Take a Careful Look at Your Scanning Software

There are many types of scanning software on the market that differ in the features they offer and the quality they deliver. Why should you bother with knowing about them?

The answer is that the quality of your scanned document will depend on whether you use the available features or not. Even the best scanning software might fail to deliver quality results if you don't use available features in an appropriate manner.

Isn't scanning just a physical process and the software an automatic tool? To a large degree, they are. If you're scanning a standard printed document that uses black ink and has clear printing, the scanner and software will deliver what you expect.

However, in the real world, this might not always be the case. The printed document may become folded and worn out through frequent handling, and the scanned image might be illegible in places. In other cases, the scanner may not be able to work satisfactorily with the color of the ink, particularly when the ink and paper color are similar.

There are several such possibilities that can result in unsatisfactory scanning results. It's in these circumstances that you will have to look at the software features and do some tweaking to produce acceptable quality results.

So what kinds of tweaking are typical?

Work on the Original Document

You can try to improve the condition of the original paper document. Iron out the folds (without burning the paper). Do whatever else is possible without affecting the authenticity of the document.

Use the Edit Feature of Scanning Software

Where the characters are illegible, you can edit the scanned image to improve legibility. This is best done only if you cannot get legible results using other software features, discussed below.

Adjust Brightness and Contrast

It's often possible to improve the original by adjusting the brightness and contrast settings offered with the scanner (software). However, you should know how to use these to produce desired results.

Scan with the Correct Orientation

Some documents come with a landscape orientation - more wide than high - while others have a portrait orientation - more high than wide. Scan the originals with a matching orientation. Post-scan rotation to achieve the correct orientation may result in detail loss.

Scan Only the Portions You Need

You might need only a particular section of a document for your purpose. In such a case, scan only those sections. That way, you can get more detail in the scanned result.

Other Scanning-Software Settings

Other settings possible with scanning software include adjusting sharpness, resolution, color, exposure, and output format. These too affect the final result. However, some of these adjustments are more relevant in the context of the intended use of the scanned image, rather than producing acceptable quality results.

Thus, output formatted as TIFF preserves details and is best for printing. If some loss of detail does not matter, as when the scanned image is to be used on Web pages, JPEG can produce results that are smaller in size (a big factor for quick downloading by a visitor).

Read the user manual that came with the scanner and learn how to use the scanning software features.