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 GOOD ADVICE: 
         EDIT LESS-SCAN TWICE. You can save time by scanning two or more times until you get a good initial scan rather than figuring on 'cleaning up your images' with your image editing software. Make sure that vertical and horizontal lines are square and experiment with your scanner settings. The time you save initially will make your editing job simpler and you'll be satisfied sooner.
 

                                                        SCANNING SHOULD NOT BE A MYSTERY: 

Follow these few
basic rules		 When scanning photos, image resolution refers to the amount of information stored in a digital photo. It is measured in 'ppi' or pixels per  inch. You can scan your own photos quite satisfactorily even if you are not an expert. Just follow these simple guidelines:

ONE: Photos print well if scanned at a resolution between 150 and 300 ppi at the size you plan to use them. Use higher resolution only if you are going to print them at larger than scanned size. (double the resolution to 300 ppi if you scan a 3" by 5" photo and plan  to print it as a  6" by 10", or you can scan it at twice its size at 150 ppi). Try to avoid scanning photos that have already been printed in magazines, flyers, or other publications. They have been converted to halftones (screened) and will not produce good pictures for you.

TWO: Remember that higher resolutions create larger files which take up a lot of disk space and  slow down your system. If you are only planning to view your photos, 72 ppi is fine as it matches your monitor resolution.(*) However, if you plan to print them or email to someone who will print them,  it's best to use a resolution of 150 ppi or higher. It is necessary at times to make a trade-off between file size and resolution if you are working with a particularly large image.

 (*)When scanning a photo for a website, try to scan at the actual size you intend to use it. Scanning at 72 ppi helps to prevent long download times.

THREE: Some Internet Service Providers (ISP's) have a limit on the size of the files that you can attach to an Email message(*). It is often limited to 1 or 2 megabytes. Use this as a guide when setting up your scanning procedure.  It's quite easy to create a 1 meg picture file, especially with resolutions over 150 ppi.  Fortunately, your scanner setup screen will usually indicate the size of your finished scanned photo or picture.
          (*) CAUTION - Have up-to-date  Firewall and Virus Protection if you plan to download  pictures from friends..
 

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●●Right Now, all  desktop scanners offered by Amazon.com are on  sale. The selection includes models from Epson, Canon, HP, Microtek and more.
 

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                                 TIPS FOR ARCHIVING PHOTOS

      When finished working with your photographs in your graphics editing programs, save them to a file on your hard drive in a format that you can use in other programs. Most programs will accept bitmap (.BMP), tagged image file format  (.TIFF), and joint photographic experts group (.JPG or .JPEG). Although all three formats work well for photos, the one with the smallest file size is .JPG. Choose this format unless the program in which you want to use it doesn't support it. 
     After you have decided on a format, you can save your photos into one folder or sub-folders.  Name the folders  so that you can find them when you want to use them again. Remember the names.
 

 

                   Professional results from cheap desk-top scanners
       An Article By Steve Nichols, Free Lance Journalist and eZine Editor

More and more of us are doing our own scanning, but the finished results will depend very much on your technique and understanding of how a scanner works. The following tips have been compiled as a result of “getting it wrong” over the years.

1. Calibrate your monitor using the supplied Gamma or set-up software Doing this will mean that what you see on screen is roughly what you will get in print or on the net.

3. Clean the scanner bed with glass cleaner. Every single scratch or piece of dust will need to be retouched out, so clean the scanner first.

6. Don’t use cheap scanners for images being used bigger than same size. Know your scanner’s limitations. If you are going to use an image a lot bigger, say more than 120% bigger than the original, have it scanned professionally.

7. Don’t use your scanner’s automatic settings. Experiment, but start out using a Gamma setting of 1.8 for print and 2.2 for web use. A scanner will try to average tones, so a contrasty image will be flattened and a flat one boosted. It is better to try to reproduce the image as it is supposed to be by setting the gamma manually.

8. Always use Unsharp Masking (USM). “Unsharp masking” is the trade term for a standard technique that printers use to sharpen images by accentuating the differences between adjoining areas of significantly different hue or tone. You can apply this same sharpening technique to your images with the Unsharp Mask filter in Photoshop. Suitable starting settings are Radius: 1.5, Amount: 120%, Threshold: 5.

 Highly detailed images such as line art, require a Threshold setting of 3, whereas portraits look best with a setting between 5 to 9.

9. Save as TIFF or JPEG. TIFF is the industry standard and includes a little bit of lossless file compression (LZW). JPEG will compress even more, but there will be a slight loss of quality. If in doubt, use TIFF or save as JPEG once all image editing has been done and use the “High Quality” option within Photoshop. Don’t keep resaving and editing a JPEG image as the loss of quality is cumulative.

By using these techniques I managed to use a $100 scanner to produce an image suitable for an A4 front cover. But if in doubt leave your scanning to a repro house. They have far more experience, better scanners and will deliver the best results.

Background: Steve Nichols is a freelance journalist. He edits a free monthly e-zine for business communicators everywhere. Click Here  for details and to subscribe.
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                  Some additional (a bit more advanced)  information on scanning:

 Scan at the highest resolution your scanner can scan. Cut a small piece of the scan, readjust the resolution in your photo editing program 'Image Size' to 360 dpi (be sure to uncheck the Resample Image box)—the small piece size is now bigger. Save this and then sharpen and print. SAVE AS  SharpenedTest_01. If there is too much background noise, or your scanner is not that good, scan at slightly lower resolution to reduce the noise. Caution: only unsharp the final size of any file.

When making large scans that will require different sizes of prints, scan 48 bits with the highest resolution and lowest noise your scanner can scan. Save it as RAW. Adjust color and contrast at 48 bits in RGB.

Finally: if there is a chance that you may want to make a larger print from this file later on, it pays to scan big and clean at 33% or less. There is no penalty to print a 1000 dpi file. The drivers will ignore what it doesn't need.
 
                                                                

16 bits per color or 48 bits RGB or CMY are the same thing or
16 bits x 3 colors = 48 bits. The reason to scan at 48 bits is that
whatever adjustment you do to the file, including color adjustments, you throw information out. Converting adjusted file back to 8 bits per color or 24 RGB or CMY leaves you with a full quality 8 bit file, the standard.                                                                        ڤ
  • and in closing, here are some things to consider when selecting your scanner:

       1. make sure the scanning bed is large enough for your documents
       2. determine the type of connection that works with your computer -
           ● parallel port
           ● SCSI port
           ● USB port
       3. scanner prices often include image editing software.
           ● Do you need it?
       4. Do you need a slide adapter?
       5. CIS type scanners are less expensive than CCD (charge-coupled devices)
           but usually don't produce results as good as the CCD's.
       6. Select on the basis of Optical Resolution specifications. Ignore the
           higher sales type numbers called interpolated resolution.
                                   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     Take another look at the Amazon Desktop Scanner site to see how the different manufacturers' scanners compare.

     or  Save Up To 80% On Printers & Scanners At Overstock.com!

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                                                                                                                 7-29-07