Contents Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv PART I The Basics of Scanning CHAPTER 1 What You Can Do with Your Scanner . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Scanners Transform Paper Images into Digital Ones . . . . . . . . 4 Why Scanned Images Are Better than Paper Ones . . . . . . . . . 4 You Can Touch-Up and Correct a Scanned Image . . . . . . 4 You Can Cut and Crop a Scanned Image . . . . . . . . . . . 9 You Can Combine Multiple Scanned Photos . . . . . . . . . 12 You Can Import Scanned Photos into Project Templates . . . 14 You Can Email Scanned Photos and Post Them on the Web . . 19 You Can Organize Images into Easily Accessed Databases . . 20 Other Uses for Your Scanner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 A Logical Approach to Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 CHAPTER 2 How Scanning Technology Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 The Scanning Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 The Science Behind a Scan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Images Consist of Pixels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Recognize the Common Parts All Scanners Have . . . . . . . . . 31 The Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Other Key Scanner Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 The Role of Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Factors that Determine Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Be Sure to Look at the Optical Resolution of a Scanner . . . 34 Avoid Comparisons of Interpolated Resolution . . . . . . . . 34 Testing the Tonal Sensitivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Coordinating Your Scanner with Your Printer and Monitor . . . . 36 Measuring the Monitor’s Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Matching Scanner and Printer Specifications . . . . . . . . . 40 Different Originals Require Different Scan Techniques . . . . . . 41 Software to Optimize Your Scan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Types of Scanner Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 The Important Role of Software During a Scan . . . . . . . 43 For more information about this title, click here. Copyright 2001 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Click Here for Terms of Use. Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. CHAPTER 3 Selecting the Right Scanner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 A Basic Shopping List of Scanner Features . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Pick the Right Port Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 The Common Contenders: Parallel and USB Connections . . 49 SCSI Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 The Furor over FireWire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Be Realistic about the Kind of Resolution You Need . . . . . . . 51 What the Resolution Numbers Mean in a Scanner Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 You Can Skip the Interpolated Resolution Specs . . . . . . . 52 Pay Only for the Resolution You Really Need . . . . . . . . 52 Match the Resolution to What You Actually Do . . . . . . . 53 How Resolution and Hard-Drive Space Affect Each Other . . . . 53 Deciding on the Right Bit Depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 What to Consider When You Compare Sensors . . . . . . . . . . 55 Research and Shop for a Scanner on Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Survey the Market with CNET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Compare Prices and Features on ZDNet . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Get Details from the Scanner Manufacturer Sites . . . . . . 58 Bargains at Overstock.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Buying a Scanner in Person . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Narrowing Down the Choices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 CHAPTER 4 Install Your Scanner and Inventory Your Hardware . . . . . . 65 Hardware Requirements for Successful Scanning . . . . . . . . . 66 Speed and Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 The Microprocessor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 RAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Storage Space for Your Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Printer Capability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Installation Made Easy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Step 1: Inventory Your Scanner Components . . . . . . . . . 81 Step 2: Connect Your Cabling and Power Source . . . . . . 82 Step 3: Install the Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Step 4: Check the Status of Your Scanner . . . . . . . . . . 85 Troubleshooting the Installation Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 How to Get Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 PART II The Techniques of Scanning and Editing CHAPTER 5 The Basics for Your First Scan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Overview of the Scanning Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Be Sure to Unlock Your Scanner Carriage . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 vi Contents Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Pushing Buttons and Programming Commands . . . . . . . . . . 94 Why Have Manufacturers Added External Buttons? . . . . . 94 How to Identify What the Buttons Do . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Programming Your Scanner’s Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Choose the Best Original . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 The Two Ways to Perform a Scan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Open Your Scanner Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Use the External Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Select the Right Image Output Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Sending Your Image to Its Final Destination . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 CHAPTER 6 Scanning Techniques for Different Types of Images . . . . . . 103 Overview of the Different Types of Images . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Scan Clear, Clean, Line-Art Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Scan Line Art at a High Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 How to Capture Black-and-White Bitmaps and Vectors . . . 108 Produce High-Quality Grayscale Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Capture Vibrant Color Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Maximize Quality with the True-Color Setting . . . . . . . . 112 Optimize Your 256-Color Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Save File Space with the Spot-Color Option . . . . . . . . . 113 Working with Half-Tone Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Why You Need to Know about Half-Toning . . . . . . . . . 113 How to Scan Previously Half-Toned Images . . . . . . . . . 114 Scanning Text and Images that Contain Text . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 CHAPTER 7 Troubleshooting Tips and Tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Where Is the Manual? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Locating Your User Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Questions Answered by Your Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 When the Buttons Won’t Do Anything . