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Hi, this is Cheryl. I'm here to show you how to scan in the Scottsdale Community College
Graphics Lab in the Art Building room AB134.
We'll be scanning using Photoshop, make sure that's open. And make sure the scanner is
turned on, and whatever you're scanning should be face down on the scan bed before you get
started.
The way you scan through Photoshop is choose File > Import, and you select your scanner
from the list that's under Import. In our lab this semester, all of our scanners are
the same. We have the Epson Perfection V750 Pro, so that should be on your list. Click
it.
One thing that's probably going to happen to you, just like it happens to everybody
the first time you're logged in, is when the scan window comes up, it's hidden behind Photoshop's
Options Bar, Tool Bar and Panels shown on screen. You really can't get them out of the
way once you start the import process. So if this happens to you, go ahead and close
the window. I'll show you what to do about it.
You're going to press the Tab key on your keyboard. That's a toggle. What it does is
hides all your panels, tools, and tool bar. It gets them out of your way for a second.
If you press the Tab key again, they all come back. So turn them off by pressing the tab
key, and then select File > Import, and choose the scanner.
The very first time that you scan at any of the workstations, you'll probably have the
Epson Scan software come up in Full Auto Mode. This is why you really need to press the Tab
key before you do this. You want to switch from Full Auto Mode to Professional Mode.
Full Auto Mode will scan the entire scan bed, and you won't get any choices controlling
how much you scan, what area of the scan bed you scan, and you can't make decisions about
your output very effectively. So always switch over to Professional Mode. You get many more
options.
Before you begin, check under the Original section of this dialog and choose these settings:
your Document Type should be Reflective, your Source should be the Document Table, the Exposure
Type will be Photo, and please scan in 24-bit Color mode. Some applications can now handle
48-bit Color but as a general rule, many still can't. So stick with 24-bit until the world
upgrades.
Also set your Resolution to 300, with the following exception.
If you are scanning a drawing that you made in pen or pencil on paper, crank up the resolution
to 600 or even 1200 dpi. It's going to make a very large file, but it will enable you
to make the artwork look as if it has nice smooth lines. 300 dpi is a little bit low
and sometimes the lines will look pretty "jaggy," so if you have line art, crank it up to 600
or 1200 dpi. Otherwise stick with 300 dpi - it's a pretty standard resolution.
Next, press the Preview button, and that will bring up the Preview window and will pre-scan
the scan bed to show you what's on it. I've got my wallet on there. It's silly, but it's
what I'm scanning. You can scan an object or a photograph.
Once my Preview window comes up - incidentally, if somebody has been scanning before you,
the Preview window might come up and show whatever they scanned last. All you have to
do to get rid of that is press Preview, and you'll get a preview of what you're going
to scan.
Notice in my Preview Window my mouse cursor is a cross-hair. What I need to do is define
the area that I want to scan. I don't want to scan up here, so I click and drag a rectangle
as a loose approximation. You can move it around or resize it after you draw it, so
don't stress about making it perfect. Of course you can always edit the file in Photoshop
if you don't get the edges just exactly right.
Once I've got my basic rectangle, I'm going to be scanning - my target size says Original
- I'm going to be scanning one to one. Whatever size I've defined on the scanner (which happens
to be 3.91 inches wide by 3.60 inches high) whatever I've defined, since we usually use
our printers at 300 dpi, then when I print it out it will be the exact same size. I scan
it in and print it out at the same size, a one to one ratio.
But you can use the scanner to reduce or enlarge the artwork as you scan, and therefore you
would only acquire the amount of pixels that you need. For example, if I want this to be
only an inch high, I don't have to scan enough pixels to print it at three inches or four.
What I can do is flip the disclosure triangle down for target size and I can set a new target
size. If I were going to scan this at 25%, scaling it down, then I could print it at
just under one inch. If that's the size I know I want for my final print, then it's
not strictly necessary to scan more pixels than I need to achieve that result. I hope
that makes sense!
In my case, I want this to be able to fit on a postcard that's 6 inches wide and 4 inches
high. I have not achieved that result with my selection. What I can do is tinker with
the target size. In addition to entering a percent for scale, I can enter the actual
size that I want. If I type 6 for my width, as soon as I click to type a height, the computer
recalculates based on the proportion of the rectangle I've drawn. If I were to make this
width 6 inches then the height as I've drawn it would need to be 5.51 inches. That doesn't
match the 6 by 4 goal that I have. That shows me I would actually need to lose a little
bit of height to match the rectangular shape of my postcard. What I need is closer to this
shape. So that's going to cut off a little bit of the applique.
And that's okay. You can decide to do that now or you can choose to scan a little bit
more than you need, knowing that in the design process you will eventually have to make a
choice because you have a fixed paper size and you can't fit this whole rectangle -
they don't match in size.
What I'm going to do is expand my artwork selection back to where I'm getting the whole
owl plus some of the background. The reason for that is I'm deciding right now that I
want to be able to make that choice later in my layout and edit the composition at that
point instead of now. But I still want to make sure I'm acquiring plenty of pixels on
the scanner as I bring the image in now. If I don't get enough, I can't make up more later.
I will have to redo the scan. Photoshop can add pixels but it makes them up by resampling.
Resampling usually causes the quality of your image to degrade. It does not look anywhere
near as nice as if you acquire the right number of pixels from the start, like we're doing
now.
Right now, I could print this at 6.91 inches wide by 5.80 inches high, and I'm scaling
it up 153 percent. If I think it's a little too big I can use the up/down arrow and adjust
it. I'm going to scan at 150% - it's more than I need and I will be able to choose which
pixels to lose during the design process as I work on layout. I'll go ahead and scan right
now by clicking on the Scan button.
The scanner will activate and go really slowly over the small area I chose. Once finished
the scan pops up into Photoshop. If I were to press my Tab key and bring back my panels
right now, I have the same problem as before. I can't get ahold of the title bar of my window
and move it. If that happens you can do what I did, press the Tab key and move the window.
Or choose View > Fit On Screen, and that will move the window to where you can get ahold
of it.
The final step you have to do before you're really finished is save this file. Notice
right now it's "Untitled-1." You need to save it and back it up. Choose File > Save As and
name the file "scan" and keep the .psd file extension. That means my file format is in
Photoshop's native format, and that's what I want because it will be uncompressed. There
are other uncompressed formats like TIFF, but stick with the Photoshop format for now.
I prefer you do as well for my assignments.
I'm going to save this into my Home folder.
Now that the file is saved you can exit from Photoshop, so Quit Photoshop.
Now I will
find my scan file and back it up onto my USB and my network storage. To do that I grab
the file by its icon and drag it first to my USB (there goes the copy). And then -
better safe than sorry - I'll drag it onto my network storage as well. Now I have this
file backed up in two places and I feel pretty confident that I'm not going to lose it.
And that's Scanning in the SCC Graphics Lab! Go to it!