Scanning
At the Digital Media Lab, we have facilities for digitizing your small, 2-dimensional images. If you need a digital image of something large or 3D, use a digital camera.
Put your flat object on the glass of the scanner. Most of our scanners can handle letter-size; we have two that can go up to 11″ x 17″.
Launch PhotoShop (Dock->My Applications->Adobe Photoshop). Bring up the Scanner Import window (File->Import->scanner name).
Click Preview. You can select an area to scan, change the contrast and brightness, and on some scanners, apply scratch-removal filters and other neat tricks.
In the options of the Scanner Import window are the following settings which are of interest:
Resolution/DPI - High quality art will need 1200dpi or greater. Lower resolution is usually fine, but remember that you cannot add data later.
Color - 24-bit color is fine for most purposes.
Positive/Negative - If you have slides, or anything transparent, you need to use a scanner with a backlight. We also have a slide-specific scanner at one workstation.
Note that using higher resolution or more color information will mean that your scan will take longer. If you need low-quality images soon, reduce these settings.
Click Scan.
Topic(s):digital media lab, faculty, labs, learn, staff, student
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