scanner advice

67standup · March 19, 2004 2:09AM

I just purchased an HP 1210 all-in-one scanner. What are the optimum settings to scan and save as a jpeg in order tom upload to Ebay? That is, should the scale be 50%, 100, 200%...? What about the resolution, 200, 300 dpi? Those two factors affect the file size, so what's ideal under 10 MB, 20 MB, 40...?

I use Ebay's picture uploading service rather than hosting pics from a website.

packCollector · March 19, 2004 2:33AM

I would recommend getting a free hosting site and upload the pictures there. ebay pictures are way too small and unclear at their size limitation. just do a search and I am sure you can find a free hosting sight that will give you more than enough space for your ebay items

dude · March 19, 2004 2:46AM

packcollector gives some good advice. Ebay's image hosting sticks. Find a better one elsewhere and if you can find a free one - great! I use Andale and it's $3 a month for 3MB.

I bought an HP scanner recently and the HP Rep was there at Best Buy when I bought it. He told me that for on-line scans you should set your scanner for 150 dpi since a monitor won't show any higher resolution. The other two factors are scan size and JPEG compression. You probably should fool around with those settings until you get a scan that you are happy with. In my experience the best file size is around 50 KB. Anything a lot larger takes too long for the modem crowd to view and going smaller hurts the image.

67standup · March 19, 2004 2:48AM

That's good advice. As a scanner novice, I was inclined to go with larger dpi around 300, but smaller %, say around 50.

Some listings have great crystal clear scans.

phreakydancin · March 19, 2004 3:23AM

Please see my current auction for what scans can look like using a hosting site instead of eBay hosting.

CLICK

These scans were done with an HP scanner (might be same model... don't have it in front of me right now) at default size and settings (200 dpi).

One other piece of advice... use a DARK background... too many sellers use the white lid of their scanner as the background, leaving the corners and edges practically invisible. In my case, I used a black CD-R case to give the card definition.

67standup · March 19, 2004 4:09AM

Wow, those are nice scans! What's a CD-R case? Whatever it is, should I lay the card face down on the scanner, then place to CD-R on top, then close the lid?

brianwintersfan · March 19, 2004 4:16AM

Well I was scanning at 400 dpi but I will now change my settings.
What I did is tape a black sheet of paper on the lid of my scanner which helps bring out more details in the edges and corners of my scans.

Ruthfan · March 19, 2004 5:15AM

Phreaky, those scans are awsome. What hosting site do you use?

Todd

felix76 · March 19, 2004 5:28AM

If you right click on his picture the URL is for Geocities. I would say he uses Geocities, not for sure though.

ldferg · March 19, 2004 5:39AM

this is exactly the info i was looking for as well. will be looking at geocities.

Snowball · March 19, 2004 5:50AM

I have a d135 all-in-one (I just don't like the noise when it prints). I'm scanning at 300 dpi. I'll bring it down and see.

phreakydancin · March 19, 2004 6:02AM

Yes, I use Geocities, but be forwarned that free accounts will not allow the embedding of Geocities-hosted pics into other webpages. You need to pay a few $$$ to upgrade to the "Plus" account (I think that's the name).

A CD-R case is one of those skinny jewel cases that a recordable CD comes in. I just lay it down on top of the card. I like brianwintersfan's suggestion, but as I use my scanner for documents as well as cards, that's not the best solution.

felix76 · March 19, 2004 7:35AM

If you go to TARGET, Wal-Mart, etc. you can pick up posterboard for less than 75 cents a sheet. It usually comes in 12 x 14 inch sheets and many different colors (Black being my color of choice). It works really well and can be removed later for convenience.

ctsoxfan · March 19, 2004 2:01PM

Phreaky, nice scans...thanks for the CD-R case tip. You are right, most people (me included) don't use a colored background, and the borders get lost in the white background.

phreakydancin · March 20, 2004 12:47AM

Thanks for the kudos, guys. For the record, my scanner is a HP ScanJet 3970. I picked it up for C$149 (~US$109) at Costco about 6 months ago, and it does everything I would want a scanner to do. If you are just scanning stuff for the web, you can get away with a pretty cheap model which will do the job quite nicely.

scanner advice

Comments