Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Print & Scan

I was so happy when I saw my in-laws surprised me and got me the printer I've been really wanting lately. For those of you who are looking for a reasonably priced, great printer I really recommend this one. (It's $136).



I was giddy like a little school girl when we set it up... and just amazed when I was sitting on the couch in our family room and it printed images in the office. How did I ever live without a wireless printer?!

The quality of prints are great. The color is spot on, which was important to me. How do I know? I copied a picture from a magazine and the colors were almost identical. Again, this is very important to me because I often print design boards with paint colors on them.

The only thing is... I can't figure out how to scan really well. Perhaps I have the settings wrong, or perhaps the scanner just isn't made to scan perfectly. And I'm okay with that, because it copies magazine pages perfectly. (On a side note - I do not tear or cut pages out of magazines anymore... especially with the continuous demise of the magazine industry.. you never know if that magazine you just tore up will be the last. Boo hoo).

Here is an image I scanned from an older House Beautiful:



Definitely not bad, but not great. Just a bit grainy. Does anyone have any advice? Or maybe I just need to invest in a high quality scanner someday.

I scanned the page above because I just love that sideboard. It'd be a great DIY project... paint red, paint black, then sand!

10 comments:

  1. i hope somebody can give you some tips on scanning. i have the same problem when scanning...the pictures look grainy. it drives me crazy!

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  2. Yay! You got the printer! I think the scan isn't too bad. I also have the same problem - my images always come out looking a bit grainy. Sorry I'm not any help in that department.

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  3. makes me want to try scanning with my printer when I get home tonight!

    also, I had no idea that what you said is how that table/drawer thing (im not great with interiors) was made!

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  4. scanning magazine pages is always hard because they are typically quite thin... the light from the scanner goes through the image and then bounces back... so it makes the image seem really light, and it also picks up on the fiber of the paper. I am not sure there is a reasonably-priced scanner that can scan the magazine page as if it were opaque. I would suggest putting a sheet of black paper behind the image you are trying to scan so that the light can't be reflected back. Good luck!

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  5. If your scanner software has a descreen filter option, make sure that's checked. It smooths out the halftone printing pattern in magazines. You'll probably need to go to advanced settings in your scanner software to find that option. Good luck!

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  6. I have an inexpensive scanner and I found scanning at a higher resolution (300+ dpi) and setting the descreening option to magazine work really good. I add a sheet of grey card stock behind if just doing a tear. They are still a little grainy (can't help it because of the print screen on the magazine) but still nice. Hope this helps.

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  7. great photo!
    Try putting a sheet of heavy ivory or black paper behind the magainze when scanning. (some scanners even have a mag. setting, so check for that too). Like pp said, also scan at a much higher resolution and scan at 8.5 x 11. It will make the file HUGE, but once you have it in a photo editing program, you can adjust.
    HTH!

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  8. Descreen is also called "degauss" on some scanning programs.

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  9. I am going to start needing a heads up each time you print, it sounds like someone is breaking in everytime it goes off!!

    Love you!

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  10. I am going to start needing a heads up each time you print, it sounds like someone is breaking in everytime it goes off!!

    Love you!

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THANK YOU for taking the time to share your thoughts. I appreciate each and every comment.

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