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need help with scanning

19 years ago

why when I scan a graphic with text to Microsoft Word , so I can change the text, does it not come out as the original?

all I get is the text and not the graphics, also the text is not as it appears in the original picture.

I've spent hours on this already and am ready to scream, Please help!!!!

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Comments (3)

owbist
19 years ago
I think scanning with OCR (optical character recognition) is still far from perfect, especially with cheaper programs packaged with scanners at purchase time. No doubt it has improved greatly since I gave up trying a few years ago. If you are in fact scanning with OCR you cannot expect to get the graphic also.

Maybe someone more savvy will appear shortly but perhaps I might make a suggestion here. If the text needs modifying anyway why bother with that? Scan the graphic as a jpg or bmp, crop off the text and then insert the graphic into a fresh Word document and add the text you want.

If, as is quite possible, I have not covered your problem please give us a bit more detail on what you are trying to scan.
jane__ny
19 years ago
I use Omni Page, which came free with my Cannon printer. It does a great job with text except if there are hand-written notes on the sheet being scanned. This program has more features then I know how to use. But, my understanding is, it is a good optical scanning program.
I have the same problem with handwriting and text. The hand-written notes appear as gibberish.
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Zep, thank you for your response. I have tried to have the downloads to the desktop, a box opens when I choose save, the list of files in my computer comes up , I try to pick desktop by highlighting, cannot get back to the download box to fill in desktop or change what is there because I have to click save. When I click save which is really the only option that is useful, I cannot go back to the download box, it shows it's downloading, to whatever was there before. I've looked through all the files, downloads, searched by name, even tried to make a new folder just for this but cannot type this folder name into the option in the download box. I'm using IE, Windows XP home. About the some errors on page, I've been hesitant to upgrade java and it sounds like this may be part of the problem from the link you gave me.
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Practice will let you decide as you start scanning. Try a few of your own photos so you have a basic idea before you attend the shindig. Use the auto scan and see what it does. You have an upscale scanner so output should e great. If photos are small, worn, scratched or torn then I select a higher resolution or increase the size so I can work on it later. I rarely use other scanner settings, relying on my photo editing software to do these things. I recently scanned a 1968 passport black and white photo of my wife at 600% of the original size, cleaned it up and printed it as an 8 x 10 and it came out quite good IMHO. DPI. What do you intend to do with the scans? I ask because a computer reads 72 DPI but if you intend to print then that is useless and will show jaggies so if I intend to print I select 300 DPI. Again, play a little and make your choices.
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When you scan these photos you should play around a bit first to get comfortable with the concept. Once you feel comfortable you should scan as bitmaps (.bmp) rather than jpeg (.jpg) because the quality is better. Increase the scan size so you are creating a 2 or 3 megabyte scan. Then if you wish to print or fix any tears, bends or other damage you have a nice sized file to work with. Marooma's link shows you have a flat bed scanner, great. You can set them up to scan square off the bed with that scanner. I have an HP flat bed scanner, it was given to me as mine died. But HP seem to want to control too much, hopefully you can set yours how you want it not how HP feels you should do them. (I need to get at it and see what I can really do before I bad mouth mine anymore) DO NOT scan in black and white as the results are far too stark, you will not be happy. Use full colour scanning, this is where the playing to start is so important because you can try various settings until you feel comfortable with the output. You could try duotone or greyscale just to see what it creates for you. Do you have any damaged photos?
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bob414
19 years ago
Use Owbist's suggestion. None of the scanning programs I have used will scan both a graphic and editable text at the same time. If you want the graphic you scan as an image. If you want editable text you scan OCR. There may be programs that will do both at the same time but I don't know of them. If the text is located inside the graphic you would need a good photo editing program to change it.

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