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<!-- name="Zach Fine" -->
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<!-- subject="Re: UMax 1220S" -->
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<title>sane-devel: Re: UMax 1220S</title>
<h1>Re: UMax 1220S</h1>
<b>Zach Fine</b> (<a href="mailto:czyz@u.washington.edu"><i>czyz@u.washington.edu</i></a>)<br>
<i>Sat, 20 Jun 1998 11:45:08 -0700 (PDT)</i>
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<li> <b>Next message:</b> <a href="0174.html">Nicolas Lucas de Peslouan: "Re: UMax 1220S"</a>
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<i>&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; "Jim" == Jim Ford &lt;<a href="mailto:jf001@watford.net">jf001@watford.net</a>&gt; writes:</i><br>
<p>
Jim&gt; This is to report that the Umax Astra 1220S - the latest in<br>
Jim&gt; the 1200 series - appears to work fine with SANE, with no<br>
Jim&gt; nasty noises from the mechanism! The resolution on xscanimage<br>
Jim&gt; only goes up to 600dpi though (but see below)<br>
...snip...<br>
Jim&gt; Why does my scanner provide resolutions up to 9600 dpi when<br>
Jim&gt; the default resolution for photos seems to be 100 and OCR<br>
Jim&gt; 300? What use is 9600 - scanning postage stamps?<br>
<p>
FWIW, most consumer level scanners on the market scan with a maximum<br>
optical resolution of 300-600dpi. Many scanners are marketed with<br>
such claims as "scans at up to 9600dpi (interpolated)". This is a<br>
joke, false advertising, and ought to be illegal. <br>
<p>
Interpolation is a process of creating a new pixel based on the pixels<br>
surrounding it. Interpolation can look ok at low levels, but it is<br>
not adding any real, captured information to your scanned image. I'm<br>
always surprised that the marketing folk stop at 9600dpi, they might<br>
as well advertise "scans at 1billion dpi (interpolated)", since<br>
besides disk and memory space, there's no limit to how many<br>
interpolated pixels can be added to a scan.<br>
<p>
As for the proper resolution for scanning, the probably reason for<br>
those defaults is that when printing with a laser printer, one must<br>
use halftones to produce levels of gray. A halftone consists of a<br>
bunch of dots of varying size, placed along lines which are often at a<br>
45 degree angle. The fineness of a halftone screen is measured in<br>
lines-per-inch (lpi). A newspaper might print at 85lpi, a magazine at<br>
above 105lpi. Printing in color gets a bit more complicated, let's<br>
not go into it.<br>
<p>
The lines-per-inch of a halftone and the dots-per-inch of the printer<br>
that produce it are not directly related. A 1200dpi printer could<br>
print at 15lpi, 50lpi, 80lpi, 105lpi, or any other number under<br>
600lpi. As you increase the halftone screen, the resolution and<br>
fineness of the printed photo increases, but at the same time the<br>
number of levels of gray goes down, leading to photo reproduction that<br>
looks rather xerox like. <br>
<p>
Theoretically, a 300dpi laser printer could print at a resolution of<br>
150lpi, as you could print that many distinct lines of single pixel<br>
dots. However, the dots along these lines would not be able to vary in<br>
size without running into one another and becoming black, or<br>
disappearing altogether and becoming white. If you were to print at a<br>
lower lpi, say 55, the halftone screen would be clearly visible, yet<br>
many levels of gray could be reproduced. I used to have a formula for<br>
calculating this lying around. Suffice it to say that 55lpi is a<br>
pretty optimal halftone screen for a 300dpi laser printer, although<br>
it's a bit low for many folks' tastes.<br>
<p>
And if you know what halftone screen you're printing at, you can then<br>
calculate the resolution at which you should scan your photos. I<br>
don't remember the exact formula for this either, but if you print at<br>
65lpi like my college paper used to, your photos should be scanned to<br>
be at least 135dpi at the size at which they're finally printed<br>
(i.e. if you scan at 135dpi and then enlarge the photo to fill a whole<br>
page, it's no longer 135dpi). We used to scan at 150dpi so that we'd<br>
have a little room to play with.<br>
<p>
But the basic idea is that the halftone screen limits the amount of<br>
detail that will be visible, so scanning at higher resolutions is<br>
unnecessary.<br>
<p>
I'd bet that the 100dpi default is with laser printed halftoning in<br>
mind, probably at 40-55lpi. If you're scanning photos to print on one<br>
of those super-duper epson stylus printers or some other high-res<br>
inkjet, you might want to scan quite a bit higher. 300dpi ought to be<br>
high enough for just about anything, unless you're printing a<br>
magazine.<br>
<p>
72dpi is the standard computer monitor resolution, should you be<br>
scanning for the web.<br>
<p>
Suffice it to say that you'll probably never need to scan at higher<br>
than 300dpi, unless you're trying to magnify a detail. And scanning at<br>
resolutions beyond 600dpi will probably not capture any more detail<br>
than a 600dpi scan would, it'll probably just create a whole bunch<br>
through interpolation and make your filesizes larger. Unless of<br>
course the Astra 1220S has 1200dpi optical resolution.<br>
<p>
-Zach Fine<br>
<a href="mailto:czyz@u.washington.edu">czyz@u.washington.edu</a><br>
<p>
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<ul>
<!-- next="start" -->
<li> <b>Next message:</b> <a href="0174.html">Nicolas Lucas de Peslouan: "Re: UMax 1220S"</a>
<li> <b>Previous message:</b> <a href="0172.html">Oliver Rauch: "Re: UMax 1220S"</a>
<li> <b>Maybe in reply to:</b> <a href="0171.html">Jim Ford: "UMax 1220S"</a>
<!-- nextthread="start" -->
<li> <b>Next in thread:</b> <a href="0176.html">becka@rz.uni-duesseldorf.de: "Re: UMax 1220S"</a>
<li> <b>Next in thread:</b> <a href="0174.html">Nicolas Lucas de Peslouan: "Re: UMax 1220S"</a>
<li> <b>Reply:</b> <a href="0176.html">becka@rz.uni-duesseldorf.de: "Re: UMax 1220S"</a>
<!-- reply="end" -->
</ul>