problem scanning photographs from books or newspapers

On Tue, 1 Jun 2004 20:02:18 +1000, "Dugjak"
scribbled:

I am new to Photoshop 8 CS. I am scanning photographs for a book that will be offset printed, problem is that some of the original photographs are no longer available and I have to work from either newspaper prints or prints in existing books. When I do this I get a ‘moire’ effect and the printed scans are unsatisfactory. My scanning software does not have a control to remove this effect (at least I cannot find one). I have read that I should use a blur effect. Is there a filter in photoshop designed for this or a particular plug-in that will assist me?

One thing to try is a sheet of black construction paper behind the item to be scanned it cuts down on any bleed through.

Dugjak wrote:

I am new to Photoshop 8 CS. I am scanning photographs for a book that will be offset printed, problem is that some of the original photographs are no longer available and I have to work from either newspaper prints or prints in existing books. When I do this I get a ‘moire’ effect and the printed scans are unsatisfactory. My scanning software does not have a control to remove this effect (at least I cannot find one).

You won’t find it if you look for "moire", but have you checked if the software has a "descreen" option? That is what you need.

I have read that I should use a blur effect. Is there a filter in photoshop designed for this or a particular plug-in that will assist me?

Use Gaussian Blur, followed by a gentle Unsharp Mask.

—
Johan W. Elzenga johan<<at>>johanfoto.nl Editor / Photographer http://www.johanfoto.nl/

—– Original Message —–
From: "Dugjak" <>
Newsgroups: alt.graphics.photoshop
Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2004 6:02 AM
Subject: problem scanning photographs from books or newspapers

I am new to Photoshop 8 CS. I am scanning photographs for a book that will be offset printed, problem is that some of the original photographs are no longer available and I have to work from either newspaper prints or prints in existing books. When I do this I get a ‘moire’ effect and the printed scans are unsatisfactory. My scanning software does not have a control to remove this effect (at least I cannot find one). I have read that I should use a blur effect. Is there a filter in photoshop designed for this or a particular plug-in that will assist me?

My scanning is primarily magazine articles and images.
I used a Mustek scanner purchased in 1996 till December of last year, then it died. During that time the moire was barely tolerable. In December, I purchased a bottom line Cannon scanner, D1250 which came with Omnipage software.
The improvement in both scanner and software as compared to earlier purcahse is day and night.
The newer software has a scanning option to eliminate moire and it ACCOMPLISHES that precisely.

For bleed through, I went to a craft store and purchased some black cardboard type sheets of matting. Cutting it to standard paper size. At a cost of less than a dollar.

One additional note, some moir

In article <40bc542b$0$8112$>,
says…

I am new to Photoshop 8 CS. I am scanning photographs for a book that will be offset printed, problem is that some of the original photographs are no longer available and I have to work from either newspaper prints or prints in existing books. When I do this I get a ‘moire’ effect and the printed scans are unsatisfactory. My scanning software does not have a control to remove this effect (at least I cannot find one). I have read that I should use a blur effect. Is there a filter in photoshop designed for this or a particular plug-in that will assist me?

You will get much better results if you give the originals to the company doing your book printing and have them prepare the originals. If you are using a page makeup program and want to do the image placement yourself, make a scan at the size you wish and insert it into the page, but make sure you put a big overprint on it saying: "for position only".
The printer has much better resources to "descreen" an original than you will be able to achieve.

—
Robert D Feinman
Landscapes, Cityscapes and Panoramic Photographs
http://robertdfeinman.com
mail:

"Dugjak" wrote:

I am new to Photoshop 8 CS. I am scanning photographs for a book that will be offset printed, problem is that some of the original photographs are no longer available and I have to work from either newspaper prints or prints in existing books. When I do this I get a ‘moire’ effect and the printed scans are unsatisfactory. My scanning software does not have a control to remove this effect (at least I cannot find one). I have read that I should use a blur effect. Is there a filter in photoshop designed for this or a particular plug-in that will assist me?

Photoshop almost have nothing to do with the scanning problem you describe above, or Photoshop and most graphics programs are just the front-end program to load whatever scanning program comes with the scanner. It has no control of what and how you want to scan, or you will have to select the correct option from the scanner software for better result, and most scanner softwares have the options for scanning newspaper, magazine, photo, line-art etc..

So, if you want to scan newspaper then select "newspaper" option and the scanner should lower the DPI to around 75-115 DPI or so (I don’t remember the exact number so just make a wild guess) and you should have a much smaller size and better quality than 300-600 DPI.

IOW, bigger and higher doesn’t always mean better… or if you look at the quality of newspaper through the magnifier you will see more ugly lines and dots, if you look through the micro-scope then you will see even more ugly lines and dots .. or the higher DPI the more detail the scanner will pickup and most of the details are ugly grains and you will end up with ugly photo. Same with magazine, if you take a very closer look at the print on magazine you will see many printer marks (small circles) and with wrong setting your scanner will pickup all those printer marks.

Or, if you select the correct option the scanner software will have different setting to filter-out all those ugly marks.

