scanning watercolours and pen and ink drawings

[grant walker]

hi,
I do watercolours and fine pen and ink drawings, I want to scan some to put
onto cards. I am using an Epson perfection 4990.

should I use the photo setting or illustration setting for watercolours and
photo, line art or grey scale settings for the pen and ink. I would also
like to make the background colour of the paper cleaner and more uniform and
then able to change colour as I wish.

I would like to find out more about scanning my art work and also seeing
what others are doing in this area so I am interested in your replies,

with thanks,
grant.

 

[CSM1]

hi,
I do watercolours and fine pen and ink drawings, I want to scan some to
put onto cards. I am using an Epson perfection 4990.

should I use the photo setting or illustration setting for watercolours
and photo, line art or grey scale settings for the pen and ink. I would
also like to make the background colour of the paper cleaner and more
uniform and then able to change colour as I wish.

I would like to find out more about scanning my art work and also seeing
what others are doing in this area so I am interested in your replies,

with thanks,
grant.

Scan in the professional mode.
Selecting a Scanning Mode
http://files.support.epson.com/htmldocs/pr49ph/pr49phrf/howto_1.htm#selecting a scanning mode a


Setting exposure and correcting scans.
http://files.support.epson.com/htmldocs/pr49ph/pr49phrf/howto_3.htm#create beautiful reproductions a

Since the drawings are hand drawn you would scan them in Color and at a
pretty high resolution for the fine lines in the drawing. This is the
exception to the rule of 300 DPI for photo prints.

Illustrations are a special case and will take some trial and error testing
to see what works best for you. Try 600 DPI for the fine lines to start.
Keep the resolution to the lowest value that will resolve the lines in the
drawing. File sizes will be huge! Save the scan in TIFF format. (It is
universal and lossless)

The background color will very likely take some tweaking in a Photo Editor.
If you set the exposure to not wipe out the background color (make the scan
a little darker than usual), It will be easier to fix in a photo editor.

If you are scanning Line drawings (Pen and Ink), try the Black & White (
line art ) mode and 600 DPI. Experiment with the threshold setting in the
scanner. To get the best Black and no muddled or speckled paper. Again use
the lowest resolution that will resolve the fine lines. 300 DPI if you can.