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Scanning tips:

Scanning seems to be one piece of software that gives folks problems.  It’s a bit different than other software you may use.

All photo editing software, regardless of publisher, should have several basic features- cropping, editing, light balancing, and color balancing. 

Step One:  the preview

The preview feature allows you to set the scan area of the scan bed and set whether you will be scanning in color, gray scale, or line art (black and white).  You can also set the dpi (dots per inch) and scaling here (percent of actual size) here.  I normally chose 300 dpi for photos and 150 dpi for line art, and 100% scaling.

Step Two: the scan

This is easy.  Click on the “scan” button.

 Step Three: edit the image

This is where the fun is.  You can crop the photo, rotate it, light and color balance it, focus it, add text, and even add special effects. 

Step Four: save the image

This is different than saving, say, a word processing document.  What format should you chose?  Many photo editing packages default to a Windows only .BMP file type or bit map.   Bit map files are very large.  Use BMP format for photograph reproduction, and only if you have the disk space.   Do not send BMP email file attachments or for display on web pages.

 JPG files (Joint Photographic Experts Group), on the other hand, are much more compact and take up much less room on your hard drive.   JPG files are suitable for most photographs, email, and web pages.

 Other file formats are not normally used.

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