[mpacey]

I'm a little new to this image game, so please bear with me.

I just purchased a CanoScan LiDE 20. I realize it is not state-of-the-art, but it's fine for my purposes.

The quality of anything I scan is quite good, but I'm not that familiar with the software.

All I really want to do is scan pictures and photos at the best possible quality, BUT keep them at their exact original size for printing, and at a reasonable size for e-mail.

I specify the size of the originals on the CanoScan Toolbox 4.1 settings, but the photos come out HUGE!

I have even tried using IrfanView, but I can't get them back to the exact size.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[buck52]

Howdy

Best quality for printing and reasonable size for email are worlds apart... you need to treat them separately.... First... save the original... and work with a copy...print at anything above 200dpi and email at anything that your provider will accept and the reciever will accept although the smaller the file size the better/faster

buck

[etaf]

scan the picture at top quality and then you can decide what to so with the image afterwards.
1) save it to CD so you have a backup of a top quality image
2) print off at top quality
3) email resize

to resize cahnge the number of the pixels in the image
use irfanview and change the pixels to say 750 width if a landscape image or 550 if a portrait image

[mpacey]

Thanks for the replies. It is good advice.

The only thing I'm still not clear on is the exact size that I need.

I don't have a photocopier, and there are many times I would like to use my scanner to duplicate the original picture as well as possible, but the main result I'm after is the exact size.

Thanks.

[etaf]

change the pixels to say 750 width if a landscape image or 550 if a portrait image

thats about as exact as you can get - the number of pixels in the image
if you are after file size that will vary with compression etc.
and you could aim for around 80K for email using jpg compression when you save the file in irfanview

[pedroguy]

I use Picassa2 from Google to edit/enhance and print and email.
It seems to work very well in that when you select email it will re-size the picture to an acceptable size for mailing.
It does not have all the beels and whistles of some other apps,but works for my purpose.
I love it.And it's free.

[Glottis]

Originally Posted by mpacey

All I really want to do is scan pictures and photos at the best possible quality, BUT keep them at their exact original size for printing, and at a reasonable size for e-mail.

I specify the size of the originals on the CanoScan Toolbox 4.1 settings, but the photos come out HUGE!

Hi mpacey,

The size of pics you see on the monitor and the ones you have in your hands are totally different things! You can have a 150x100 pixels pic on your PC and print it on an a huge billboard, but the "quality" of the print will be poor-issimo.
On the other hand you can have a 3000x2000 pix. pic on your PC and print it on a 15x10cm paper and the quality will be great.

I guess you should practice with this a little to understand which resolution you want for your pics.

I hope this helps,
Tony.

[Noyb]

Originally Posted by mpacey

I specify the size of the originals on the CanoScan Toolbox 4.1 settings, but the photos come out HUGE!
I have even tried using IrfanView, but I can't get them back to the exact size.

You should be using Irfanview as your Default Viewer ... so Try this ..
In Irfanview ... Click on View > Display Options > and choose "Fit Image to Window"

You want to keep the High resolution Scans or Pictures ... It's all in how you look at them.

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by mpacey

The only thing I'm still not clear on is the exact size that I need.
.

There's a few concepts you're not grasping....

If you have 6in.x4in. image and scan it at 200 dpi the resultant image is going to be 1200x800 in pixels. The higher the DPI the more detail you will get out the image... if you scanned it at 300 dpi it would be 1800x1200. Both of these pixel sizes are larger than what most people have there monitor display set at.

So why scan so high? The answer is simple, printers can print at much higher detail than any monitor will display..

One thing DPI does do is set the scale of an image or how large it is when you print it. It should print at the same scale as the original. Whether it will or not really depends on your printing software that you are using and how you have set it up... This varies greatly so I can't help you there but would suggest looking to see if there is any printing templates. Usually they have a template for printing at standard sizes.

------

As far as e-mailing goes you don't want to e-mail the original scan as they are usually quite large in filesize. Resizing them samller for that purpose.

[slipe]

Image files have a document size embedded in them and default to printing at that size. When you scan, your output size determines the document size in the file.

The easiest way to get the document size (print)the same as your original is to set the scaling to 100%. That way the output size is the same as the input. Then adjust your crop box until the output numbers are exactly the same as the original.

This is from a different brand scanner, but they all have something very similar in the advanced section of the driver and most have it in the beginner’s part of the driver.



For photos you want RGB color and 300 PPI. For documents, 1 bit black and white or “lineart” (same thing) and 600 PPI is recommended. The PPI will determine the size in pixels but the document or print size will be the same as the original if you put your crop line on the edges with 100%. You should probably scan as a TIFF for file type.

Once you get your document scanned I would recommend Irfanview for printing. I usually use Photoshop, but Irfanview is free and the print dialog box is good. Most programs you would print from like Photoshop would print automatically at the original size determined by the scanner. Irfanview is a little different in that you set the width and height. It is still important to have the ratio right – so you really need the numbers to be right in the output size or document size or the ratio won’t be right for your print. In the example above the output size was 4 X 6 inches.

First go to “Printer setup” and select the paper size, paper type, quality, landscape etc as you do for any print.

OK to go back to the Irfanview print box. Select “Custom” for the size and put either the width or height in one of the boxes with “Aspect ratio” checked. The box in the lower right should tell you the final print size is what you selected. Then hit “Print” and you should get a print the size you need.



For e-mail I would resize in Irfanview. With your image open in Irfanview go Edit > Resize/Resample. Make sure “Preserve aspect ratio” is checked. DPI is immaterial. “Resample” with the Lanczos filter should be already selected – leave it that way. Select new size with “Pixels” as units. Put either a width or height in one of the boxes. For an image wider than it is tall I find 700 pixels works well. For one taller than it is wide you usually want a little less for the height or some people would have to scroll to see it all. Once you have selected a size click OK. You only have to do this once and Irfanview remembers the settings. For future e-mails you would only have to select a width or height and OK.



Now that it is resized go File > Save as. DO NOT use “Save” or you will overwrite and lose your large image. You will also end up with a TIFF that is larger than it needs to be for e-mail. Change the file name – just a number behind the original file name is sufficient. Select JPG as your file type. Set your quality to 80% and OK. You can e-mail that file easily.

If you scan as a TIFF and “Save as” a JPG you don’t really have to change the filename.

[mpacey]

Thanks everyone.

All of your valuable information is very much appreciated.

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by slipe

Image files have a document size embedded in them and default to printing at that size. When you scan, your output size determines the document size in the file.

That's not 100% accurate, there's nothing that says this is a 6x4 image however the width or heigth in inches is calculated by using the resolution. If for example you scan a 6x4 image with a resolution of 300 then change nothing but the resolution to 150 by default it will now print at 12x8.

[Noyb]

All depends on how you interpret what was said.
The fact that the image file carries a DPI parameter (Number or Dots/Pixels per Inch) does establish the creators intended (default) physical size.
See the term "inches" in DPI ???
You may have to do a little Algebra to figure it out ... or let the computer figure it out.
Better yet ... Just tell the Computer how you want it displayed, or printed, and don't worry about it.