Bill eager smart computing scanner article

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ThisIsn'tYour
Fathe(s Scanner
PutThisVersatileDeviceToWork ForYou

WOULD YOU LIKE AN INEXPENSIVE, yet do with your scanned image. Maybe Higher resolution also translates
powerful tool that can transform your you'll be sending the scan as an into larger file sizes. In fact, when you
documents, emails, and PowerPoint email attachment or you want to double the resolution, you quadruple
slides int~ dynamic presentations? make high-resolution color prints. your file size. If you scan an 8- x 10-
A tool that can help you organize, Each of these applications requires inch photograph at 300dpi, you'll end
archive, and share decades of old pho- up with a fairly hefty 10MB file. Scan
a different scan of the s~~e image.
tographs? A tool that makes it easy to The reason is resolution. this same image at 600dpi and you
create personalized calendars, note Let's take a minute to examine reso- have a 40MB file. High-resolution
cards, and business materials? lution. One of the most usef~l ways images take up more space on your
There's a good chance you already to express resohltion of digital images hard drive and occupy more memory
own this valuable tool. It's a scanner, is in pixels. Your computer monitor when you are viewing or working on
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Scanner
helps
software, uch
youmake
s asthisHPproduct,
adjustments
totheimageor
Windows MelXP
software.
includeimage-scanning
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documentbefore
youscan. Mostscannersoftware lets you makecopies
from documents.
displays pixels and measures resolu-
and today's scanners perform digital tion in ppi (pixels per inch). In con-
magic. With features such as color trast, your inkjet printer prints images them, which could result in slow or
correction, 35mm film scanning, and in dpi (dots per inch). erratic performance.
automatic email attachment, a scanner To print photographic quality out-
is a cornerstone of digital photog- put with your printer, you need a
Windows
ImageAcquisition
raphy. We'll show you the basics to minimum of 200dpi. That's what the
help you get the best quality images, as average person sees as reasonable Windows Me/XP include WIA
well as tips on how to use your images quality in a picture. If you plan to take (Windows Image Acquisition), which
for a variety of creative applications. your final output to a commercial print makes it easy to scan images. All you
house (perhaps for wedding invitations need is a WIA-enabled scanner with
GetYourBestScan or copies of a business plan), 300dpi is a USB (Universal Serial Bus) connec-
common. You can get away with lower tion. You don't have as much control
Before you scan anything, you dpi if you're putting a picture into an over the image as you would with
heed to determine what you want to em ail or PowerPoint presentation. your scanner's software, but this is the

34 September2004 / www.smartcomputing.com
--

. General Computing.
quick-and-dirty method. After original image. Then, you can use
you make sure your scanner is an image enhancement program
. such as Microsoft Picture It!
connected to your PC and all of
",
the proper drivers are installed, ($49.95;http://www.microsoft
place the image you want to scan .com) or Adobe Photoshop ($649;
face down on the scanner. Go to
Start, My Pictures, and click '>!
"
J http://www.adobe.com)
adjustments.
to make

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Picture Tasks and Get Pictures ',-, ~, ". /:C
,

From A Scanner Or Camera. , '

Click Next when the Scanner And ,,
,
,,', ,
SpecialEffects& Beyond
Camera Wizard launches. Click Today's scanners offer a myr-
Preview. Click Custom Settings ~" iad of special features. The mir-
to adjust brightness, contrast, and ror option flips your image left to
resolution. Click Next, type the
name of the picture, select a file
format from the drop-down
>-.~': right (or visa versa). Invert colors
converts white areas of an image
to black and black areas to white.
menu, and choose where you With color images, each color is
want to save the file. Click Next. converted to its complementary
Here isanexample ofapicturethatwescannedirectly
d on color. As previously mentioned,
theflatbedscanner. you can also achieve these special
ScanA Document
effects after a straight scan with
Let's assume that you find a great ar- Format], or TIFF [T~gged Image File other image manipulation programs.
ticle in a magazine or newspaper and Format]), you will have a picture. You Nearly every new scanner offers these
want to scan it. Remember that copy- can print this picture, but you can't sorts of options.
right rules apply to most published change the text or move graphics. If A home copier. If you have a home
works. If you're not sure how you can you save the same article as editable office but no copy machine, don't
use a scanned image, check out the text with graphics, you will be able sweat it: There are two ways you can
United States Copyright Office Web site to edit text and move graphics. use your scanner to make copies. One
(http://www.copyright.gov). Assuming Depending upon your scanner's soft- way is to scan a document and then
you can legally scan and use an image, ware, you may be able to save the print copies. This is a rather time-con-
there are a few tips you need to keep in image as an Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft suming process, especially if you have
mind. All printed images have been Word, or WordPad or other file multiple pages. There's a good chance
printed with screens, meaning the im- format that enables manipulation of your scanner software has a copy func-
ages are made up of dots. If you scan it both the images and the text. Your tion. You can make additional adjust-
normally, you'll end up making this dot scanner's software should offer op- ments such as reducing or enlarging
pattern look even worse. This is where tions for saving your scans in different the image size, improving the quality
you want to use a descreen tool if your file formats. Check your users manual of the copy, lightening, and darkening.
scanner's software provides it. for details. If your document has multiple pages, a
You will find occasions to scan doc- Adjust the dpi with your output and document feeder can help (not all
uments that contain images and text. application in mind. Most scanner soft- scanners accept document feeders).
Maybe your daughter's team wins an ware also has controls to adjust con- The advantage is that you'll get the
important match, or your company trast, sharpness, and color. Unless you output you want without having files
publishes a newsletter that features a are trying to, achieve a special effect, use saved on your hard drive.
project you worked on. You have two the default or auto aajustment for each Scanning 35mm slides. Most
options: You can save the 'combined of these settings. The goal is to create a everybody has 35mm slides and neg-
text and graphics as an image file or scan that closely approximates your atives lying around. Even digital
you can save the text and camera users sometimes
graphics in a manner that lets Uses For Your Scan revert to using a 35mm
ggestea DU
you use and edit the text in a camera on certain occa- .
word processing program. Emailattachment 50 to 100dpi sions. With a film adaptor
If you save the article as PowerPointslide .100t0200dpi (many scanners have them
an image file (JPEG [Joint For a document or calendar. . . . . . . . . . 200 to 300dpi built in), you can create
Photographic Experts Group], digital images and files
High-quality photo reproduction. . . . . 300 to 1,200dpi
GIF [Graphics Interchange from images your 35mm

