Large Format & Flatbed Scanning

Owned by Andrew Molloy
Last updated: May 15, 2024
3 min read

Equipment

  • 36” wide scanner (Luma) in the plot room
  • 2 tabloid-size (11x17”) Epson Xpression flatbed scanners in the small computer lab (Room 004)

Large Format Scanning

Large format scanning using Luma is available from the plot room using this procedure:

  • Scanning on Luma should be done with the help of the plot monitor.
  • Scans are saved to the Student Scans folder on the G drive as TIF, PDF or JPG files. We recommend the default TIF format.
    • To retrieve your scans, log onto a lab computer, open My Computer, then open the G drive to find the Student Scans folder. Sort the column by date to find your files.
  • Scanned files are automatically removed from the Student Scans folder after 24 hours.
  • Scan only clean paper—do not scan drawings with coarse material, sand, grit, charcoal, chalk, pastels or any powdery-type material. This can damage the scanning glass and ruin the rollers.
  • Drawings using pencil that are more than just line work must be sprayed with Fixativ in the spray booth. This prevents the pencil from coming off on the rollers, which will create marks on future scans.
    • Wait a minimum of two hours after being sprayed before scanning. This is to minimize the odor in the plot room. This time may be adjusted up or down at the discretion of the plot monitor.
  • Scan modes include black & white, grayscale, and color. Grayscale is usually preferable over black & white because it better captures shading and detail. Scanning can be done up to 600 dpi, although 200, 300 or 400 is usually sufficient and produces more manageable file sizes.
  • Vellum/tracing paper will usually jam or crunch up, so it is important to tape the drawing to some backing paper first before sending it through. Tape the front corners and tape the leading edge that will be fed through.
    • An alternative to taping is to set the scanning resolution to a high number such as 400 or 600 dpi, which will slow down the scanning enough so that it doesn't usually jam.
  • Drawings with very light pencil lines may scan poorly unless you adjust the scan settings. Go into ‘more settings’ where you can adjust the darkness scale. You can also adjust the background suppression.
  • If your scanned file is squished or distorted in Photoshop, click Image, Pixel Aspect Ratio, Square. Then resave it.

Flatbed Scanning

Flatbed scanning up to 11x17" is available in the small computer lab (Room 004) and the King + King Library (Room 301).

  • Each flatbed scanner is connected to a computer. Login with your NetID credentials.
  • To scan, use the Epson scan program.
  • If you get a ‘scanner not found’ message, make sure the scanner is on. The scanner power button is on the front left of the scanner. If that doesn’t help, restart the computer.
  • If you are scanning magazine or book photos, use the ‘descreen’ option in the scanner control panel. This helps remove the wavy moiré pattern. It may be necessary to further fix the image in Photoshop with a slight amount of blur, or through use of the despeckle filter a few times to get rid of the pattern.
  • Save scans as TIF or PNG files if you do not want degradation of the image. If that is not important, then the JPG format may be more appropriate since it is highly compressible (although TIFs are as well using the LZW checkbox at the time of saving).
  • If the scanner glass is dirty, ask a plot monitor or librarian to clean it (paper towels and glass cleaner are stored in the plot room cabinet).
  • Please remove your scanned files when done. Files may be deleted after 24 hours.