Scanning Resolution for Book Use or Canvas Poster Use?

I have a load of mostly 10" x 8" B&W photos I want to scan. I may want to
include them in a proper published book at a later stage, or maybe even blow
then up to poster size, perhaps even on canvas.

Bearing this in mind, how many DPI should I scan at? I believe 300dpi is OK
for magazines, books etc, but if I want the option to blow them up poster
size what should I use?

And if they're B&W, am I best scanning them in grayscale or B&W?

Thanks,

Fred.

Hmmm..You say photos, so is this film or digital? This being a digital
group, I had to ask. If you possibly have the negatives, that would
be a better option for scanning.

Yes to 300 dpi. that is what is used for printing. Your scanner
should create .tiff files which are good for prints. Make sure and
run the photos through photoshop to check levels,contrast,etc. before
printing... I would scan them in B and w. as opposed to grayscale. As
for blowing them up poster size, I use a photshop plug in from Alien
Skin called Blow UP.

I hope that helps...

-Gary


http://www.followfocusproductions.com

http://followfocusproductions.blogspot.com





On Sep 30, 6:52 pm, "Fred Finisterre" <finiste...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have a load of mostly 10" x 8" B&W photos I want to scan. I may want to
> include them in a proper published book at a later stage, or maybe even blow
> then up to poster size, perhaps even on canvas.
>
> Bearing this in mind, how many DPI should I scan at? I believe 300dpi is OK
> for magazines, books etc, but if I want the option to blow them up poster
> size what should I use?
>
> And if they're B&W, am I best scanning them in grayscale or B&W?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Fred.

On Mon, 1 Oct 2007 02:52:21 +0100
"Fred Finisterre" <finisterre@gmail.com> wrote:

> I have a load of mostly 10" x 8" B&W photos I want to scan. I may
> want to include them in a proper published book at a later stage, or
> maybe even blow then up to poster size, perhaps even on canvas.
>
> Bearing this in mind, how many DPI should I scan at? I believe 300dpi
> is OK for magazines, books etc, but if I want the option to blow them
> up poster size what should I use?

Well, your goal is to have enough resolution to not see scanner
pixels in the final print, right? You'll be limited by the resolution
that starts to 'see' the paper's grain, and this will depend on the
paper. Try some experiments to discover what works best for this
particular situation.

> And if they're B&W, am I best scanning them in grayscale or B&W?

Grayscale, of course, unless you want the images reduced to bi-level.
Try a scan in B&W to see what I mean.

Paul Allen

Fred Finisterre wrote:
> I have a load of mostly 10" x 8" B&W photos I want to scan. I may want to
> include them in a proper published book at a later stage, or maybe even blow
> then up to poster size, perhaps even on canvas.
If you are scanning ordinary prints, scanning at 300 ppi
captures all of the detail in the image. If you later are
dealing with a printer who insists the files must be at 600
ppi for the intended print size, use one of the several
image editing proghrams that increase the pixel count by
interpolation.
>
> Bearing this in mind, how many DPI should I scan at? I believe 300dpi is OK
> for magazines, books etc, but if I want the option to blow them up poster
> size what should I use?
300 pp1 will be fine. People don't expect posters ot have
high-resolution images. What oyu need depends on how far
away people are when the view the poster.

>
> And if they're B&W, am I best scanning them in grayscale or B&W?

I doubt the prints are in B&W, which means that the image
contains no grey image points. Scan in grayscale; 8 bits is
plenty to catch all the depth of the grayscale of a print.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Fred.
>
>
>