to-face, back to back. Never face of one on bottom of back of other! I also learned that the hard way. Maybe that's why I've switched to digital.

Try a little hairspray, swissmiss85. The older brand, aquanet, is a good one. Spray it on and take off the ink. Works every time! ;)

Go to a craft store and buy a pen made for writing on the backs of photos. Look in the scrapbooking section.

Please DO write on the backs of photos! I'm going through boxes of family photos that my aunt had accumulated (somehow at the funeral I got the photos!)...most aren't marked, and many say informative things like "us in front of the house". Although it is fun sitting around with the older generation trying to figure out who is who!

Anne

Well at least I'm not the only one who had made this mistake. Next time I will use a pencil. In the mean time, I guess I will be looking for that solvent.

I suggest you do NOT use a pencil if you want the writing to last; the pencil's writing will fade over time. We used pencil to write on labels for various household files (admittedly some years ago) and I can barely read them now. I second happytourist's suggestion for a photo pen from the scrapbooking section of a craft store.

I imposed the task on myself of identifying about 100 people on one of those 30 inch long family reunion photos from 1934! No names anywhere! I spent weeks reaching the people then made a separate photo image with the names near each person. This was a feat considering that almost everyone on the photo was long dead. \:D/