Line art for print in Software

Maker QR Code in Software Line art for print

FIGURE 10-2

But there are yet other wrinkles Suppose you scan an image but intend to print it larger than the original For instance, suppose you have a 3 5-inch picture that you want to print at 45 75 inches in a newsletter You need to scan it at a higher resolution in order to keep enough information to make a high-quality print Otherwise, enlarging the scanned image results in a low-res, jaggy image Use this formula for figuring out what resolution to scan: Scanner resolution = final dpi (intended image width / original image width) So, let s say we wanted to print the 3 5-inch picture enlarged to 45 75 inches at 300dpi The resolution would be 300 45 / 3 = 450dpi You would set the scanner s control panel to 450dpi before scanning the image Likewise, suppose you want to crop a scanned image and only include a smaller detail of it in the finished product If you end up choosing to enlarge the detail, you need to consider the

1 Start the scanner software In Paint Shop Pro, choose File | Import | TWAIN | Acquire from the menu, as shown here The scanner software should appear

2 Make sure the photo is properly positioned in the scanner, and then click the Preview button After a few seconds, you should see the image onscreen It has been quickly scanned in low resolution so you can adjust the image before the final scan 3 Crop the image if you don t want to scan the photo in its entirety

4 Adjust colors and brightness if necessary In this scanner program, there s an auto-adjust tool, or you can tweak various color and brightness settings manually

5 Adjust the scan resolution Scan the image at a resolution high enough for your final application (such as printing or Web publishing), but don t overscan the image You ll just waste disk space and slow down the overall process 6 When you re happy with the result, press the Final Scan button After the software is finished scanning the image, it ll either save it to your hard disk under a filename you specified, or open it for editing in an image program

dimensions of the cropped image at the outset, not the size of the entire image, and increase the scan resolution accordingly

Today s scanners usually do a good job of reproducing photographs Of course, you get what you pay for: a $1,000 scanner will create dramatically better images than a $100 scanner, almost without exception But there are things you can do to improve your images

Some photographs are a tad soft to begin with Others lose their edge in the scanning process because the scanner s focus isn t razor sharp (Again, this is often an issue with the scanner s quality) Sharpening is a process that your scanner software can use to increase the apparent sharpness of an image, as you can see in Figure 10-3 Sharpening filters typically increase the contrast along

FIGURE 10-3

edges in the image, making the image seem sharper than it actually is Some sharpening filters leave most of the image alone, only mucking with edges Some sharpening filters increase the contrast of the entire image instead These days, the most popular sharpening filter is called Unsharp Mask, and it s typically built into scanning software as well as image editing programs like Paint Shop Pro and Adobe Photoshop Do you need to use sharpening Not always Here s a guide to when to use this feature:

detail Close-up pictures of people, for instance, are less likely to benefit from sharpening than a real estate profile of a house