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General discussion

Transfering old photo slides

May 31, 2005 12:58PM PDT

Hi there,

I recently purchased an Epson "Perfection 2580 Photo"
scanner so I can transfer our old family slides onto a disc. It's a really cool scanner and it works just fine. But I'm kinda stuck.
Here's my troubles. I don't know which "File Type" to choose when it comes time to save them to my hard drive.
My goal is to get these family pictures off these old slides and onto a disc so I can make good quality copies for the rest of my family. (I have a large family)
What file type is recommended?
Also, should I change the size of the original image when I make the transfer?

My System Info: Hp Pavillion 754n, Windows XP Home SP2,
Extra 512MB Memory, and 200GB Maxtor One Touch EHD.

Any Advice is appreciated.
Thank You, Gary

Discussion is locked

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Transfering old photo slides
May 31, 2005 2:09PM PDT

You failed to mention what the available "file types" are. But I assume they are .jpg and TIFF

The ideal answer is TIFF, but that will result in a file size that is over 8 meg for each slide. Assuming that you will be scanning at 2400 dpi.

I would choose .jpg.
If you have the option, set the .jpg quality level to a high setting. Which on a sliding scale from 0-to 100 would be 90.

This will cut down the file size to about 3 meg.

You should not reduce the size of the original image scans when you save the photos to the hard disk.
These will be the master copies and should be full size.

When you get ready to make your CDs for the family,
I would put two sizes of files on the CD.
Full size for those who want to print a copy
and a viewing size (800 x 533) for those who want to view the photos on their computer.

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Scanning Old Photos
May 31, 2005 4:31PM PDT

Joe, Just want to add a few suggestions when scanning. Try to scan large to capture all the detail and reduce to something around 300 DPI and or 8"x10". If you had a 4"x5" original, I would suggest to scan at 300 percent and reduce to an 8"x10" final image. But no more than 300 DPI. The larger the image scan, the more detail to capture.
The norm for image resolution is to have the file size twice the DPI size (Dots per inch)
If you were printing to a newspaper image and line screen or 85 dots per inch, which is rather course, than the image should be 170 DPI. The image and resolution should not exceed 115% of the original. In a fine magazine that prints at 133 DPI, the resolution should be set at 266 or 300 max. Not any higher for a publication. The original could be much higher in fact. Most line art images are scanned at 600-800 DPI.

One other important issue is to scan all old photos that are sepia in color tone as RGB (Red/Green/Blue) Sharp Images in half tone.
You can change the image to black and white as a save-as image if you want to later.
JPEG and Tiff files are rather universal as RGB. EPS files are rather tricky to read without the original software or other software that can read an EPS file as CMYK. (Encapsulated Post Script File), GIFFS for internet and low resolution files.
I am way too long winded!

Kevin

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Thanks for responding
Jun 3, 2005 4:56AM PDT

I'm new to this and it gets a bit frustrating when I don't know what to do. So I appreciate the advice.
There are quite a few choices of file types, (BMP,PCX,TIF,TIFF,JPG,JPEG,PCT,PDF)sorry I didn't include them in my 1st post. I know this is gonna sound really lame but I just have to ask. Is the difference between a TIF and a JPG suppose to be noticable on the screen, or when it is printed out?
You see, I scanned a slide in TIF and again in JPG.
I couldn't see any difference between them.
Big time Rookie HUH?
I looked through the on screen manuel about the file types, and it simply says to choose one. They don't explain WHAT they are or WHY there's even choice between them.
Anyway, I began transfering the slides in JPG like you suggested, with the quality set high. But about the sizing issue I'm not so clear on.
I'm scanning them in thier original size, which is 1.36 by .85 inches. Which is about 120-150KB. You mentioned that the size would be MBs. What'd I miss there?
Thanks for your help, I really need a lot of it.lol

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Response
Jun 3, 2005 9:20AM PDT

The .jpg format is the most used format in digital photography.

It compresses the photo and therefore reduces the size of the file.

The TIFF format and all the rest you listed do not (normally) compress the file size.

You should not see any difference in picture quality, between any of the formats.
So why do we have so many formats?
.....mostly it has to do with legal issues and copywrites.

However: the .jpg format uses a lossy compression, meaning that if you overcompress the photo, you will lose some quality. The compression setting is usually called a quality setting.
And set on a scale of
1 to 10 or
1 to 100.

