Posted by Susan on December 23, 1997 at 00:06:15:
In Reply to: Re: Hey, Gerard, you got a scanner! posted by Gerard on December 21, 1997 at 21:06:30:
: Ok George, I'll wait til you post a message before deluging you with jpegs.
: Gerard (is it over yet ..xmas)
Before getting too far along with those JPEG's, you may want to check out the tutorials on Mustek's website (www.mustek.com). Your machine can scan at optical resolutions up to 1200 dpi (dots per inch) -- a nice capability to have, but way too high for everyday use. For me, 1200 dpi means that I have become seriously deranged while trying to bring out extremely subtle details in images produced by a scanning electron microscope without retouching them. A real pain, because it creates huge files that take forever to download or print, most of which are no better than images scanned at 600 dpi (still too much).
As I understand it, you're supposed to scan at one-half the resolution expected from the printer. So you'd scan an image at 300 dpi for printing at 600 dpi, which is the maximum resolution for lots of perfectly good desktop printers. Yet some people think that I'm a wasteful perfectionist for scanning most images at 300 dpi. Why is that so wasteful? Because it creates image files which are larger than 40K (the best size for quick downloading) or even 100K (stretching it, but still acceptable). Every byte counts in a Web image, since one kilobyte takes about 1 second to download -- assuming a 14.4 modem -- and most Netizens have the online attention span of hyperactive gnats. (Are you there, George? It's time to archive some of the older stuff in "The Great Hall.")
That's why online photo galleries usually show small low-resolution images (thumbnails) linked to larger high-resolution images. Number one, it allows the whole gallery to download faster and, number two, you're more likely to hang around waiting to see a picture that you selected.
So scan high ... but not too high!
Susan
P.S.: Soon, Gerard, soon it won't be baking for Christmas parties ... it'll be baking for New Year's Eve parties! But then come those wonderful dark days of January, when everyone stays home, trying to figure out how they're going to pay off the VISA card again. Personally, I can't wait ...