Re: OFF TOPIC: scanning pictures

[Khan Klatt <kmk@pacificrim.net>]

>Matt,
>
>Don't scan at such a high dpi. The highest resolution that you can see on
>the web is 72 dpi, so scanning at 400-450 dpi is a waste. Try scanning
>your Jetta (jetta content!) at 72 dpi and then look at it on the screen.
>Should look fine and that will also bring the file down to a reasonable
>size.
>
>John Darwak
>'97 Jetta GLX Sequoia/Biber beige

This is not quite right. Some monitors can depict as high as 100dpi.

However, reducing down to 72 dpi makes a lot of sense. The program to use
for this is Photoshop. I typically scan at a rate TWICE as high as the
screen resolution. A scanner program is not very good at interpolating
information for the screen, so you should scan at most 144 DPI for the
screen.

Then, take the image, and reduce it down to 72dpi. That should increase the
size of your image because you're not losing any information (by reducing
the DPI, the image becomes larger).

Now that your image is nice and large, reduce the image to the size you
want it at.

Finally, index the image down to the amount of colors you want. If you want
high quality images, use JPEG, and use medium to high quality (medium to
low compression).

On the other hand, you could use GIF if you don't mind losing quality, and
are best for "non-organic" images. Things like scanned ads. Real photos,
generally, are better as JPG's.

-Khan
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Khan Klatt <kklatt@nw.verio.net>                                       Verio
Network Engineer                                    Bellingham Branch Office
Tel 800.591.2757 x 13                                    725 N. State Street
Fax 360.738.8315                                        Bellingham, WA 98225

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