My scanner stinks

[greggy]

Pre-code popularity independant from lousy movies! Highly undervalued! I would buy them just to upset POV but greggy is actually a good guy! So...greggy will defer so he can buy more DCs!

[PovertyRow]

So...greggy will defer so he can buy more DCs!

 

Thank you, Greggy.

[Bugaboo-migration]

I'll pay a kings ransom for pre-code horror.

 

Hmmm......think I'll make that my sig line.

 

Actually Pov.......I just dig looking at your scans. Very cool stuff........and I may pick up a copy or two of it someday to see what I'm missing. Is it really gory or what's the deal with it?

[PovertyRow]

Is it really gory or what's the deal with it?

 

Check the new thread in Gold Age for Is it really gory or what's the deal with it?

 

[maven_johnson-migration]

The thing is that descreening (descreening helps reduce the effect of the "dots" that make up the image) really worked nicely but it DID slow down the scan time. But using 100DPI sped up the scan time ovwer the default 200DPI.

 

What about the other options - number of colors, sharpness

 

I ran some samples on my HP 3500C

 

50 percent actual size, 200 DPI, 1 million colors - 110 KB file size.

 

and

 

50 percent actual size, 200 DPI, 256 web colors - 38 KB file size.

 

and

 

50 percent actual size, 75 DPI, 1 million colors - 25 KB file size.

 

These images have also each been run through a program called Advanced JPEG Compressor to keep the files sizes down.

 

It's interesting that the "actual size" of the images are different, even though scanned the same and reduced by 50 percent each in size??

 

Seems the first scan is the best as far as ability to see detail and image size, and I can live with 110 KB image sizes.

 

Also, I can't seem to get the output to stay at anything less than 100% (I have to reduce it upon editing and saving), and the output default is TIFF, not JPG. Any suggestions on how to change these?

 

Steve

[PovertyRow]

Thanks. These are nice samples. I use Microsoft Photo Editor and just choose Scan Image - it defaults to the HP software and brings it in as a JPG. If yours arecoming in as TIFF (not sure what program is saving them as TIFF) then you SHOULD be able to choose Save As and then see an alternate pull-down to select a different format (like JPG).

 

I shall continue to experiment with different number of colors etc. The more I experiment the closer to being OK with the scanner get!

[thecomicsheet]

I just got in my Microtek V6UPL legal size scanner. About $110 from buy.com. Hooked it up to my Windows XP machine. No problems getting it hooked up and running.

 

It sure is nice to be able to scan a book all in one go! Quality of the scans seems pretty good. I scanned at 100 DPI. Then I saved as a jpeg with compression set at 40, and the width set to 600 pixels. File sizes on my first test scans came back 90k to 120k. I try to limit my file sizes to 100k for dial-up users. If I increase to 50 on compression and/or lower the width to 550 pixels it get down to 70k to 100k.

 

I like the quality of the scans. Compares nicely to the scans I was getting on my Visioneer scanner. Here is my first test batch of scans:

 

1st Issue Special #5

Black Lightning #1

Claw The Unconquered #1

Firestorm #1 9.0

Firestorm #1 9.2

Firestorm #1 9.4

 

[PovertyRow]

I shall continue to experiment with different number of colors etc. The more I experiment the closer to being OK with the scanner get!

 

Well - I found one of the key settings in the HP Scanner software: SHARPNESS. It defaults to medium. No WONDER the dots were so sharp and moire patterns such a problem. I set SHARPNESS to NONE and now it is scanning very close to my old Visioneer. I feel like I am home again!

 

So my current favorite for the HP 3500C is 100DPI, No Sharpness and "millions of colors". Scans fast too.