Scanning Tips and Tricks

Halvor Moorshead gives some helpful hints to newcomers to scanning, he is the editor and publihser of Family Chronicle http://www.familychronicle.com

Scanners are being added to home computers at a very rapid rate as their price goes down and their performance improves. Most genealogists are involved in sharing and caring for the past and have many uses for a scanner.

Here are a few tips and tricks:

1. Think about file size
One thing you are quickly going to learn about scanned images is that they can take up a LOT of room on your hard dive. A fairly ordinary picture can take up 1.5 megabytes of disk space which is equivalent to about 180,000 words (a decent-sized novel). The old adage that "a picture is worth 1,000 words" is more than true with scanned images!

        In a world of unlimited disk space, we would scan everything at the maximum possible resolution and save it at 100 percent of the original size. In the real world we need to be more practical. Learn to vary your scanning depending on the nature of the picture: if the subject is important to you, by all means devote the space you need. On the other hand you can save lots of file space by scanning only that portion of the image you need and/or saving as a smaller size.

2. Compressing images
 All images can be saved as JPEGs (said JAY-Pegs) which take up a fraction of the original file size. When you open up a JPEG image, it is automatically decompressed and displayed as normal. Some software gives you no choice as to how far the image can be compressed while others allow you to make fine gradations.

        You can't scan an image as a JPEG (.JPG)- the image will almost always be a TIFF file. However, instead of just naming the image before you save, go to Save As, scroll down to JPEG and then Save.
        At this stage you may be offered a degree of compression, usually on a scale of 1-10 (1 is most compressed, 10 the least). Experiment to find the right degree for you. At the low (1-2) end, images lose a bit in quality. Until you are familiar with this feature, you may wish to try an 8.
        JPEG files are considerably smaller than TIFF files - savings of 95 percent are common.

3. Cut up text prior to using OCR
Almost all scanners come with Optical Character Recognition software but this is usually a "lite" or stripped version of a full package that the software company wants to sell you. Although these packages lack some of the sophistication of full-fledged OCR programs, they are far simpler to use.
        Simpler programs sometimes have problems with multiple columns of text or documents that include photos, logos, etc. There's an easy solution: photocopy the original and cut the columns into strips and remove the photographs.         There's also a common rumor that scanning an enlarged photocopied version improves OCR accuracy. This is a myth unless your scanner's resolution is below 300 dpi.

4. Manipulate AFTER scanning
You usually have some control over the color, contrast, etc. while scanning - avoid using this. The image is then transferred automatically to the image manipulation program where you are offered much the same (but more involved) control over your image. The order should be: 1. Scan a basic image, 2. Save it, 3. Play with it. Don't correct the image when scanning; do your manipulation in the main program.
        Two exceptions are when scanning as line-art or using descreening. Old engravings, and even text saved as an image, are best scanned as line art at 600 dpi (or twice the resolution of the output device) using the interpolation feature (which is automatic). These images are saved as bitmaps and, once scanned, can hardly be manipulated.

5. Save Black and White as Black and White
About 80 percent of the electronic images submitted for our "Dating Old Photos" article were submitted as color images even though the originals were almost all black and white. All you are doing here is to increase your file sizes three-fold and possibly saving the "distortion" of sepia fading.
        There is no advantage at all in saving monochrome images as color.

6. Learn to adjust contrast, brightness and sharpness
The idea of doing their own photo scares many people. Certainly retouching damaged photos requires a considerable degree of skill but if the image is basically sound, you can improve it considerably by adjusting the brightness, contrast and sharpness - not unlike setting a good TV picture. Most of the photo enhancement programs feature an automatic facility (not always prominent in the manual). Try this - it will often (not always) improve your image, sometimes magically.

7. Descreen
Images in newspapers and magazines are reproduced quite differently from photographic prints. They are reduced to a series of small dots (colored ones for color pictures of course). When scanning these you can easily get an interference pattern between the dots on the original and the dots scanned. Some scanners allow you to "descreen" when scanning: blurring the dot pattern so appears more like a photograph. This process is very effective and is far, far better than trying to overcome the screen or patterning in your photo enhancement software.

8. What you see is not always what you get
Photographic images on a computer monitor can often look fabulous - but we are actually viewing them at low resolution, usually at 72 dpi (the resolution also used on the web). Photographs in most magazines - including Family Chronicle - are reproduced at 133 dpi and many color printers are 720 dpi or more. Be aware of this. You need different resolutions for different purposes.

9. Don't keep your images on your hard drive
Although computer hard disk space is now a fraction of the cost that it was a few years ago, it is a lousy place to keep your precious images. Just ask anyone who has been around computers for over a decade: you'll be lucky to find someone who has not lost a hard drive at some time (the author has lost hard drives four times in 15 years). The data can be recovered by specialists but the costs are horrendous.
        If you have a reasonable number of black and white images and you take our recommendations to JPEG them, you can use 31/2 inch floppy disks. They are cheap and almost all computers can read and write to these (well, for the time being anyway).
Removable hard drives and other forms of mass storage (ZIP drives, for example, are being promoted heavily at the moment) offer a good solution - you can have as many 1 gigabyte backup disks as needed. These are fine but the disks are certainly not inexpensive.
        A CDR - a recordable CD - may be your best bet. Although they cost about 50 percent more than removable hard drives and do not have the ability to re-record, the blank disks are now only $1.50-$3.00 each and will hold 650 megabytes of data. The author's entire (and extensive) photo archives all fit onto one CD. The inability to re-record is actually a plus as you can never erase your data in error.

10. For hard copy - just wait
It's all very well to scan and share your pictures electronically but, let's face it, most of the time we want a traditional print for many occasions. Technology available to print out files at any decent quality has lagged the electronic side. "Photo realism" kits have been very disappointing - at least until very recently. A new generation of color printers capable of producing almost-photographic images on special paper have appeared. The Hewlett-Packard PhotoSmart system is startling. Also of note is the Panasonic TruPhoto system although this system is limited to a single size output. EDITORS NOTE: We also found the Epson printer line to also be quiet high
quality and very affordable. They have came a long way in their quality.