Tuesday, December 8, 2009

How to Scan Your Images and Use Your Scanner and Print Your Photos

Fujitsu fi-6130 Duplex Scanner (PA03540-B055)

Here are some easy step by step instructions to get the most out of your scanner for you.

1. Carefully clean the scanner glass with a piece of cloth or glass cleaner and allow it to dry.

2. Make sure the scanner is on.

3. Place the item on the scanner glass with the image facing down. Ensure that the actual print area is parallel to the edges of the scanner.

4. After you start the scanner software, run a preview. If your scanner software does not run the preview automatically, do so yourself.

5. If your picture or graphic appears skewed or crooked in the preview, line it up better and repeat the preview.

6. On the preview, use your mouse to outline the desired scan area.

7. If you are going to use Photoshop (or any other image editing program), scan all color images as 'millions of colors'. Otherwise, use grey scale for black and white.

8. Adjust the scanner resolution. Set it to 300 dpi to scan for printing and 72 dpi for scanning for use on the web.

9. Try the auto-exposure button if applicable in your scanner software to adjust brightness and contrast, if needed.

10. Click Scan or Final to scan the image.

12. Save image in tif, psd or bmp if you are scanning to print. Save it in jpg or gif if you are scanning for the web.

With all scanner software, the scanning features and scanning process are generally similar. However, here are a few scanner software programs that we recommend.

If you want to scan from your transparencies and produce good quality 24bit images somewhat automatically, then Silverfast AI Scanner Software could be a good choice for you. If you want to scan negatives, then you may find Vuescan Scanning Software pretty useful. Any program needs to be compatible with your scanner.

Other Recommended Scanner Software:

HP PrecisionScan

Microtek ScanWizard 5

Microtek ScanWizard Pro 6

Minolta Scan Dual II

Umax VistaScan

Umax MagicScan

Few final tips to add on scanning and printing your scanned images are:

? Choose the best possible photo. Although you can make adjustments on your image with the image editing programs, the better your original scanning photo, the better your final scan will be. For better results, choose pictures with good contrast and that also have good lighting.

? Always scan your image in the position or direction in which the image will be used. If you rotate the image in your image editing program, some detail will be lost.

? Scan only the part of the image that you need. If you don?t need the whole image but only a small portion of it, then just scan that portion. Your scanner software has the tools to do this.

? To make adjustments to color and sharpness on your scanned image, use your image editor, not the scanning software of your scanner.

? When saving a jpg, a quality of 2, 3 or 4 is generally sufficient for scanning for the web.

? When you are editing, don?t forget that the image's appearance will change from monitor to monitor. Also, the height and width of the image will vary from software to software.

? Read the manual for your scanner software if available and get to know your scanner software. Or, just play with the scanner software until you are sufficiently familiar with it. As you make more and more scans, you will better understand how to get the best results from your scanner.

This article is prepared by Christy Berger who writes for PrintCountry.com. A longer version of this article can be found at rel="nofollow" href="http://www.printcountry.com/printers/Stylus_Scan_2000.asp">Epson Stylus Scanner Compatible. Main resource of this article is rel="nofollow" href="http://www.printcountry.com/">Scan Images & Photo Print Ink at PrintCountry.

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