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 How to Interpret a Flashing Lamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 When Your Computer Doesn’t Recognize a Connection to Your Scanner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Look for a Conflicting Software Driver . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Slow Scans, Saves, and Edits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Conflicting Scanner Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Other Programs Competing for Resources . . . . . . . . . . 125 Checking Your System Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Recommendation for Cleaning Your Scanner: Don’t! . . . . . . . 128 CHAPTER 8 Formats for Saving and Storing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Files Saved on Your Computer Have Different Formats . . . . . . 130 Programs Write Files in Their Native Formats . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Contents vii Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Image-Editing Programs Support Different Formats . . . . . . . . 132 Identifying Image File Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Selecting an Image Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 JPEG: The Most Common Internet Format . . . . . . . . . . 135 GIF: The Graphics Interchange Format . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 PNG: An Alternative Graphics Format . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 TIF: A Very Portable Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 BMP: The Most Versatile Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 The Costs and Benefits of Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 How Compression Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 Compression Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Choosing the Right File Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 CHAPTER 9 Selecting the Right Image-Editing Program . . . . . . . . . . 141 Start by Looking at Bundled Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Decide Whether the Bundled Software Is a Bargain . . . . . 142 Graduating from the Bundled Software . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Shopping for the Right Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Make a Shopping List of Features You Require . . . . . . . 143 Read the Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 Survey the Software Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 Adobe: Targeting Three Different Types of Users . . . . . . 146 PhotoSuite: Extensive Features and Versatility . . . . . . . . 151 Other Good Imaging Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Exploring the World of Shareware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 Making the Right Software Choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 CHAPTER 10 Which Photo-Editing Tools Are Useful for Specific Tasks . . . 157 A Disclaimer about this Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 An Overview of Your Image-Editing Toolbox . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Cropping and Resizing Your Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 Locating a Cropping Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 Resizing a Photo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Altering the Angle and Inverting Your Subjects . . . . . . . . . . 168 Straightening a Crooked Shot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Creating a Mirror Image of Your Photo . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 Correcting the Red-Eye Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Airbrushing Flaws from a Scanned Photo . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 How Cloning Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Tips for Making Retouching Less Obvious . . . . . . . . . . 177 Fixing Scratched, Torn, Wrinkled, and Stained Photos . . . . . . . 180 Other Useful Touchup Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 Sharpening Blurry Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 Improving Photos with Soften and Blur Effects . . . . . . . 184 viii Contents Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Correcting Under- and Overexposed Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 How Exposure to Light Affects Photo Quality . . . . . . . . 188 Enhancing an Entire Photo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 Working on Light and Dark Areas of a Photo . . . . . . . . 191 Colorizing and Tinting Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 Using a Color Adjustment Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Artistically Colorizing Your Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 Trying Your Hand at the Drawing Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 Cutting and Combining Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 Making a Cutout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 Stitching Photos Together for a Panoramic Effect . . . . . . 199 Artistically Layering Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 Image-Editing Continues to Evolve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 Increasing Your Skill with Image-Editing Tools . . . . . . . . . . 200 PART III Practical Uses for Your Scanner CHAPTER 11 Scanning Instant Images: JoyCam, i-Zone, and Other Polaroid Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 How Does Instant Imaging Work? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 The Interesting Development of Instant Imaging . . . . . . . . . . 205 The Land Legacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 Today’s Instant Cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 The Continuing Need for Instant-Image Cameras . . . . . . . . . 208 The Ideal Cameras for Teens and Kids . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 Sending Photos to People Who Don’t Have Computers . . . 209 Foreign Travel Adventures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Scanning to Enhance the Quality of Instant Images . . . . . . . . 209 Using the Polaroid Mini-Photographic Scanner . . . . . . . . . . 211 The i-Zone Website: A Perk for Young Scanner Users . . . . . . . 212 Site Safety for Kids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 Uploading Photos to the i-Zone Website . . . . . . . . . . . 214 CHAPTER 12 Scanning Negatives and Slides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221 Advantages of Being Able to Scan from Negatives and Slides . . 222 Understand More about What Transparencies Are . . . . . . . . . 222 How Negatives Are Made . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 The Niche Filled by Slides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 Tips for More Effectively Scanning Transparencies . . . . . . . . 225 A Look at Some of the Top Flatbed Transparency Scanners . . . . 226 Deciding Whether to Invest in a Transparency Attachment . . . . 228 Contents ix Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. . www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Pushing Buttons and Programming Commands . . . . . . . . . . 94 Why Have Manufacturers Added External Buttons? . . . . . 94 How to Identify What the Buttons Do . . . . . 34 Testing the Tonal Sensitivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Coordinating Your Scanner with Your Printer and Monitor . . . . 36 Measuring the Monitor’s Resolution . . . . . . 113 Working with Half-Tone Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Why You Need to Know about Half-Toning . . . . . . . . . 113 How to Scan Previously Half-Toned Images . . . . . .