Scanning

• Scan your image with the proper image type setting. For photos, for example, use the "photo" (or "millions of colors") setting.
• Scan your image at the size you ultimately want to use.
• If you want to process your image with software like Photoshop, scan at a high resolution and color depth (300 dpi & millions of colors). Then you can use Photoshop to edit before you drop down to 72 dpi and 256 colors.
• The image displayed by your scanning software is usually scaled to fit in a window and will look different in Photoshop or on the Web.
• Once you've got a good scan, save it!

Processing Your Scanned Image
The Simplest Option: Convert to GIF. If you're not interested in editing or don't have graphics software to edit, you can simply convert your file to a web format and get on with your life! Several graphics programs have built in features to save files as GIF or JPEG format. If your software doesn't, check out the selections at Download.com !

Edit With Photoshop
Here are the steps for editing your scanned image. This assumes you have already scanned your image and have launched Adobe Photoshop.

1. Open the image file
   
   
2. Select Open from the File menu. Navigate to your scanned image file and click OK.
   
   
3. Add some text
   
   
4. Select the Text tool from the tool palette.
   
   

5. Select a color by clicking in the color palette. (If you don't see the color palette window, select Show Colors from the Windows menu.)
   
   

6. Click in the main image window to get a text dialog box. Choose a font and type the text for your header. Make sure the Anti-Aliased option is selected. Once you click OK, your text should appear on the screen. If the font or size isn't to your liking, use your delete key to delete the text and start over.
   
   

Adjust the Image
Photoshop supports sophisticated image processing. Rather than walk you through all of them, we'll point out a few to explore.

Choose the select tool and draw a box around the part of the image you'd like to adjust.
(Click a corner, hold the mouse key, drag to the opposite corner, and release the mouse.)

From the Image menu, you can adjust color or contrast, rotate, or scale your selection. The Filter menu includes powerful filters to blur, distort, sharpen, or stylize your selection. Consider saving your file before you try these tools, and always remember that Command-Z will undo a command.
Note: for a visual index of filter results, see Jeff Sale's Photoshop filter examples.

 

1. Resize the image
   Though it's usually better to scan at the final image size, sometimes you may want to resize from Photoshop. You'll also want to reduce resolution to screen resolution (72 dpi).
   • Select Image Size from the Image menu.
   • In the dialog box (shown below), make sure Proportions is selected and File Size is not. This way, when you adjust the height or width, the proportions will remain the same and the file size will decrease. Change the resolution to 72 and note the change in file size (shown at top of window).



5. Decide if you'll save in CompuServe GIF or JPEG formats.
   You can review when to use GIF or JPEG or just follow the next steps if you already know.

   CompuServe GIF

   1. From the Mode menu, select Indexed Color.
   2. The dialog box will automatically show the most appropriate color depth. After clicking OK, note the reduced file size.

      

   3. Save your file: from the File menu, select Save.

      

   4. Make sure CompuServe Gif is selected in the file format field.
   5. Your file name should have no spaces and end in a ".gif". Click Save.

   JPEG File Format

   1. If your image is a photo, when you do a "File - Save", check to make sure JPEG is selected in the file format.
   2. Type in a file name and make add a ".jpg" extension to the file's name, then click Save.

      

   3. After your click "Save" in the dialog box, you will get to choose the degree of compression for your JPEG file. Medium is usually good in terms of both file size and resolution.

      

   
   You now have a file ready to use for your Web page. Before you quit Photoshop, you should note the height and width of the image (in pixels). While holding the option key, click on the file size box in the lower left corner of the main menu. The image size should pop up in a small box. You can also go to the Menubar and do an Image - Image Size... which will give you height and width info.

 

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