Want to work on watercolour originals. Scanner?

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Guest

Hi folk,

Following some excellent advice I got yesterday, I am now thinking of
getting a new scanner.

Basically I want it for scanning in watercolour paintings, sketches etc.
that I've done, to finish them off in the computer.

I would have to get them printed professionally I guess (I don't think my
old HP Deskjet 870 Cxi wouldn't be up to the job, let alone be able cope with
specialist papers.) Or maybe in the future I could get a suitable printer.

In a photography forum I belong to people often say it is pointless getting
a high res. scanner for images (the human eye can only read up to about 200
dpi?) But I may well have got the wrong end of the stick here.

Given what I want to use the scanner for (pix, pix and more pix), does
anyone have any advice about what I should be looking for?

all best wishes,
Canna
 
size of the scanned area. You'll want high color accuracy.
You can always set a high res scanner to a lower resolution.

Have you looked at getting a WACOM tablet to do your
graphics painting? www.wacom.com


--
The people think the Constitution protects their rights;
But government sees it as an obstacle to be overcome.


message
| Hi folk,
|
| Following some excellent advice I got yesterday, I am now
thinking of
| getting a new scanner.
|
| Basically I want it for scanning in watercolour paintings,
sketches etc.
| that I've done, to finish them off in the computer.
|
| I would have to get them printed professionally I guess (I
don't think my
| old HP Deskjet 870 Cxi wouldn't be up to the job, let
alone be able cope with
| specialist papers.) Or maybe in the future I could get a
suitable printer.
|
| In a photography forum I belong to people often say it is
pointless getting
| a high res. scanner for images (the human eye can only
read up to about 200
| dpi?) But I may well have got the wrong end of the stick
here.
|
| Given what I want to use the scanner for (pix, pix and
more pix), does
| anyone have any advice about what I should be looking for?
|
| all best wishes,
| Canna
|
 
Hi folk,

Following some excellent advice I got yesterday, I am now thinking of
getting a new scanner.

Basically I want it for scanning in watercolour paintings, sketches etc.
that I've done, to finish them off in the computer.

I would have to get them printed professionally I guess (I don't think my
old HP Deskjet 870 Cxi wouldn't be up to the job, let alone be able cope with
specialist papers.) Or maybe in the future I could get a suitable printer.

In a photography forum I belong to people often say it is pointless getting
a high res. scanner for images (the human eye can only read up to about 200
dpi?) But I may well have got the wrong end of the stick here.
Click to expand...

Yea, that's why they are just into Photography. If you scan an image at
200 DPI, print it on a printer that does 1200 DPI, then scan the same
image at 600 DPI and print it at 1200 DPI, you will see the difference.

You need a flat-bed scanner, one that is as large as you can afford, then
you need a LOT of memory (1+GB) and PhotoShop (full version), and then a
good Color Matched screen and then a good printer. I use a WAX Thermal
printer - the Xerox 8400B printer ($965) for printing out color images I
care about.
Given what I want to use the scanner for (pix, pix and more pix), does
anyone have any advice about what I should be looking for?
Click to expand...

Get one that scans at least at 600DPI and has a Color calibration process
with the monitor and printer or you're wasting your money.
 
Good morning Jim and Leythos,

Thank you very much for responding. It is much appreciated.

To be honest I don't have the facilities nor finances for big pix..an A4
area would suit me fine. I like working small too.

My RAM memory is 320 MB, and I guess I have about 2 GB at most to play with
on hard disk (total from 2 hard drives = 19 GB) - but I would store images on
a cd.

I only have Photoshop Elements 2 - but I can see that this may well have to
change in future. There must be loads of people selling CS on Ebay as
unwanted (head-banging!) Christmas presents.

The calibration thing is a bit worrying. The place where I currently have
photographs printed does an excellent job, so the camera/monitor connection
is okay, but maybe the scanner/monitor connection might not be?

I think getting into home printing at this level would be way more than I
could afford, plus I'd get utterly obsessional about it and do at least 20
copies of everything in the heat of the moment! If possible I should get
the stuff printed elsewhere.

Sooo - now I am looking for a scanner that will record at 600 dpi, that
seems to be the nub of it I think. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Jim, I shall check out your tablet suggestion. I have a small Serif one,
but somehow have not got round to using it.... I really like the idea of
being able to finish off paper-based stuff in the computer.


All best wishes,
Canna.
 
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