Another Question on Resolution....

[MOLLYW8]

I'm still a bit confused about scanning. I have several old photos (mostly color from the 70's some old b/w). Most are a standard size, like 4x6 and some are a smaller square maybe 3x3. I need to scan them in but I wonder what resolution to use. I plan on making 8x8 books and the largest I would want to print the photos would be about 6x6. (most of the photos are in really good condition and I might need to just lighten them up a bit but other than that the majority are perfect as is).

Also, I have PSE5 and a canon scanner. I think "arcsoft" is the software that came with the scanner. Do you scan into PSE or use the included software? Does it make a difference?

Thanks for your help.
Molly

[Emma]

I scan pretty high, normally, just in case I want a 4x6 to become larger on a layout, like 600 or 900. Any higher than that and it just enlarges too much, seems to get noisy, and takes forever! But try yours and see.

In PSE go to File>Import and choose your device there, scans right in. Then you save it in PSE as a JPEG file, highest quality

[Janet]

You can scan in using whatever software works best for you. :)

As for keeping all the various sized photos fairly similar to work with - what I do is change the resolution so the output file sizes are all the same. I do this as this shows at the bottom of the page easily for my in the programs I use - some folks scan them in so they all end up the same ppi/size (200ppi at 11 x17" or 8 x10 for example).

By focusing on that final output size, you're certain to know the resolution is adequate to meet your needs. So, figure out the LARGEST thing you'll ever need to print - which for scrapping wouldn't probably exceed 12" on the long side and use that as your guide. Does that make sense? It does to me, but if not, I'll be happy to try again on 'splainin' this stuff that's so hard to get your mind wrapped around!

[MOLLYW8]

Thanks! I'll fiddle around with it when I get home tonight :)

[Emma]

can you make a 4x6 that much larger? 12x12? I'm not certain how far to push upping the size on scanning. With digital I never go larger than 10-25%, but where's the cut off in scanning?

[Amanda]

the bigger you make it the more noise you'll get, but you can go as big as your scanner allows.

[mamaof4girls]

DPI stands for dots per inch; it is a measure of the resolution, accuracy, sharpness and clarity of your scanned picture. Up to a certain point, the higher the DPI resolution, the better the image; but this also takes longer to scan and process. With higher resolution, you can enlarge your image to larger size.
However, when the scanning resolution becomes higher than the actual media resolution of your original, the grain of the media becomes visible.
Based on hundreds of thousands of scans, I have found that the optimal DPI levels are: 300 DPI for paper photo's.

Hope this helped.

[Vallie]

I scan at 600dpi. Probably overkill. :lol: