Scanner alternative?

AF
Posted By
Alec_Fehl
Jun 25, 2007
Views
361
Replies
9
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Closed
Anyone know of an alternative scanner to the HP ScanJet 4600? This scanner had a see-through top and you could place oversize items on the floor, then place the scanner on top of them. You could scan your artwork through the see-through glass. This allowed you to scan oversize items and stitch them together in Photoshop. A great photo showing this is on the following page: http://support-it.epfl.ch/page57115.html (scroll down to see it).

Every scanner I find on the market now has the scanner glass sitting down inside a slightly beveled frame – so it is impossible to scan oversize items as they cannot lay flat while scanning.

—
Alec Fehl, MCSE, A+, ACE, ACI
Adobe Community Expert

AUTHOR:
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CO-AUTHOR:
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P
Phosphor
Jun 25, 2007
Nice signature.

Uhhh…what was the question again?

(In other words: it’s pretty bad when your sig takes up as much or more room than your question).

😐

Have you considered a light box and a camera? That’s what all the big kids use these days, from what I hear.

🙂
AF
Alec_Fehl
Jun 26, 2007
Actually – I have not considered a lightbox and digital camera because that is not an appropriate solution for my needs. But – hey – I appreciate your wit and charm and willingness to help without sarcasm or condescension.

—
Alec Fehl, MCSE, A+, ACE, ACI
Adobe Community Expert

AUTHOR:
Microsoft Office 2007 PowerPoint: Comprehensive Course (Labyrinth Publications)
Welcome to Web Design and HTML (Labyrinth Publications)

CO-AUTHOR:
Microsoft Office 2007: Essentials (Labyrinth Publications) Computer Concepts and Vista (Labyrinth Publications)
Mike Meyers’ A+ Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs (McGraw-Hill) Internet Systems and Applications (EMC Paradigm)
FN
Fred_Nirque
Jun 26, 2007
that is not an appropriate solution for my needs

How so?
AF
Alec_Fehl
Jun 26, 2007
Cost, physical space, and ease of use. I need a cheap-o scanner. And when laying a piece of artwork flat with a scanner like the 4600 on top – I don’t have to worry about reproducing an exact angle as I would if I were shooting with a camera.

—
Alec Fehl, MCSE, A+, ACE, ACI
Adobe Community Expert

AUTHOR:
Microsoft Office 2007 PowerPoint: Comprehensive Course (Labyrinth Publications)
Welcome to Web Design and HTML (Labyrinth Publications)

CO-AUTHOR:
Microsoft Office 2007: Essentials (Labyrinth Publications) Computer Concepts and Vista (Labyrinth Publications)
Mike Meyers’ A+ Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs (McGraw-Hill) Internet Systems and Applications (EMC Paradigm)
P
Phosphor
Jun 26, 2007
All kidding aside, the regulars here on the WebX AdobeForums kind of roll their eyes when they see such a pretentious signature.

We visit mostly via browser, and sigs like that are generally irrelevant to the discussion taking place and are a waste of good electrons.
RB
Robert_Barnett
Jun 26, 2007
Enough with the signature already. You talk about him talking up a lot of space. Well, you just took up more complaining about his signature.

As for the scanner, I think that was just a fad HP was going through. I have never seen any other company do anything like it. I don’t think for the the most part that it ever really caught on.

I have been scanning 12×12 scapbook paper for a friend of mine (she does digital scapbooking but likes the designs on the real world papers) and with my Epson V700 I have to scan each page in two halves. I then use the Photoshop CS3 Auto-Align Layers and Auto-Blend Layers options to put them together. I have had no issues of any kind doing this.

I am in the process of scanning in a large litho print of a friends sailboat in the San Francisco bay artwork. The litho is 35" x 48" I am having to scan it in many peices with overlap. But so far I am gotten about half of it done and assembled (again in Photoshop CS3 using the same functions as for the 12×12 paper) and it coming out very nice. I scan in a few peices more and then run a test stitch (I want to see if Photoshop CS3 has any limits on the number of image layers it can put together. So far so good. If I did run in to a problem, I would assemble the image by stitching 1/3 of the image at a time and then stitching the 3 1/3 peices together in to the final full image).

Robert
AF
Alec_Fehl
Jun 26, 2007
Thanks. The problem I have with my current Epson scanner is that the glass is set down and surrounded by the beveled frame – so artwork does not lay flat. This causes shadows and distortion when scanning in sections. Especially true of oversized hard-backed artwork, like paintings on wood or a framed canvas. Is there no flatbed where the scanbed – glass and surrounding frame – are truly flat? (In an effort to save all "those electrons" I have shortened my signature considerably.) —
A
RB
Robert_Barnett
Jun 26, 2007
Very true. However, if you scan with enough overlap and use the two functions I mentioned in Photoshop CS3 those shades are magically removed. Everything I have scanned in from the 12×12 paper to the litho had those shadows and every shadow from every stitching and test stitching I have done was removed when running the Auto-Blend Layers after running the Auto-Align Layers option. Works great.

Robert
PF
Peter_Figen
Jun 26, 2007
Flatbed scanners generally have enough depth of field to let you add another piece of glass to shim up to your bevels, if they are truly a problem.

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