How to Scan Business Card Information
Many times it's necessary to scan a business card because you need the graphic information from it. This situation sometimes arises when you're creating a print ad and need a logo or you need to scan a business card into your email program. The visual or textual information on the business card may be the only information you have, so you must use it. The key to making this type of visual information work is to ensure you start out with the right scan resolution and a crisp business card.
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Things You'll Need
- Business cards
- Flatbed scanner
- Computer
- Graphics program
- Word processing program
Instructions
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Make notes on a notepad regarding the information you need from each business card. For example, if you're laying out an ad, and you need a logo from a person's business card, write that down. Paperclip the business card and the notes together for later.
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2
Create a file folder on your computer to organize your work. You'll want to do this so you can keep the information for each business card separate and organized.
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3
Set your flatbed scanner to 600 dpi (dots per inch) once the pop-up menu appears in the window after you've opened the scan program that came with the scanner. This resolution is quite high, but it ensures that line art such as logos, look very crisp. You can always change the resolution after the initial scan, but any visual information that isn't clear from the beginning can be improved only a little or not at all if it's intake resolution is less than ideal.
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Test scan of the business card. Once the scan pulls up, make sure the image looks crisp. If it does, approve the scan by following the prompts from the scanner. A window with your scan will open up in the scanner program.
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Approve the scan if there are no issues or adjust the card on the scanner bed and re-run the scan.
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Name the scan and save it in your file folder.
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Right-click on the scan file--usually an image file of a scan will be saved as a TIFF or JPG and go to "Open With" when the pop-up menu appears. If you want to take graphic information from the card like a logo, open it in a graphics program like Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft Paint. If you need to record the textual information from the scan, open it in an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) scan program. Otherwise, you can leave the fully-scanned card intact.
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Take the information you need from the card and save it in the file folder or export into your email program contact file.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit stylish business cards vector illustration image by Suto Norbert from Fotolia.com
