| Although
scanning programs vary, here are a few general tips that you may
find helpful.
Selecting
the 'mode'
Most
scanning programs (such as Photoshop, Microsoft Photo Editor,
Adobe Photo Delux) let you select a mode for scanning your images
- line art, halftone, grayscale, and colour
(or 'color', as the Americans would have it). Adjust the
mode depending on the type of image you're scanning.
Line
art (or 'monochrome') is for images that contain solid areas
of black and white. You use this mode if you are scanning something
black-and-white - like a logo off your letterhead or a pen-and-ink
drawing. The key to this mode is that it doesn't read any shades
of gray.
Halftone
is for pictures from books, newspapers, and magazines. When pictures
are printed in newspapers, the continuous tones of the photographs
need to be converted into tiny black dots of varying sizes. Pictures
in books and magazines are made up of dots too, only a lot smaller.
In the case of colour pictures, the dots are yellow, black, magenta,
or cyan, all layered on top of each other to form the picture.
To
scan colour or black-and-white photos, use the colour and
grayscale modes.
'Preview'
After
choosing a mode, load your picture into the scanner face down
on the glass, just like on a photocopy machine, and click 'Preview'
(or 'Prescan').
The scanner will take a quick pass of the image and display a
rough version on your screen.
This
gives you an idea of what the finished article will look like.
Most programs also let you specify which section of the image
you want to scan.
Don't waste time scanning the whole image if you just want a piece
of it. Scanning the whole thing takes up a lot of computer memory;
it's a waste if you're going to crop the image later on. So use
a selection tool to choose the area you want to scan.
Then
click 'Scan'.
Saving
your scanned image
Web pictures need to be in the electronic form of either 'JPEG
(*.jpg)' or 'GIF (*.gif)'. However, scanners - as well as digital
cameras and clipart disks - often produce other kinds.
So,
when your image has been scanned, go to File and 'Save
Picture As...' Then 'Save as type...' and select either
'JPEG (*.jpg)' or 'GIF (*.gif)'.
You
can call your image/picture file anything you like and save it
into any folder you like on your PC (for example in 'My Documents').
The
size of file
If your picture is enormous (many kilobytes) it will take far
too long to travel over Internet and people viewing your web site
will get annoyed.
We
have imposed a limit of 50 kilobytes (50kb) on what can be uploaded.
Even this can take 10 seconds to come through.
If
you try to upload a picture that is too large, the easisite system
will tell you and you'll need to reduce it...
Reducing
the file size
Try each of the following using your drawing or photo editor
program (generally the same program you used to scan your image
in the first place).
JPG
files are generally more compact than GIF, so save it as JPG.
Most drawing programs let you specify the amount of compression
of JPG files - try more compression. It reduces the quality, but
70% compression (30% of best quality) is usually OK.
Reduce
the width and height of the picture. Electronic pictures are measured
in pixels (spots of colour). When your picture goes online it
will be displayed less than 300 pixels wide (and high) so there's
no point uploading anything larger. (A 'pixel', by the way, is
a 'picture element'.)
Your drawing program should have a menu option to resize the picture.
Alternatively you could crop (cut the edges off) your picture
which will make it smaller (check your drawing program menus)..
Don't
have a scanner or lack the confidence?
If
all of the above is too much for some customers or if you hold
photographs but lack a scanner, we have two suggestions:
1)
Find a teenager with a PC and scanner and offer some inducement
for him or her to scan your photos for you.
2)
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