I need help with scans!

jwest94

Alright I am about to give up. I scanned a ton of cards from my 1976 topps fb set and was going to post them. Well the pics were way too big to post they were like 2,000 kb so i shrunk them down in size to under 100 kb but now i can't get them to be clear images at that size. What DPI do you scan masters scan at and what do you do to make the pictures to be clear. Any help would be much appreciated.

magellan

Jwest, I scan at 300 dpi, then in my editing program I crop & reduce resolution to 125 dpi. I use Adobe Photoshop Elements which was a freebie with my scanner. The final cropped 125 dpi image is 50-60 kb, or 60-70 kb now that I'm leaving my scanner top up. Hope this helps some.

Dave

Aknot

mag,

Are you saying there is a difference with the scanner lid up? What is different if you scan the same card twice one up one down?

bobsbbcards

jwest94,

I find that owning Adobe PhotoShop is a key for me to get good scanning results. I'm sure there are cheaper software packages that can do the same things though. I'll assume the cards you are scanning are to post to the registry.

I have an HP PrecisionScan LTX scanner. I select for the scan to go automatically to PhotoShop (by doing this, I don't have to worry about any DPI settings in the scanning software, it just uses the presets). Presets are Best Color Photograph, Scaling 100%, 200 DPI.

Once I have selected the scanning area and choose to scan, picture comes up in PhotoShop. I then choose Image/Image Size, and change the resolution to 72 DPI (anything higher than 72 does not make any quality difference for images displayed on the web, it just increases the viewing size). A nice advantage of using 72 DPI is the card will appear very close to its actual size when displayed on a typical 1024 by 768 monitor. When the resolution is changed from 200 DPI to 72 DPI, PhotoShop resamples the pixels (dithering the colors) to give you a very clear image. Some software programs, like MicroSoft Paint for instance, simply throw pixels away when resizing an image.

I then choose File/Save for Web. PhotoShop gives you various JPEG saving options. I always choose JPEG, Maximum quality (80), Optimized. I can scan a standard size card in a PSA holder and get a nice, clean 40K to 50K image.

For non-PhotoShop solution, make sure your software can size your image with dithering (resampling to blend colors) to 72 DPI. It also needs to be able to create a JPEG image with a high level of quality.

Hope this helps!

Bob

magellan

Bob, You said it better than I .

Jim, Leaving the scanner lid up gives a black background so the contrast to the clear/white PSA holder is greater. If you want I can send you via email an example of each.

Dave My email Drop me a line, I'll reply with files tomorrow.

SoFLPhillyFan

bobsbb -

Thanks for the tips on PhotoShop. I have had the program for 2 years but did not use it too much. It sure gives more flexibility in editing images, but does take some learning. PageMaker is also good and I have used it for many purposes.

For those like me who maybe do not have the time to extensively learn about image editing, I have used Microsoft PhotoDraw for a couple of years. It's very user friendly and puts out a good image. Haven't seen it out there too much - I received it bundled with FrontPage.

Keith

Aknot

<< <i>Bob, You said it better than I .

Jim, Leaving the scanner lid up gives a black background so the contrast to the clear/white PSA holder is greater. If you want I can send you via email an example of each.

Dave My email Drop me a line, I'll reply with files tomorrow. >>



Ah.. No thanks I get the same results yet I just use a "black" piece of paper. You sohuld try that instead it will give a sharper look to the card.

I am in the process of creating a webpage for scanning cards.

Scanning

It is not done. Do not bookmark it as the page name will change. I will add pictures and scans.

fsjeter

Am I the only person on this board that uses a digital camera? This seems to be the easiest route for me! Take the picture and do some light cropping with Microsoft Photo Editor (which is almost always part of the Windows package) and it's done!

Aknot

<< <i>Am I the only person on this board that uses a digital camera? This seems to be the easiest route for me! Take the picture and do some light cropping with Microsoft Photo Editor (which is almost always part of the Windows package) and it's done! >>



IMHO the "camera" venue can never do your cards justice the way a scan can. Or injustice if it is a "crappy" card.

AlanAllen

Another thing to remember is to set the descreen setting to the maximum. That will prevent the rippling and rainbow patterns you see in some people's scans. MicroTek makes some excellent, inexpensive scanners that work very well for cards.

Joe

jwest94

Well sounds like my problem si with my software I am using HP photo and imaging software and it isn't cutting it. Guess i have to go spend some money. Oh wait I don't have any

ctsoxfan

Bob, and everyone, thanks - helpful post! It has been covered before, but quality scanning is always a mystery to me...

SoFLPhillyFan

bobsbb -

Thanks again for your scanning/PhotoShop tips.

Tried your directions today and they work great!

Keith

mrc32

For a great FREE and easy to use program to edit your images sizes google INFRANVIEW

jwest94

Ok I gave infranview a try and got this result what do you guys think?