OK. You've determined what kind of picture you're dealing with and
selected the area that you're going to scan. Now you need to tell your
computer what size and resolution you want. These two settings are related,
and most scanning software has a slider for both. Some software, however,
assumes you scan things in at screen resolution (72 dpi — dots, or
pixels, per
inch) and lets you change only the size of the picture at that resolution.
This resolution stuff is important if you're going to scan something in
and print it or if you're going to manipulate it in image-editing software.
But if it's just a picture of your cat for your Web page, all you need to
remember is to make the settings 72
dpi at 100%. This will
ensure that the picture is the same size on the screen as it is in your
hands.
If you want the picture half as big on the screen, select 72 dpi for the resolution and 50% for the scale. If you want the
picture to be twice as big, make the scale 200%. Or if you want to be really tricky, set the
resolution at 144 dpi and the scale
at 100%. Remember, scale and
resolution are linked. You can either double one or double the other; it
doesn't really matter which.
Finally, click on the Scan button and let 'er rip. Well, "rip" isn't
totally accurate, since it'll probably take forever to finish — it's
guaranteed to be much slower than a photocopier. And if you're scanning in
color, most machines need to take three passes: one for red, one for blue,
and one for green.
Now that you have your picture scanned in, all you need to do is save it
as a GIF or a JPEG and you're in business. Get to work, and try not to
break too many copyright laws.
