Scanning in the Faculty Lab, using the Microtek flatbed scanner
Notes by Ursula Hoffmann, May 2001

1) The computer needs to know that it has a scanner attached:

If the flatbed scanner is not on: press the On/Off button at its lower right corner to On (small green light at the front of the scanner); then reboot/restart the computer: click Start, Shut down, Restart. Wait patiently for a few minutes until all icons are on the screen and the hourglass “wait pointer” goes away.

2) Put the item to be scanned in the scanner, upside down, and the top of the page or image nearest you if it fits – or sideways: the software will allow you to flip the scanned page.Be sure to use good copy. (For detailed information, especially about graphics, go to http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/acctemp/techteach/and look for Help/Scanning.)

Text:

Click Start, Programs, Scanner, Textbridge Pro, Textbridge. Read the first screen. Understand that the software has to photograph your copy as an image and then has to recognize letters and numbers in the image. Click Auto to let the software digitize your page or pages.

If you want to scan more than this page, put your next page into the scanner and then click More Pages. Else, click Done.

When you finish scanning your text, click Save as: Select Word or WordPerfect.

The software will highlight any word it could not recognize or did not find in its dictionary. See the little windows Suspect and Accept – click on their down arrows for options. But you will still need to proofread the digitized text. Watch for i1l! and for gq.

Save the result to your disk.

A photograph or printed image (not a slide or transparency): 

Click Start, Programs, Scanner, Jasc Software, Paint Shop Pro. When this application opens, click File, Import, Twain, Acquire. On upper right of the scanner dialog window, click the arrow (Setting Window) and select type, scale to desired size, and set values, such as 72 dpi if your image is to be used for e-mail or for a web page, or 300+ dpi for printing, then click Preview.

On the preview image, select the area to be scanned by diagonally pulling the upper left corner and then the lower right corner until the rectangle encloses only the area to be scanned.

Now click Scan. When done, close the scanner dialog window.
You may wish to edit this image that you now see in Paint Shop Pro, e.g., crop, sharpen, adjust color, contrast, add text. But if you need to resize, rescan the image.
Save the result to your disk: name the file (one word, no spaces, if for the web).
Select a type:
  1. Save As PaintShopPro (psp) file for further editing. This can be a large file.
  2. Save As jpg file, compressed, if it is a color image. Be sure to click on Options.
  3. Save As gif file, compressed, if it is b/w or a line drawing.
Remember to take your copy. Turn the scanner off. Press Windows key and USR to reboot the computer.