Optical and

We present V- and I-band CCD surface photometry on 234 inclined Sa-Sd galaxies, completed by similar data in B and R for a reduced subsample. In this first paper of a series, the reduction of the data is discussed, and several comparisons are made with other recent works. Radial profiles are presented for the surface brightness and the characteristics of ellipses fitted to isophotes; global, effective, and isophotal parameters are listed. All the results are available in electronic form