Image Scanner

The purpose is to offer some scanning tips and to explain the basics for photos and documents. It is about the fundamentals of digital images, about the basics to help you get the most from your scanner. How it works, for those that want to know.

Included here are the general questions that we've all asked about digital images, but unfortunately, that other sources don't answer. The material is about the basics, and is appropriate for the beginner. The content is certainly not superficial, but it is not at all difficult either, it is just simply about how it works. It describes in plain language the things we need to know to be efficient and get the most from our images, in the various ways that we can use them.

The material was written about scanning, but most of it is a basic primer on digital images in general, applicable to images from digital cameras too. This material is intended for home and hobby users, and is not concerned with commercial prepress.

Many newbies want to scan a photo at the greatest possible resolution. We'll explain why that's the wrong answer, with tips about how to choose a more appropriate answer. That and many other scanning basics are covered here, and it's intended to be a fast jump start to aid newcomers to graphics and scanning. Scanners are easy and fun and very useful, and there's lots of artistic creativity possible too. There will be a little scanning technique to learn, but when you've seen it once, then it's rather simple.