Kanty Alumni Website

If you have old copies of The Prepster, The Kantian, news clippings, or any other printed matter, we'd love to see them. Because these are printed matter, scanning them in has a great deal of archival value and I thought it would be good to have a small section with some tips and ideas about how to make sure your scans are good ones.

Image sizes and Image Processing

For any scanned image or photo of text, you want to make the original image as large as you can without exceeding about 1 megabyte of file size. You can see the file size of the image by clicking on a image without opening it, then letting your cursor hover over it. Windows will momentarily pop-up the file size.

This means your original will probably be larger than your screen. The important thing is that when you look at the original, you can read everything, including the fine print, when you zoom in. Avoid using the "sharpen" feature in your image program (like Photoshop). The sharpen feature actually destroys valuable information. It is better to recapture the image if you can't read it "as is".

When you put the image on this site, the original will be preserved so others can see it if they want, and the site will automatically create smaller versions as needed.

If you have a scanner...

By far, the best way is to use a genunine flatbed scanner. These are pretty cheap these days, but not many people have them. If you have a scanner, and know how to use it, you probably don't even need this help page. If you're thinking of buying one, don't! A good digital camera will do just as good of a job these days, if you're careful.

Using a digital camera

Most digital cameras of 3 megapixels or more will do a pretty good job of photographing a full page of text. Less than 3 megapixels will be good only for small zoomed-in portions of text. So, if your camera is less than 3 megapixels, be very picky about the results and reshoot if the text isn't readable.

Here are some important tips for shooting text with a digital camera:

• Turn off your flash and take the photograph in an exremely well-lit room. The ideal is to take the photograph outdoors on a flat surface. It's hard to figure out some cameras. If you can't figure out how to turn off your flash, then going outdoors in sunlight is the only way to assure a good result.
• Hold your camera directly above, and centered on the document. The document should fill the viewfinder as fully as possible. If you have a zoom lens, avoid the wide-angle settings . For a normal sized 8.5x11 page, your camera should end up being about 12 to 18 inches from the document.
• Be aware of your own shadow!
• If the paper is glossy, try to be sure the light is not directly behind the camera. Taking photos of glossy paper at 12 noon outdoors isn't ideal. Wait until 3pm when the sun is getting low, crack open a beer, collect your documents and camera. Make sure the neighbors can see you.

Finally...

The final measure is, of course, the result. If you can read it on your screen, it will be fine. If your images seem to large, or there are problems, don't hesitate to email them to me at . I can help.