Scanning

CS 102

Oct. 24, 1997

Scanning is the process of making an electronic copy of a print image, for example a photograph. We have one PC set-up to scan using a program named PhotoImpact. You scan images, saving them on your network drive in BMP format. You can then edit your scanned images using PaintShop Pro on the main Lab PCs. You may, for instance, want to use PaintShop Pro to save the image in GIF or JPEG format.

Using the Scanner

The scanner is a delicate instrument. It's the only one we have. Please be gentle with it and don't put books or other heavy objects on it. The object glass needs to be kept very clean, so do your best not to touch it. The scanner PC should be used only for scanning. Use the main PCs for editing images and other work.

Scanner instructions:

1. The scanner PC runs Windows 95, so logging on, etc. is a little different from Windows NT. Log onto the computer (before doing so, make sure you logged off all other computers) from the Enter Network Password dialog box. Type your name, password, and domain. In case you've forgotten, you domain is students .

2. Turn on the scanner. The power switch is on the right rear of the scanner.

3. Carefully place your image on the scanner bed. ``Ground zero'' is the lower left-hand corner. The image should be placed face-down, as if you were using a copier.

4. Open PhotoImpact SE. You'll find a shortcut for it on the Windows 95 desktop.

5. From File menu, choose Acquire, then choose Image. An Acquire Image dialog box should pop up. In this dialog box, make sure that only New Image is checked --- everything else should be un-checked. Press the Acquire button.

6. A Preview window should now open. In this window, press the Preview button and the scanner will take a preview scan.

7. Press the Zoom button (leftmost button) and drag the zoom frame around that part of the image that you're interested in. When you're finished dragging, click inside the frame you just made and a zoomed preview scan will be done.

8. Press the Frame button (next to the Zoom button). Drag this frame around that part of the image you wish to acquire. This allows you to crop your image.

9. You will notice there are three buttons in the upper-right hand corner of the Preview window. The top-most of these opens and closes the Settings Window. Open the Settings Window. Make sure that type is set to Millions of Colors and that the resolution is set to 300 dpi. Make sure that the check boxes for Auto Contrast and Color Correction are checked. You can use Scaling to change the size of the scanned image. You would use this, for instance, to create thumbnail images. When you are finished with these adjustments, close the Settings Window.

10. Press the Scan button. The framed part of the image will be acquired and transferred to PhotoImpact. After the image is acquired, you can close the Preview window.

11. Back in PhotoImpact, save your image. Make sure you save your image into your appropriate network folder!!! You should save the image as type BMP --- the Windows Bitmap format.

12. If you have another image to scan, return to step 2.

13. When you're finished scanning images, close PhotoImpact.

14. Make sure you take all your images with you!!!

15. Logout: press the Start button and choose Shutdown. From the Shutdown dialog box, choose Close all programs and... . Press Yes.

16. Turn off the scanner.

17. Make sure you close the door as you leave.

Using PaintShop Pro

This is just a brief introduction to PaintShop Pro --- just enough to show you how to save a Bitmap file as a GIF or JPEG file.

1. After logging onto one of the Windows NT PCs, press the Start button, choose Programs, find and goto the PaintShop Pro entry and open PaintShop Pro 4.

2. Open your Bitmap image.

3. From the File menu, choose Save as.

4. If you want to save your image in GIF format, set the type to GIF and the sub-type to Version 89A, either interleaved or non-interleaved. Press the Options button and make sure that the image will be saved with no transparency information.

5. If you want to save your image in JPEG format, set the type to JPG.

6. Press Save to save the file.

7. Repeat for any other images you want to convert.