Basic question about VueScan

[Fontessa]

I'm experimenting with the demo of VueScan (8.0.4) with my Polaroid
SprintScan 35 Plus. OS is Win XP.

I am not very good at learning new tricks, and the Polaroid software
was much simpler than VueScan. What I'm having trouble figuring out is
how to scan my slides at the size/resolution I need. After fiddling
with the settings, I'm getting images larger than I need.

Although I can easily downsize/downsample them in Photoshop, I'd
rather scan as close to the size I need as possible -- I think that
the larger I scan, the fuzzier the image gets, so there's a
disadvantage to scanning larger than I need.

Anyway, I cannot figure out how to enter the settings so I get what I
want. All my scans -- without exception -- need to be high resolution
for traditional offset printing, so I need the images to be 300 dpi at
the finished size.

For example, I frequently need slide scans approximately 6" x 9"
finished size. How would I do that in VueScan?

TIA,

Marlene

 

[Wayne Fulton]

For example, I frequently need slide scans approximately 6" x 9"
finished size. How would I do that in VueScan?

A 6x9 inch image would be about 6.7x enlargement from full frame 35 mm
film. Therefore to print this at 300 dpi, you would scan at 6.7x300 =
2000 dpi. If you will crop from full frame, then these are not quite
the right numbers, you need a little more, it varies with cropping.

You CAN do this in Vuescan, Input tab, Custom Resolution 2000 dpi
which will give the corrent number of pixels.

Then on the Output tab, there are various ways to scale it:

Magnification 6.7

or better,

Print Size : Fixed DPI set to 300 dpi to match the numbers above,

or at Print Size, you could select a print size there, but 6x9 isnt
there.

Only do ONE of these on the Output tab, not all.

You can see the expected output numerical results on the lower status
bar, so always check that to be sure you have what you want.

If you select a Custom Resolution, VueScan will simply scan a little
larger and resample to your value itself, so you are not avoiding
anything. The best scan is indeed at the higher integer value like
maximum or maximum/2.

My frank opinion is that it is in fact best to do this manually, by
always selecting 2700 dpi, and resample it yourself in Photoshop with
bicubic, when necessary. The difference in 2700 dpi and 2000 dpi is
that you have pixels to crop moderately from full frame, to 75% width or
height (and still be able to print 300 dpi). As often as not, you
probably need this slack for now. Regardless, then the exact final
size is an easy manageable decision at that point, resample as needed
after you crop it. It is also your best image. This is standard
practice.

You can follow that resample with Unsharp Mask sharpening and it should
be the best it can be. Perhaps USM Radius 2 for prepress.

 

[Fontessa]

Wayne,

Thanks for your suggestions. I'll do some experimenting when I have
time to rescan some slides.

I do always scan full-frame, because I never know if my clients will
want to change the cropping.

And it's always better to scan too large than not large enough!

Hey, can you tell me how to post with an unspammable e-mail address??
Every time I post a message (which is fairly infrequently), I start
getting spam within a day or two. And I haven't figure out how to log
on (so I can post) without using a real e-mail address.

Thanks!

 

[Wayne Fulton]

I really do think you will find it both better quality, and more
convenient too, to scan at full 2700 dpi pretty much at VueScan defaults
(meaning levels, wide range flat image), and then fix it in Photoshop
(cropping, and when really necessary, resampling, and of course Levels
and USM sharpening).

Hey, can you tell me how to post with an unspammable e-mail address??
Every time I post a message (which is fairly infrequently), I start
getting spam within a day or two. And I haven't figure out how to log
on (so I can post) without using a real e-mail address.

Right, dont ever use your real email address on usenet groups.

This depends on your newsreader, but you simply enter a fake address in
the email address field there. Some newsreaders require it to
approximate a real email address format, at least have the @ and a .com,
for example my (e-mail address removed) is required format by my usenet reader
program. But different programs allow different things in that email
address field, and different people format it differently.

One wrong way to do it is to use a valid domain, for example like
(e-mail address removed). That allows the spam to still consume internet
bandwidth, and causes aol to receive it. Instead use a format like
(e-mail address removed) (no real place), so that it is bounced back immediately
as unsendable, before going anywhere first.

I think you may be posting from google, and Google appears to require an
"account" to post, and if they verify it, then therefore possibly a
workable email on that account? I've never tried it, so I dont know if
you can lie to Google about your email address and still create a
workable account? If it must be a real address, you could just give
them some free email account (hotmail, yahoo, etc) that you never intend
to look at, which gets it out of the your face. But invalid.com seems
better if possible.

And of course, a fake email address means you cannot use one combined
program for both real email and usenet postings.

 

[Bruce Gaylinn]

I use Mozilla for mail and news. You can set up multiple identities and
at the time you send something you can pick which identity to use.