What dpi should i scan documents

A PDF can contain and weave together a wide assortment of items, it is even conceivable to put scanned images and OCR-produced text together in the same document. Scanners catch a computerized image of the item at first glance. When scanning materials it is vital to understand the concept of DPI dots per inch.

DPI is a detail utilized for printed and scanned media that decides quality. However, scanning at a high DPI can take longer and results in larger file sizes. While DPI alludes to physical measurements, the resolution of the image alludes to the extent of the image with respect to your PC screen.

Usually the best dpi for scanning documents — balancing readability and file size — is dpi. It makes the document easy to read and share. Also, font size can affect the dpi you choose. Standard font sizes, point and up, are fine at dpi. However, smaller fonts might be harder to read at this resolution, so you might decide to bump it up to dpi.

Also, keep in mind that with OCR you can output to a variety of file types that can affect the file size and usability of documents. These include. PDF documents are often the preferred choice because they allow you to easily convert scanned images to text that can be edited and keyword searched.

To figure out the exact resolution, take the largest size that you'd print the image in inches and multiply it by your print resolution. For example, if you want to create 8-by prints at dpi , you'd need a by image file. You can then use that spec to find a resolution that will pull that image size from the film. With a bymm slide, you'd need a resolution of around pixels per mm, or 2, dpi. If you don't want to do a lot of math, just scan at 2, dpi or higher.

Steve Lander has been a writer since , with experience in the fields of financial services, real estate and technology. By Steve Lander Updated May 28, Related Articles. Making this decision was very challenging for me and certainly a huge part of my 8-year delay.

It's definitely a decision you want to make before you complete your very first scan. Trust me, you don't want to get halfway through your collection and realize you scanned too high, and your computer is running sluggishly and your image quality looks weird — soft and pixelated. Or worse, you find out you could have been extracting more image detail from your prints if you had just chosen a slightly higher dpi, to begin with.

What dpi should we scan our paper photographs with that will capture as much detail stored in them as we possibly can, will create a manageable file size, but will also produce enough image resolution should we choose to do some radical cropping, print them out to an average-sized enlargement on photo paper, or display them on high-definition monitors and televisions.

If you study the routine of a professional photo restorer, you will learn they tend to see each photograph as a separate unique challenge — like a doctor attending to an ailing patient for the first time. It's a laborious investigative process for them. They may even scan each print several times with varying dpi's, carefully comparing each image until they find the most appropriate dpi for the photo's personalized workflow.

Because you probably have anywhere from hundreds to thousands of photos in your family's collection, it's not practical or even reasonable for me to suggest we would ever want to attempt such perfectionism.

So, to make things manageable, I wanted to come up with scanning dpi values that we could all use that would be easy for all of us. Most everything you will need to know to decide which DPI to scan your photos with, including my recommended dpi value s you should use , is discussed in the special video right below here. The video is a section taken from one of my lessons on scanner settings in my video training course on scanning and organizing photos.

Think of this as a Mini-Lesson on learning the the best way to set your scanner DPI setting for your photo collections! Additional Information: And here are some other important points that aren't mentioned in the video above that will also help you understand how your scanner works and how the dpi selection will affect your family's photo collection. One of the biggest mistakes I find people make when choosing the dpi is allowing the length of time it takes to complete the scan influence their decision.

Those new to scanning may be surprised to learn that the higher the dpi, the longer it takes for the scanner to make its capturing pass and for the computer the process the information. I've recorded for you the time it takes the Epson Perfection v flatbed scanner to complete scans with various dpi's set. You can see there is, in fact, a vast difference in the amount of time required to scan at one of its lowest settings dpi and scanning with one of its highest dpi.

But more importantly, I want you to notice the time it takes to scan between the range of dpi through dpi. It's relatively almost the same length of time.