On Tue, 1 Jun 2004 10:09:45 -0400, Robert Feinman
wrote:

In article <40bc542b$0$8112$>,
says…

I am new to Photoshop 8 CS. I am scanning photographs for a book that will be offset printed, problem is that some of the original photographs are no longer available and I have to work from either newspaper prints or prints in existing books. When I do this I get a ‘moire’ effect and the printed scans are unsatisfactory. My scanning software does not have a control to remove this effect (at least I cannot find one). I have read that I should use a blur effect. Is there a filter in photoshop designed for this or a particular plug-in that will assist me?

You will get much better results if you give the originals to the company doing your book printing and have them prepare the originals. If you are using a page makeup program and want to do the image placement yourself, make a scan at the size you wish and insert it into the page, but make sure you put a big overprint on it saying: "for position only".
The printer has much better resources to "descreen" an original than you will be able to achieve.

On Tue, 1 Jun 2004 20:02:18 +1000, "Dugjak"
wrote:

I am new to Photoshop 8 CS. I am scanning photographs for a book that will be offset printed, problem is that some of the original photographs are no longer available and I have to work from either newspaper prints or prints in existing books. When I do this I get a ‘moire’ effect and the printed scans are unsatisfactory. My scanning software does not have a control to remove this effect (at least I cannot find one). I have read that I should use a blur effect. Is there a filter in photoshop designed for this or a particular plug-in that will assist me?

Quick guidelines to reduce moire in screened (i.e., previously printed) images. Use this procedure. Do not use your scanning software’s "descreen" tool because it is less precise and you abdicate the ability to fine tune the controls.

1. Scan the image at 1.5 times the resolution that you will use for the final (i.e., if you will use a 300 ppi image for a 150 line halftone screen then scan the image printed in the book at 450 ppi)

2. In Photoshop use the Gaussian Blur filter set at 1.9 pixels

3. In Photoshop use the Unsharp mask filter set at Amount 50%, Pixels
1.9, and Threshold 0

4. Review the image to determine whether you have an appropriate tonal range for printing. On coated stock for example, the range of tones in the image can be from 4% white to about 93-94% black… use the Image / Adjust / Curves command to alter the tonal range. Also talk to your printer about dot gain… many also recommend pulling the 50% value down to somewhere around 40% to 35%. Essentially you’re making the image lighter to compensate for the way dot gain (ink spread through the capillary action of the paper fibers) will make the image darker.

5. In Photoshop resample the image (i.e. Image / Image Size) to the final resolution.

Make slight adjustments in Steps 2, 3, and 4 if necessary for individual, problem images.

Good luck.

-xiray- …

On Tue, 1 Jun 2004 20:02:18 +1000, "Dugjak"
wrote:

I am new to Photoshop 8 CS. I am scanning photographs for a book that will be offset printed, problem is that some of the original photographs are no longer available and I have to work from either newspaper prints or prints in existing books. When I do this I get a ‘moire’ effect and the printed scans are unsatisfactory. My scanning software does not have a control to remove this effect (at least I cannot find one). I have read that I should use a blur effect. Is there a filter in photoshop designed for this or a particular plug-in that will assist me?

Quick guidelines to reduce moire in screened (i.e., previously printed) images. Use this procedure. Do not use your scanning software’s "descreen" tool because it is less precise and you abdicate the ability to fine tune the controls.

1. Scan the image at 1.5 times the resolution that you will use for the final (i.e., if you will use a 300 ppi image for a 150 line halftone screen then scan the image printed in the book at 450 ppi)
2. In Photoshop use the Gaussian Blur filter set at 1.9 pixels
3. In Photoshop use the Unsharp mask filter set at Amount 50%, Pixels
1.9, and Threshold 0

4. Review the image to determine whether you have an appropriate tonal range for printing. On coated stock for example, the range of tones in the image can be from 4% white to about 93-94% black… use the Image / Adjust / Curves command to alter the tonal range. Also talk to your printer about dot gain… many also recommend pulling the 50% value down to somewhere around 40% to 35%. Essentially you’re making the image lighter to compensate for the way dot gain (ink spread through the capillary action of the paper fibers) will make the image darker.
5. In Photoshop resample the image (i.e. Image / Image Size) to the final resolution.

Make slight adjustments in Steps 2, 3, and 4 if necessary for individual, problem images.

Seems like a lot of work. In the past, I’ve just scanned the image at a very high resolution, and did an image resize and the moire gets averaged into the output.

On 4 Jun 2004 09:48:23 -0700, (Larry Bud)
wrote:

Seems like a lot of work. In the past, I’ve just scanned the image at a very high resolution, and did an image resize and the moire gets averaged into the output.

It is not really. If you’re printing in a newspaper… your procedure is fine. However if you are printing on glossy paper and want the best reproductions… use my method (which has been handed down by Photoshop experts … it is not my original creation).

And if all those steps seem to be too much and you crave one button simplicity, then consider making an action. Just remember that the same settings will get applied to each photo and that is not necessarily a good thing.

You must only scan that photo with a little spin (15º for example).

W.

In article <40bc542b$0$8112$>,
says…

I am new to Photoshop 8 CS. I am scanning photographs for a book that will be offset printed, problem is that some of the original photographs are no longer available and I have to work from either newspaper prints or prints in existing books. When I do this I get a ‘moire’ effect and the printed scans are unsatisfactory. My scanning software does not have a control to remove this effect (at least I cannot find one). I have read that I should use a blur effect. Is there a filter in photoshop designed for this or a particular plug-in that will assist me?