Scanning

Scanning

Scanning can be the most effective way to get anything on paper into a computer and then on to your digital library. We can handle fragile items one at a time to insure their safety. This is done with a flatbed scanner. Anything from a thumbnail sized image up to a poster sized picture can be scanned this way. Each item is laid flat on a glass surface and scanned through the glass. This provides for gentle handling. We can bring our scanners to you so that important images will never leave your sight or your possession. Slides, film and printed documents can also be scanned. We have the scanners to do this. And we can scan up to 8.5x11 papers in stacks quickly and accurately for large collections of images that are not fragile. This scanner we use is called a document feed scanner.

Time Required

Flatbed Scanner

Scanning a large item up to 8x12 can take up to a minute to prepare and 3 minutes to scan. Since fragile items have to be handled carefully 5 minutes a scan would be a conservative estimate. A collection of items can be scanned at the same time in the flatbed but extra time in "cutting" each item out can add minutes after the scan. See Prices

Slides and Film Scans

Our flatbed scanner can scan slides and film too.  By the nature of the small size of these mediums the scanner has to scan at a much greater magnification.  This means that it takes longer than prints for the same number of scans.  We have reduced our rates for these scans if we can do them over time back at Rapid Photos. See Prices

Document Feed Scanner

Documents or images can be scanned as quickly as 300 or more 4x6's in an hour. The pictures need to be clean with no bends or bent corners.  They are placed in the scanner in stacks so that most of the work is done by the machine automatically. But to expedite our service you can help by preparing the stacks in advance.  Larger items will take longer. See Organization

Organization

To optimize our work flow we need your help to organize your pictures.  You can group your pictures by date or significant characteristic such as people involved, event, or subject.   Each item in a group of items does not have to be exactly the same size. Color and BW images can be grouped together as long as they can be treated equally (all scanned as color documents or all as BW).  Because the scanner's output can be customized to suit your needs (such as Hi Resolution for the possibility of large prints later, or Lo Resolution for viewing on a computer monitor only) the stacks should also be made up of images that all Hi Res or all Lo Res.

Flatbed Scans

Items larger than 8x12 will need to be scanned on the flatbed scanner. Its often better to leave odd items to be scanned on the flatbed scanner. That leaves us with the chance to examine them and to determine what steps need to be taken.

Document Feed Scans

4X6 and 3.5x5 prints are always good candidates for stack scanning in our document feed scanner. But any images on paper in good condition (such as no bent corners, no cracks, no surface dirt that will come off, no severely curled paper) will scan in stacks. Either side or both sides can be scanned at one time, thus leaving you with the potential of saving notes written on the back. All images should be oriented face up. We suggest that you use index cards or blank sheets of paper to write pertinent information which when scanned as the first item will tell us what we are doing as well as explain to you what your purpose was at the time.  These information "cards" can go through the scanner easily and will enable you to customize your organization any way you wish. We will use these “cards” to name the computer folders that will hold your scanned images.   Do not however put together stacks that require us to change the scanner settings in mid stack.  "Cards" imbedded in a stack at the time of scanning which require us to change settings will add to our total work time.

Boxing Your Groups of Pictures for scanning

Single unframed pictures

For stack scanning containers like shoe boxes are very useful.  There size is large enough for many pictures yet easy to handle.  Putting the stacks that you have gathered in these boxes right side up just like you would a set of index cards in a file drawer is the best way to prepare for scanning.  For flat bed scans especially of large items they should be laid flat in an appropriate box and an index card placed on top of the stack to define you needs.

Framed pictures

Framed pictures should be taken from the frame whenever possible.  We can not put frames on our flat bed scanner because of the danger of scratching the glass.

Naming your image files after scanning

There are 2 main ways to organize your resultant digital images by (descriptive names and folders) or by keywords. A combination of both can be used also. If you have large quantities of images naming each file becomes onerous. Grouping them by a common characteristic and then moving them into a folder with the appropriate name will help. This is the name and folder approach. It can be greatly enhanced by using “keywords”. With cataloging (album) software you can “import” the named folders into the catalog and then add much more detail with "keywords". The result of using keywords and cataloging software can be a collection that is easily searchable no matter how many images are in the collection. The collection can also be sorted in countless ways and then grouped with other pictures which then can be remembered by the catalog software for instant recall by just clicking on the name of the collection.  You can then have same pictures in many of these collections without making copies.  A good example would be you Christmas pictures from 1998 can be part of your Snow Scenes collection as well as your Family Gatherings collection as well as your tribute to Uncle Bill.  We can do any or all of these functions or we can teach you how.   see Cataloging

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Services

• Scanning

• OCR
  (from the printed page to a Word doc)

• Photography

• Restoration

• Organizing

• Book Layout

Education

• Teaching.

  • Photography

  • Photoshop

  • Archiving

  • Cataloging

  • Computers

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