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Introduction to Scanners

Principles of Information Technology

So what is a scanner?

A scanner, simply put, is a device used to analyze an image and process it.

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Scanned Image

One size does not scan all!

Flatbed Scanners Sheet-fed Scanners Handheld Scanners Drum Scanners

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There are different types of scanners for different types of documents that need to be scanned.

Flatbed Scanner

Used for scanning most documents, photos, and even flat objects from a PC or laptop.

Flatbed scanner works like a copy machine.

Scans documents placed face down on the glass (scan bed)

Most common type of scanner.

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Sheet-fed Scanner More portable than a flatbed scanner.

Used to scan paper documents and photos.

The paper moves through the scanner.

Usually smaller than a flat-bed and portable.

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Handheld Scanner

Smaller than the previous two scanners.

The user must move the scanner across the document.

Image quality us usually lower.

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Drum Scanner Used by the publishing

industry.

Document is placed on a glass cylinder.

Generates very high quality scans.

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Using Your Scanner

Most flatbed scanners are connected to the computer via the Universal Serial Bus (USB).

A software program called a TWAIN driver is used by the computer to communicate with the scanner.

An Image Editing program can then be used to manipulate the scanned image.

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Connecting the Scanner

Most modern Scanners connect to the computer through the USB.

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Scanner Software

The TWAIN is a standard of communication between the computer and scanner that all scanner manufacturers agree to that allow images to be directly scanned from an image editing program.

The TWAIN driver controls the scanner and serves as the interface between the scanner and your graphics program.

TWAIN is not an acronym for anything, but…

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What is TWAIN?

Twain is an old form of the word “two”. The TWAIN software refers to the computer

and scanner and the difficulty in connecting the two.

The developers took the word from Kipling's "The Ballad of East and West"

"...and never the twain shall meet...",

Allows 3rd party software applications to access the scanner to import images.

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The image to be scanned should be placed face down on the scanning bed.

The scanner will have a marker indicating where the top of the image should go.

Scanning A Photo

Scanning A Photo

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Fireworks CS3

Most applications that are TWAIN compliant will allow you to scan the image directly into the application. We will use Fireworks for this example.

Fireworks is a TWAIN compliant application.

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Scanning A Photo

Scanning a Photo

Some Applications are not TWAIN compliant, such as Adobe Photoshop CS4 and GIMP.

The scanner manufacturer will usually provide a stand-alone application for scanning images.

You can scan images and save them using their application.

Next, open them like any other image in your application of choice.

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Scanning Formats

Depending on your scanning software, you may have different options of file formats in which to save your scanned image or document.

Images may be saved as: jpg, bmp, tif, or png.

Documents may be saved as: pdf, or any of the image formats

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.bmp

The BMP file format, sometimes called bitmap file format , is an image file format used to store bitmap digital images.

BMP is a very simple bitmap format used by Microsoft. It doesn't support any photo specific features - and most importantly it doesn't support color management.

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.tif

Tagged Image File Format (abbreviated TIFF) is a file format for storing images, including photographs and line art.

tif images are considered losless, meaning when compressed they do not lose any of the data that renders the image allowing the image to maintain its resolution.

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.jpg

jpg is the most common image format used by digital cameras and other photographic image capture devices, and is the most common format for storing and transmitting photographic images on the World Wide Web.

jpg images are considered lossy, meaning when compressed, they lose some of the data that renders the image, resulting in a lower resolution image.

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.png

Portable Network Graphics (PNG) Designed to replace the GIF format.

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.pdf The Portable Document Format (PDF) is the file format

created by Adobe Systems in 1993 for document exchange. PDF is a fixed-layout format used for representing two-dimensional documents in a manner independent of the application software, hardware, and operating system.

Each PDF file encapsulates a complete description of a 2-D document (and, with Acrobat 3-D, embedded 3-D documents) that includes the text, fonts, images, and 2-D vector graphics that compose the documents.

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After Scanning

After scanning, you may need to modify your image in a graphic editing program. Crop Brightness Contrast

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Crop

To crop an image means to cut away, or trim, the image.

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Crop

Brightness

Refers to the lightness and darkness of a color.

Also referred to as tone or value.

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Original Image Increased Brightness

Contrast

Contrast is the difference in visual properties that makes an object (or its representation in an image) distinguishable between other objects and the background.

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Original Image Increased Contrast