How to Do Everything With Your Scanner- P24 pdf

Overexposed photos contain more image data and are much easier to fix using your image-editing software.. Open Your Scanner Software To start a scan using the software, you must first op

sensitive and has a hard time reading fuzzy-edged characters If you absolutely have to scan a fax, have it sent to you using a large type size, and the Fine rather than Standard resolution setting

Develop an eye for which defects can be repaired. Don’t panic about a few specks of dust, or a slight blurring The paint and sharpen tools in your image-editing software will enable you to attend to these sorts of things If you have a torn or wrinkled photo, however, try to locate an original in better condition After working on scanning and image-editing projects for a while, you get a feel for how much work it takes to fix certain things

Overexposed is better than underexposed. If you have a choice between

an overexposed image and an underexposed one, pick the overexposed version

Overexposed photos contain more image data and are much easier to fix using your image-editing software

The Two Ways to Perform a Scan

Just as you can open or copy a file more than one way in Windows, you can usually accomplish a scanning task by more than one method The method you choose—

pushing a button or selecting the scan option from the software menu—won’t affect your finished result It’s strictly a matter of user preference

Although most new models of scanners offer external push buttons, older and less expensive models might not If this is the case, you have no choice but to execute a scan by opening the scanner’s software.

Open Your Scanner Software

To start a scan using the software, you must first open the software by selecting it from your Programs menu, or clicking an icon installed on your desktop Once you open the software, you can usually begin your scanning operation via a dialog box or command menu Figure 5-6 shows the software bundled with the Hewlett-Packard 5370C scanner Commands listed under the Scan menu enable you to view and save your scanned images

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FIGURE 5-6 The software bundled with the Hewlett-Packard 5370C scanner

Use the External Buttons

The advantage of having external buttons on your scanner is that you don’t have to open your software program to start a scan This saves you a few seconds Many scanners open the software program when you push the button to allow you to edit the image or select the program you want to send the scanned image to

Select the Right Image Output Type

This chapter is confined to the basics, and avoids having you do a lot of configuring for your first scan Your scanner software does a pretty good job of selecting default settings for scanning an image This means you don’t have to provide it with a lot of image information prior to your first scan To get optimum results, however, you need

100 How to Do Everything with Your Scanner

to identify an image output type for the image you’re scanning Most scanners prompt

or allow you to select from some or all the following types of image output:

Black and white/line art This type of image format supports only black and white—similar to the appearance of a pen-and-ink drawing It can include patterns and lines to give the effect of shaded areas, but the lines are drawn in only one shade Your scanner uses a high resolution to produce this sort of output so the lines appear clear and sharp

Grayscale This type of image contains a continuous range of black, gray, and white tones Professional photographers and graphic artists think of grayscale in terms of many “steps” or shades of gray Your scanner and printer use a process

called half-toning to reproduce the continuous image using a series of dots When

you select grayscale on your scanner as your image output type, you’re configuring

it to produce the dotted, or half-toned, image

True color This output setting, which is also referred to as 8-bit color, sets your scanner to reproduce millions of shades As with grayscale, true color sets your scanner to produce a digital half-tone image

256 color This setting outputs 256 colors or shades of gray for a half-tone image composed of colored dots

Text During your scan your text is formatted to readable, ASCII characters

ASCII is a system of coding letters to numeric values that can be interpreted by your computer The acronym stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange

Text and image If this sophisticated option is available on your scanner, you can preserve both the text and image in a single scan

Chapter 6 tells you more about these different image types

Sending Your Image to Its Final Destination

An image that’s just been scanned is sort of in limbo After your scanner has captured

an image, it needs to send it to another software application somewhere on your computer to be saved as a file within that application

Scanners differ as to how they allow you to specify the “destination application”

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You can also select the Save As option from the File menu to save your image in a default application you’ve specified

FIGURE 5-7 Sending an image to a specific program

If you are not sure how to specify destination software for your image, or you need to change it, try searching your scanner’s online help menu using a query such as “saving.”

Click to send

to specific program.

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Scanning Techniques for Different Types

of Images

Chapter 6