Sharon's
Dear Jane^®
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Jane's Criss Cross Puzzle

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 F5 Parcheesi Lesson

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 Alphabetical List

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 Scanning Tips
 

 2004 NTM Retreat

 2003 Trinity Valley DJ
 Quilt Exhibit

 1999 Texas Hill Country
 Retreat
 

Scanning Tips
Updated Instructions 08-28-2004

A tutorial for scanning DJ blocks with a flatbed scanner & editing the scanned pictures in PSP (Paintshop Pro 5.01)

Topics in this lesson: (Click on link to jump to topic section.)

Scan your block.
What do I do with the image in PSP?
Filesize and why it's so important.
How do I scan DJ Triangles?
What if I only have a sheetfeed scanner?
Links to Web Sites with more Scanning Tips

Scan your block.

After I make a Dear Jane block, I trim the block to its 5" unfinished size. I lay the block face-down on the scanner bed and open my scanning software.


Diagram 1

I tell the software to send the scan to PaintShop Pro 5.01, Best Color Photograph, Scaling 100%. See Diagram 1. Sometimes the selection border is not around the block. I use my mouse and move the edges of the selection block around the edges of my block. Make a nice clean square at 5".

As you can see the approximate size is 1.6MB. When I move the file to PSP, do my graphic editing, and finally save, I try to get the file size around 10-15k.

Now what do I do with the image in PaintShop Pro?

My scanning software automatically imports the image as a .tif file and opens PaintShop Pro. If your scanning software doesn't, please refer to the manual that came with your scanner. You may have to save the graphic to a file - preferably .tif format. Then you can open your graphics editing software and work with your scanned image.



With the block on my workarea in PSP, I start the process of resizing. Click on Image, Resize. See Diagram 3.


Diagram 3

Click the radio button, Percentage of Original and use 25%. Resize Type is Smart Size. Click OK. See Diagram 4.

Diagram 4

Usually when I resize a block, it gets a little fuzzy. To sharpen this new resized image, click on Image, Sharpen, and Sharpen again. See Diagram 5.


Diagram 5

SAVE YOUR WORK! <G>

Save the block graphic as a filename of a4.jpg, b13.jpg, etc. When typing your filenames, ALWAY USE lowercase. Some web page hosting sites do not allow uppercase in the filenames. It will save you a lot of aggravation when uploading your block graphic files to your web hosting site.

Filesize and why it's so important.

It is important to scan your blocks at an optimal filesize. The bigger the filesize in bytes, the longer it will take to download the image in your web browsing software. If you are uploading your pictures to your web pages, you want the page to load in a reasonable time length. Depending on connection rates to the internet, a page of 13 blocks at 15k per block equals
an approximate filesize of 200k. If your connection rate is 33600 then you page will load in about 1-2 minutes. Now if each block is 100k, that would make 1.3meg of downloading. At a connection rate 33600 that could take about 5-10 minutes. If each page is a DJ Row, you'll have a bunch of pages to show off your DJ blocks. Keeping your images manageable will encourage users to return to see your progress.

After you save your final block image. Go into Windows Explorer and look at the filesize. If you are using PSP, you can do an File, Open, Click on your scanned block. Diagram 6 shows that the block I'm using in this tutorial is 12KB. If your block is larger than 25KB, you may want to resize the dimensions of your block and then resave your image.


Diagram 6

How do I scan DJ Triangles? (Updated 8-28-2004)

Scanning triangles is similar to scanning blocks.



To resize the triangle, click on Image, Resize and use the same 25% as you would a block. This will keep the blocks/triangles in proportion to one another. It is important to keep them the same if you are using my Virtual Design Wall template. See Diagram 8.

If necessary, sharpen the image - Image, Sharpen, Sharpen.


Diagram 8

SAVE YOUR WORK! <G>

Save the triangle graphic as a filename of ls2.jpg, tr4.jpg, etc. When typing your filenames, ALWAY USE lowercase. Some web page hosting sites do not allow uppercase in the filenames. It will save you a lot of aggravation when uploading your block graphic files to your web hosting site.

If your background color on your web page is white, then you're finished. If it's cream or another color, then you will need to follow these steps to make your triangle appear to float on the page.

Make a TRANSPARENT image of your triangle. Click Colors, select Set Palette Transparency.




Select Set the transparency value to the current background color (white.) Click OK.

Save your new file as a CompuServe GIF file. This will make the file name extension .gif. When you load into the Virtual Design Wall, change the file extension to .gif.


What if I only have a sheet-feed scanner?

I used a sheet-feed scanner before I purchased my flatbed scanner. I took pictures of my DJ blocks and then fed the pictures into the sheet-feed scanner. The problem I had was that the pictures were blurry. I don't have a zoom camera that takes pictures up close.

If you do have a good camera, a thought would be to set it up on a tripod. Use a design wall for your background. Put your block on the design wall and take a picture at the EXACT same place each time. I suppose you could use a digital camera to take your pictures. The tricky part is getting the pictures about the same size when they are developed.

If you have pictures that aren't quite the same size. You could always crop the image in Paintshop Pro to show just the block. Click on Image, Resize. Select Actual/Print Size - use 5" for your block size. I reduce my scans 25% on a 5" block to use on my web pages. After you have a 5" scan, you can then go and resize 25% and then sharpen your image.

I'm not familiar with other scanners. It would be nice if you could slip the block into a page protector and then run it through the sheet-feed scanner. I'm not sure how bulky those scanners will let you get. It's worth a try, I suppose. If you have any good hints with using your sheet-feed scanner for DJ blocks, please email me. I'll post your tips on this page giving you credit for your help.