How To Scan Pictures and Prepare Them for the Web

by Sheryl Cormicle Knox

with adaptations for use at Lapeer County Library

by Victor P. Illian

Note: This document describes the process of scanning and preparing images for the WWW using hardware and software at the Lapeer County Library’s Internet Training Center. The software used is Adobe Photoshop 3.0.5 in conjunction with the HP DeskScan II.

  1. Sit down at the computer next to the scanner. Turn on the power strip that is connected to the both the scanner and the computer.
  2. Start Photoshop by clicking on the Start menu in the lower left corner of the screen then the Programs menu then the Adobe menu then the Adobe Photoshop 3.0 icon.
  3. Lift the lid on the scanner and place your picture face down on the glass, aligning it in the upper right corner with the green arrow.
  4. In Photoshop, choose the File menu, then Acquire, then TWAIN_32. A scanner control window will appear and the scanner will create a preview of your picture. The preview is a much smaller, poor quality version of your picture.

  5. In the preview, designate what part of the picture you want to scan by drawing a box around it. You draw the box by clicking and dragging your pointer over the preview.
  6. In the Type pop-up menu, choose “Sharp black and white photo” if your picture doesn’t have color, or choose “Sharp millions of colors” if your picture has color.
  7. Make sure the Path pop-up menu is set to “screen.”
  8. Click the Final button. Your picture will be scanned and then appear in a window in Photoshop.

    9. If there are people waiting to use the scanner, you can save your picture now and do the rest of the steps from any other computer which has Photoshop. If you do this, you should save it in Photoshop 3.0 format.
  9. Edit the image as desired using Photoshop tools. See other documents for help with this.
  10. Decide whether to save as a JPEG or a GIF file. A good rule of thumb is that photographs or similarly complex color images should be saved as JPEG, all others as GIFs.

To Save as JPEG:
    1. Choose the File menu, then Save As... A save dialog box will appear.
    2. Name the file. It should be short, somewhat descriptive, no spaces or special characters, and end with .jpg
    3. Then select JPEG(*.JPG) from the Save As box at the bottom and choose a location under Save in then click Save.
    4. A new window will appear called JPEG Options.
    5. Under Image Quality you see four settings, Low to Maximum.
    6. You can leave the setting at Medium.
    7. If you need a high quality image (Maximum) your image will be larger when you save it. (higher quality = higher file size)
    8. Click OK and your image is saved.

 

 

To Save as GIF:
    1. Choose the File menu, then Export then Gif89a Export… A save dialog box will appear.
    2. A window will appear as shown bellow.
    3. Make sure the box next to Interlace has an x. If not, click in the box. Click OK.

    4. A new window will appear. Choose a File name and a location under Save in. And click Save.

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