Question about scanning

I scanned an image that is 418x524x256 and another that is 418x524x16m. I
figured out that the 418 represents the width, 524 represents the height, but I
can't figure out what the 256 and 16 is or how to change them to experiment.
Will someone please tell me? I am trying to learn about this because my text
documents are very large in kilobytes, but I see that other people's similar
documents are smaller in size. I have a feeling that the 256 and 16 is the
problem but I do not know why, and I do not find a way to change the setting to
see what happens. Thank you.

In article <20040904095100.06405.00000051@mb-m19.aol.com>,
prosebc@aol.com says...
> I scanned an image that is 418x524x256 and another that is 418x524x16m. I
> figured out that the 418 represents the width, 524 represents the height, but I
> can't figure out what the 256 and 16 is or how to change them to experiment.
> Will someone please tell me? I am trying to learn about this because my text
> documents are very large in kilobytes, but I see that other people's similar
> documents are smaller in size. I have a feeling that the 256 and 16 is the
> problem but I do not know why, and I do not find a way to change the setting to
> see what happens. Thank you.

The third setting is obviously image mode.
Your "16m", is 16 million colors, or standard RGB (Red/Green/Blue) mode.
This is what you want for any photographic type image.

Mac

Mac McDougald <doogleREMOVE_THIS@netzero.net> wrote:
>In article <20040904095100.06405.00000051@mb-m19.aol.com>,
>prosebc@aol.com says...
>> I scanned an image that is 418x524x256 and another that is
>>418x524x16m. I
>> figured out that the 418 represents the width, 524 represents the
>>height, but I
>> can't figure out what the 256 and 16 is or how to change them to
>>experiment.
>> Will someone please tell me? I am trying to learn about this
>>because my text
>> documents are very large in kilobytes, but I see that other
>>people's similar
>> documents are smaller in size. I have a feeling that the 256 and
>>16 is the
>> problem but I do not know why, and I do not find a way to change
>>the setting to
>> see what happens. Thank you.
>
>The third setting is obviously image mode.
>Your "16m", is 16 million colors, or standard RGB (Red/Green/Blue)
>mode.
>This is what you want for any photographic type image.
>
>Mac

If you scan text only, no (color) graphics, you could set the output
mode to 'grey', or B&W, something like it. The final size of the scan
is 3 times smaller that way.
The size of the final document varies according to whether you store
it as (lossless) TIF or BMP, or as lossy JPG files. In your case the
final file size as TIF is about 650 kB for a color doc, about 220 kB
for a grey or B&W TIF doc. If you save as JPG, then, depending on the
quality you use, the file sizes are even smaller. TIF has a
compressed mode enabling smaller file sizes as a matter of fact.

--
Regards, Alex