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Using the Scanner in B8253 for text, or pictures
To Turn on the scanner: For normal scanning, only use the lower switch on the right (far) side of the scanner. Use both the upper and lower switch only for transparencies. Place picture to be scanned on upper right corner of glass. These programs may require all the RAM memory available, so quit any other programs that are running before opening the scanner software.
For Scanning Text (e.g. turning a FAX into a computer file):
After turning on the scanner, open WordScan Plus from the 'Scanner' menu (Yes, this program crashes frequently and needs to be reinstalled- contact me).
The icons are self-explanatory and usually don’t need to be changed (If scanning a mixture of text and pictures choose Reading For text and Image (third Icon to right).
Choose automatic or Preview, then choose scan. If preselected areas need to be changed, and are only text, just choose the areas you want processed. If doing both text and pictures, choose arrow (top left of preview window), click on selected portion and hit delete key to deselect, then click on the T icon to select text and on the house icon to select images.
Scan information is NOT SAVED until you choose File Save from the menu. You may wish to preserve formatting by changing from Text to Microsoft Word 5 (or other word processor).
For Scanning Pictures: (also see the overview in the HP User’s Guide, pages 3-3 to 3-10.)
After turning on the scanner, open DeskScan II from the 'Scanner' menu.
Pictures for viewing on a monitor (e.g., Netscape or the WWW) should be saved at ca. 75 dpi (dots per inch) so they will load faster. The optical resolution of the scanner is 300 dpi. Choose the Type of picture based on your desired output (e.g. Black & White (no gray) Drawing, Color Drawing, Black & White Photo, Color Photo) and the Path (choose screen for WWW images). These settings can be checked or modified under the custom menu.
Click on Preview. Scanner (after ca. 30 sec) will show the image and automatically select a rectangular area.
If you wish to adjust this area, click outside the auto-selected rectangle, and then click at one corner of the desired rectangle, hold the click and move the mouse to the far corner and let go of the mouse click. Click on zoom to get a better view. Use the option key to choose a non rectangular area.
Adjust the exposure automatically using the Tao button (actually a shutter?) or by dragging the brightness and contrast. Change the size of the saved image with the scaling bar. Also experiment with sharpening, which emphasizes detail and is found under the menu custom/ image type. Color, hue, and emphasis can be modified under the Tools menu.
Click Final. Select file format (tiff is usually good), type in the file name and click save. (To scan to the Clipboard select copy under the edit menu). Icons at the bottom from left to right: Faces- creates a mirror image; Negative; Scaling (toggles between non-uniform and uniform); lock (keeps the image size constant despite changing the selected size).
Use the shareware program ‘GraphicConverter’ to change the tiff/pict file to a GIF or jpeg file for use on the Internet or BMP for Windows. Drag the file over the GraphicConverter program icon (or open through the menu), and change the file type to GIF, jpeg or BMP in the Save As... menu. Alternatively, copy the image and paste it to Microsoft Word (Office 97 or 98, PC's in B8218 and Mac's in B8253), and save in HTML format.
Please save all files in the "Public" folder. Files may be accessed on the computer by guest login from Macs on campus though the Chooser (AppleTalk zone "biol.sfu.ca", server "Biology Scanner Mac") and by anonymous FTP to "macscan.biol.sfu.ca" (or IP address 142.58.241.17).
Please send questions or suggestions to Dave Carmean at