[Techtalk] getting quality photo scans

[Michelle Murrain]

On Nov 16, 2006, at 9:51 AM, Carla Schroder wrote:
> I have a big batch of photographs I want to scan, and I'm having  
> problems
> getting good scans. They lose a bit of sharpness and the colors are
> off a little bit, even at the maximum resolution.  I'm using an  
> Epson CX
> 4800- of course the ink cartridges clogged themselves to death ages  
> ago, as
> is the habit of Epson printers, so I only use the scanner. I use  
> both Kooka
> and the Gimp to run the scans.
>
> Should I be looking at getting a different scanner, or different  
> software? Or
> is it not realistic to expect perfect copies of photos from scans?

I'm not an expert at this, but I have a friend who is, so I've  
learned a little about this. I can't say much about the sharpness  
(that might be a scanner issue) but the color is something that needs  
to be calibrated.

Basically, your scanner and screen need to be calibrated, and your  
printer needs to be calibrated too, so that the colors are true, from  
scanner to screen to printer.

And, of course I have no idea how to do this on linux, but there are  
calibration programs for the mac that I've heard of.

I googled, and found this as probably your best start:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_color_management

Peace,
Michelle
-------------------
Michelle Murrain
michelle at murrain.net

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