The lower the number, the higher the compression and less quality.
The higher the number the less compression and better quality.
A setting of halfway (5 or 50) will usually have no effect on quality.

If you want to reduce the size of the file for posting a photo on the internet or email, you should think about using a low setting (3 or 30). You also want to reduce the size of the photo itself. Usually it is best not to exceed 800x600 when posting on the internet. People with dial-up ISPs do not want to get huge photo files.

...............

When you are scanning 35mm slides or film strips you should set your scanner software to scan them at 2400 dpi (dots per inch), for best quality.
Never scan 35mm slides or film strips below 1200 dpi.

I don't know how you are scanning them at 1.36 x .85 inches.
The specifications for that scanner says it will scan 35mm at 2400 dpi.
You need to review the manual about setting the scan density.

A 35mm slide scanned at 2400 dpi will produce a very large photo.
Approx 3600x2400 dpi.
This will print a high quality 12x8 inch photo.

Scanned at 1200 dpi it will be 1800x1200 dpi.
This will print a high quality 6x4 photo.

For printing, you need a large dpi number.
For viewing on the monitor, you need less dpi.

For viewing on a computer you can use software to resize/resample the photo to something that will fit on a screen.
Something like:
640x426
800x533
1024x683

...............................

If you send CD copies of the scanned slides to friends or relatives, it is nice if you send them in two sizes.

One size for printing and one size for viewing on a monitor.

................................

I ran into a reason for having large scans for monitors.

I use a slide show program (ProShow Gold) that lets you burn your slide show to a DVD.

The program has the "Ken Burn Effect" feature where you can scan across the slide (left to right or right to left). You can also zoom into certain parts of a photo.
This is where the extra dpi helps.
You can zoom in quite far without getting blocky results.

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Respose
Jun 3, 2005 2:46PM PDT

is RIGHT-ON! Very few people know about JPEG files and the more you change the original file, the more chances you have of losing a bit of quality. Your post was A1 accurate.
Personally, I always scan and save the RGB JPEG file as an EPS. I use Adobe Photoshop professionally. When I want to send a low res image in email to someone, I do a save-as to a JPEG format and as a low resolution. If the person wants a larger file image later, I send them as a download from the original file, and as a higher image resolution.

Joe, your answer for slide scanning was very good and slide scanning is not the easiest to do. You should copy your post to Word and have it ready for posts at a later date. I plan on doing the same with your post also.
Can you add your post to CNET archives also?? Would be nice to have!

Kevin

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Thanks again for the info
Jun 4, 2005 5:42AM PDT

Very enlightening. Unlike the user guide, nowhere does is say/reccomend a minimum dpi for 35mm slides. Nor does it say anything about dpi to inches ratio. Not very helpful to us newbies.
The information you shared is way cool, and it's really gonna help me out a lot.
I was scanning the slides at 300dpi which resulted in the small size (KBs). On the settings page there's a box for the document size, and target size. I was scanning them in thier original size and saving them in thier original size. I tried that at 2400 dpi and it still saved it at 1.36 by .85, but I could blow this image up huge and not get the blocky affect. Now I can see a difference in the images. Cool!
I'm gonna take your advice and make two copies of each slide. One for viewing and one for ready to print.

I do have another question if you don't mind.
Should I scan these slide in 48-bit color or 24-bit color? The reason I'm asking is when I went to scan them in 48-bit a notice popped up on my screen: ''Please be aware that some applications do not support 48-bit color or 16-bit grayscale'' So I've been scanning in 24-bit color.
Again, I thank You for your time and Attention.

Gary

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24 bit color
Jun 4, 2005 6:23AM PDT

You made the right decision.
You want to be compatible with everything.

Stay with the 24 bit color.

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My 2 cents. Normally, I agree with Snapshot, but I think
Jun 4, 2005 6:38AM PDT

jpeg should be limited to images which will be displayed on a screen. That is, on the web, or in a slide show.

A lot of work goes into scanning slides. I would save the result of the scan as a TIF file. These can be burned to a CD-R or a DVD for long term storage. The TIF can be used as necessary to obtain a jpeg file if that is needed. As Snapshot pointed out, jpeg is a lossy format, and problems will build up if you repeatedly save a file as jpeg.