,

!

camera originally captured. The Insert, Picture, and From File and find that may improve the performance of
scanner automatically converts nega- your Image. your scanner.
tives into positive images. The 35mm Use the correct image orientation.
adapter is usually built into the lid of Place the image in its proper orienta-
Fine-TuneYourScanning
the flatbed scanner. It often has its tion on the scanner's glass. You can
own light source that illuminates the Here are a few suggestions and lose detail when you rotate images in
film as it scans. Insert your film, ideas that should improve your scan- image-editing programs.
close the scanner lid, and begin your ning techniques and get your creative Scan only what you need. If you only
scan. Epson offers a series of scan- juices flowing. need to use a small portion of an image,
ners called Perfection, HP has its Choose the correct image file use the crop function to mark this area
Scanjet series, and Canon manufac- types. When you create an image file for scanning. You'll save yourself some
tures a series of CanoScan film and from your scan, it will be saved in a editing time and reduce the file size.
photo scanners, all with built-in specific file format, such as JPEG, Scan images for the Web. Most
35mm film strip adapters. Prices TIFF, or GIF. JPEG files produce Web pages incorporate images that are
range from $79 to $599. small file sizes that are great for either JPEG or GIF files. Because Web
Email. We all use email. And you em ail, Web pages, and small prints. pages require small file sizes in order
probably enjoy sending pictures to JPEG files use lossy file compression, to download quickly, your best bet is
friends, family, and colleagues. Your which means they tend to lose image to create 100dpi JPEG or GIF files.
scanner software may have a feature details. What's worse, every time you Create a collage. You can spend
that both saves the scanned image as manipulate and resave a JPEG file, hours digitally manipulating an artis-
a file that is appropriate for email (a you increase the loss. tic collage of images. Or, you can cut
small file size between 50KB and 150 TIFF files are lossless, meaning no and paste your images on a piece of
KB) and automatically launches your information is lost. They create larger paper and scan the result.
em ail program. file sizes, but TIFf is perhaps the best Scan 3D objects. Sure, it's called
file format for high-quality scans that a flatbed scanner, but that doesn't
you want to use for prints. mean you can't scan 3D objects.
ScanningIn Action You can also read and write GIF Remember when you copied your
The best part of scanning is that files numerous times without addi- hand on a copy machine? The light
there is no limit to the things you can tionalloss in quality, as GIFs are loss- from the scanner is designed to
do. You've got pictures. Lots of them. less. GIF is limited to 256 colors, so it's get the best image at the surface of
You have slides, prints, and negatives, best used for logos or pictures that the scanner (where the glass is). But
not to mention family heirlooms, contain fewer colors. a flatbed scanner can create 3D-
Polaroids, and snapshots. Start scan- Clean the glass. To get the best looking images when you scan ob-
ning. As you save files, sort them into possible scan, you want to have clean jects. These include flowers, leaves,
folders for easy reference. glass. A speck of dust or a fingerprint small tapestries, and, yes, your hand.
A great way to share your scanned can make even the best scan look Be careful, though; you don't want to
images is to create a calendar. There ugly. Don't use a commercial glass put anything on the glass that could
are a number of calendar-creation cleaner because they contain abra- scratch the surface and ruin future
programs available. Even if you just sives that can scratch the surface. Use scans. Consider placing a protective
have Microsoft Word, you can easily a professional quality lens cleaner or layer (such as clear plastic) on top
make a calendar with your own pic- make your own solution, but always of the glass, and leave the scanner
tures. To do so, go to File, New, and check your users manual to see what lid open.
Other Documents. Select Calendar the manufacturer recommends.
Wizard. Select the style, direction, Apply the solution (combine one I Think I Scan
picture (make sure you leave room drop of dish soap, 4 ounces of water,
for a picture and date range). Select and a half ounce of rubbing alcohol) With the tips we've provided, you
Insert, Picture, and From File. Locate with a clean, lint-free cloth and should be able to get the most from
your photo and insert it in the let it air dry. Omit the rubbing al- your scanner. So delve into those boxes
calendar. cohol if your scanner's glass has a of slides, pictures, and newspaper clip-
You can also insert scanned im- protective coating (again, check your pings and start using your scanner to
ages in letters, marketing brochures, manual). showcase your accomplishments. II
and business proposals. Personalize Update scanner software. Check the
PowerPoint presentations with scanned scanner's manufacturer's Web site to BYBill EAGER

images. At any slide, simply go to locate any driver or software updates

Bill eager smart computing scanner article

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