How to Print or Scan Pictures
One of the most useful things about a computer is the way it lets you so easily work with pictures, be they simple Web graphics or high-resolution photographs. But one important aspect to working with pictures on a computer is getting them one and off the computer in the best and most efficient way possible. If you have printed pictures (photographs, magazine covers) that you want to work with on your computer, you will need to scan them in. And once you have created images on your computer or downloaded them off the Internet or your digital camera, you may need to print them back out. Learning how to do these two processes correctly is important.
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Instructions
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Gather any images you need to scan into your computer. Try to get the best quality version of the image you can. You want to avoid fuzzy, low resolution images or photos that are torn or faded. The exception to this point is if you are scanning in old photographs to restore them in a program like Photoshop or GIMP. But when you are scanning these latter pictures in, be very careful when handling them, since older photographs and other old printed materials are often dry and fragile.
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Place the picture on the scanner surface. Try to adjust it so that it all fits within the scanner area. If not, you will have to do separate scans and assemble the pieces in a graphics program. Set the scanner software to scan at a very high resolution, since this helps to reduce the moire effect, a noise pattern that you can sometimes get when scanning pictures in, especially from magazines. If your software gives you the option, save the scanned picture as a TIFF or PNG rather than a JPEG, since JPEG automatically reduces the quality of the image.
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Open an image you want to print in your graphics program. Once you have made any changes you want to make to it, select "File" and click "Print." In the dialog that opens click on the "Page Setup," "Printer Settings" or other button that allows you access to the software that came with your printer. Now select the type of picture you will be printing (photograph for instance) and set the quality you want, such as "Normal, Better, or Best." Now print your image.
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