Frequently
Asked QuestionsHow to Scan an Image
Table of Contents
- Start A New Scan
- Select A Final Scan Area
- Make Optional Adjustments
- Where Do You Want the Scan to Go?
- Other Scanning Options
This tutorial will cover the steps of scanning an image with an HP ScanJet 5300 C and its accompanying software, HP PrecisionScan LTX.
Start A New Scan
Lift up the scanner lid. Place the document to be scanned face-down on the glass, aligned with the top right-hand corner of the scanner bed. Close the scanner lid.
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Press the "Scan" button on the front left of the scanner. This will send a signal to the computer that the scanner is being used and will launch the scanning software. (This will take a few seconds. If this does not occur, restart the computer and try again. If you press the button on the scanner more than once, an error message will pop up on the computer screen. Simply click "ok" and continue with this procedure.) Once the scanning software starts up, it might take a few seconds to warm up the lamp of the scanner.
Once the lamp is warm, the scanner will do a quick preliminary scan and a "preview" of your image will appear on the right hand side of the scanning software on the computer screen.
top Select A Final Scan Area
Now is a good time to crop your image if you want. If you click on the preview image, a selection border will appear around it. You can adjust this border (and therefore the area of your scanned image) by clicking on the border's selection points, holding down the left mouse button and dragging inward. When you let go of the mouse button, everything outside the selection border will turn a dark grey. The dark grey areas will not be included in the final image.
Make Optional Adjustments
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Next, you can specify what type of image you are scanning. For example, is it a picture or is it text? A black and white photo or a colour one? Usually, the scanning software does a pretty good job of detecting what type of image you are scanning, but you can make adjustments if necessary by select "Region Type' from the Settings in the toolbar. You can change it to a black and white photo, or if you are scanning text and want it to go to word, select Text.
Next, you can adjust the size of your scanned image if you wish. Select 'Size' from Settings on the Toolbar. Choose which size you would like.
Next, you should adjust the resolution (measured in "Dots Per Inch" or DPI) of your scanned image, if necessary. By default, the scanner is set up to scan images and print them out on a printer; therefore, if your image is destined for print, you probably won't need to adjust the resolution. If the image is destined for display on a computer screen (for example, are you going to send the image in an email message? Or put it on a web site?), you will need to adjust the resolution. Here's a couple of reasons why you need to do this:
Resolution is simply a measure of how detailed the image will be. The higher the number of dots per inch in a digital image, the better an image will look when it is printed out. The default resolution in HP PrecisionScan is 200 DPI. However, computer monitors can only display 72 dots per inch. If you scan your image at 200 DPI and then display it on a computer screen, it will not appear more detailed but rather much larger on the screen.
More dots per inch in a scanned image means more digital information contained in the image file - i.e. a larger file size. While the default settings produce a good quality image on paper, the size of the image file is usually too big to fit on a floppy disk, or be sent via Hotmail or another free web mail service (they have limits on how big a file can be sent with an email). To decrease the file size enough so that it can be put on a floppy disk or sent via email, you need to decrease the resolution of the image.
To decrease the resolution of your scanned image, click on the "settings" menu at the top of the HP PrecisionScan window. Then choose the "resolution" option.
Another window will pop up. Choose "set a custom resolution" to decrease the resolution to 75 or 100 dpi.
Step 4: Where do you want the scan to go?
Send Scan: you will tell the scanner what to do with your image once it is scanned. There is a 'Scan' to drop-down-menu on the top of the HP PrecisionScan window. Click on the drop-down menu to see the options, which include scanning directly into an image or text-editing program to work on it. If you are going to send it to a program, click 'Accept', and it will send your scan to the program that you have selected.
Save Scan: The final step is to actually scan the image and save it. Until this point, no image has been saved. To start the final scan, go to "Save As" under the File menu on the Toolbar. A window will pop up and ask you where you want to save the final image. If you have a floppy disk, choose the A: drive and give your image a name. Also, make sure that the "save as file type" (the drop-down menu directly below the name field) is set to 'jpg'.
Click the Save button.
Other Scanning Options
You can use the "Print" button on the scanner to print out an image directly from the scanner. This button will launch the "HP Copy Utility" and will send the image directly to a specified printer (see below.)
Warning: do not use the "Email" button on the scanner as it is not reliable.
Scanning OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is a feature that allows any scanned text to be editable in digital format. To Scan OCR so that your text is editable, simply choose MS Word for Step 4: Where You Want Your File To Go, and change the settings to TEXT for Step 4: Output Type.