Scanning

Choose what kind of scanning do you need?

• Photo scan
• Scan to a PDF file
• Scan to editable text
• Blueprint Scanning

Photo scanning

• If you are scanning a photo you can go directly to software like Photoshop and import then choose your scanners name and begin scanning. In Photoshop you can then tweak your photo to look its best.
• If your scanner came with software use the software interface choosing the option to scan to photo. Here it will give you options to adjust the photo to create the best image.

In what formats can I save my scanned image?

Most digital cameras save to JPG format because of its flexible compression of file sizes. This allows for more photos to fit on a card.

JPG - web or print format, RGB color mode, use for color and greyscale photos (B&W), must re size to smaller file for web use, Note: Avoid saving the file too many time it looses quality with each save. It is recommend to save the original and duplicate the file to adjust it.

Formats for professional level uses--note: not all digital cameras save to these file formats.

TIF - press quality print format, CYMK color mode, original size of file = large, almost all file data is saved in the file format so it can be re-saved often, used by print graphic designers

RAW - original camera data format, file size = extra large -used by pros, all file data is saved with this format, storage memory requirements are high, many programs don't open them. Manufacturers tend to have proprietary raw formats

Great for web work - These formats do not come straight form a digital camera but are made with an image editor.

PNG - web format, RGB color mode, original file size = medium, used because it makes good web transparency and designer layers, re size for web

GIF - web format, INDEX color, original file size = small, use for simple solid color graphics and black and white drawings

Out of date format

BMP -This file format that now has limited use. Worked well in the past and still works today with Microsoft windows products it is a grade below a tif.

Scanning to PDF

What is a PDF File?

PDF formats encapsulate (something like a zip file) all kinds of data, photos text, graphics fonts hyperlinks and more. PDF files are connivent, easy to e-mail and reasonably sized due to compression.

How to scan to a PDF file...

When you scan a paper, book page or photo to a PDF file essentially you are taking a photo of it and optimizing and compressing everything about it into a PDF wrapper full of file information. Aside from scanning items to to a PDFyou can also create PDF files directly from some software packages. These PDF files will generally include compressed items like photos, fonts and hyperlinks making PDF's so portable and easy to use.

• To scan you can go directly to Acrobat Standard or Acrobat Professional software then go to import and then choose the scanning option (create PDF from scanner). If your scanner came with software use the software interface choosing an option to scan directly to PDF.
• Campus copiers have a low resolution option to scan to a PDF file which you can e-mail to yourself or others.

Scanning to be able to edit page text

Editable text can be made form hard copy text like text in books, papers, brochures etc.) this kind of scanning is a step up from photo or PDF scanning. It is called OCR (Optical Charter Recognition). It is a useful method that can save time retyping in many cases. However, If the copy is in bad condition (page blotches, broken lettering, faint lettering) OCR may not help because sometimes you will spend more time fixing the OCR text so retyping may be faster.

The best way to OCR is with Adobe Acrobat standard or professional software (not Acrobat Reader). You will need to open Acrobat / Import and choose the scanning option (create PDF from scanner) choose OCR recognition and it exports the copy to a text file. The finished text file will be in ASCII raw format (plain text) which can be pasted into word or other programs and reformatted. Note: the OCR check box can sometimes be small and hard to notice. Note: if you have a problem with ASCII text use your computers Note pad accessory program it opens ASCII plain text.

Blueprint Scanning

Local rapid-repro print vendor (Kinkos) can copy blueprints. Blueprint services can duplicate and save your blueprint to a disc file. They use industry drum scanner for quality reprints. See: Duncan-Parnell blueprint service or ask Carolyn Mitkowski about it.