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General Scanning Tips
Resolution (dpi)
 | For general picture scanning, try a resolution of about 150 dpi; this will produce a
good quality scan while keeping the file size of the scan to a minimum. Unless you are
planning to do intricate image editing, increasing the resolution will not necessarily
result in a better scan. |
| When you need to enlarge a small picture (i.e. wallet-size enlarged to a
8"x10") use a higher resolution between 600 and 800 dpi. This way when you
enlarge the picture you will retain the detail of the original. If you perform the
same procedure with a lower resolution you will notice some "graininess" and
loss of detail. |
| Color mode scans take up more system resources (i.e. RAM, hard disk space, CPU cycles)
than Grayscale mode and even less for Black & White mode. When you want to make
a photo-copy of a document use black & white or grayscale mode at a resolution of 300.
This will give you a nice reproduction in a short time, and will save you some
printer ink too. |
Video Issues
| Make sure your video setting is set to the highest color depth allowed by your hardware.
Scans displayed on a monitor set to only 256 colors will appear faded, "grainy",
or "pixelated". Video cards with only 1Meg. of video memory may only support 16
bit High Color (65.5K colors). Video cards with at least 2 Meg. of video memory can
support 24 bit True Color (16.7M colors). Check with your video adapter manufacturer to
find out if your video card can be upgraded by simply adding some more memory. |
| Most image-editing software, like Picture Publisher, have a monitor adjustment utility
to correct the "gamma" of the display. This can help correct the quality
of what appears on your monitor and will also help when you are trying to print the
correct color tones. NOTE: Plustek scanners have a "gamma" adjustment
within the scanner dialog box also. |
Application Issues
| OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software is used only to scan in text for the
purpose of editing. Applications such as OmniPage, Recognita, and TypeReader will only
recognize text and will ignore handwriting, lines, and other graphic images. Also, keep in
mind that degraded quality documents (i.e. faxes, photocopies) will result in lower OCR
accuracy. |
| Saving scanned images in the *.JPG (JPEG) file format extension will help compress image
files to help save disk space. This is also the format that is most suited to Web
graphics and e-mail, because it is compressed and does not take very long to up/download.
Images that are saved in the *.BMP (Bitmap) file format extension can be used
as wallpaper in Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. This is the most generic image format
and can be imported into many applications that support graphic images. |
| Any software that you buy with TWAIN compliance will work with any Image-Land scanner.
TWAIN is a universal scanner language that comes in two varities; 16-bit TWAIN, and
32-bit TWAIN. There is no significant difference between the two, but your software
package will determine which one it can use. Make sure that you know how to
"Select TWAIN Source" from within your after-market software. |
Printing Issues
| Printers use a different method of color combination than scanners and monitors,
therefore getting perfect output from your printer is not an easy task. Try to
calibrate your printer by finding a very simple, small picture or image (the fewer colors
the better) and scanning it in. First check the output on your monitor; does it look
the same? If not, check to see if you can adjust your scanner's gamma or the gamma
in the application, or maybe just adjust your Brightness/Contrast controls on your
monitor. Next, print the image (remember it should be small so you don't waste too
much ink); does it look the same? If not, try to find the graphics settings for your
printer (in Win95 click on the Printers folder in My Computer and right-click on your
printer then got to Properties). See if you can adjust the color quality from here,
there may be a few different settings so experimentation is a must. |
| Color pictures printed from your printer on normal paper will look dark and low-quality.
Try some photo quality ink-jet paper or photo quality glossy paper for superior
output. |
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