Tutorial: Quick Guide To Scanning, Upload And Showing Images

It seems a number of people do find it difficult to get an image uploaded so I thought I'd try to write an easy to understand quick guide to cover the basics which could be expanded upon if required.
I will try to show you how I do it and this will obviously be with what I use. I have no brand loyalty or recommendations other than I have tried it and it works.

I am using Windows! Mac users may need another guide.

OK. I will try to use only free software where possible for no other reason than it is free for you to try. There are many alternatives which may work for you too.

I use an Epson perfection 3490 photo as it cost me 50p at a car boot.
It is very good though even at £50 if you had to pay that. It has been superceded by newer models.

**Info added for Canon scanners**

Requirements:
Epson TWAIN driver - Download link
Google Picasa - Download link
Flickr - Create a free account at http://www.flickr.com/

Optional
Dropbox - Create a free 2Gb account at http://www.dropbox.com/
email me for invite for free additional storage
Dropbox download - https://www.dropbox.com/downloading

OK so your scanner is installed and working. You have downloaded Picasa and installed it. You have a free Flickr account and an optional Dropbox account for additional offline backup.
I recommend Dropbox if you are using the free Flickr account as with this there is a limit to the size of your images. They are still stored in Flickr at full resolution but you cannot access them unless you subscribe which is well worth it if you plan on scanning many images. Dropbox will give you 2Gb + a free 250Mb from me which is enough to store 100's if not 1000's of stamp scans.

By default on Windows the Dropbox 'sync' folder is stored in 'My Documents\My Dropbox'. Any file or folder you put in here will automatically be stored securely online too as a backup so I recommend this is used.

Onto the scanning.

Place your stamp to be scanned face down on the clean, clear bed of the scanner as square as possible (we will adjust this later if skewed). If you have some black card place this on the stamp and weight this down with a small book/magazine or whatever you have to hand.

Open Picasa
Click on the import button in the top left area.
In the import to box select where you want to save your images. If you are using Dropbox create a new folder in 'My Dropbox' called scans or something descriptive.
Select your scanner from the 'Import from' box.


The scanner interface (TWAIN) software should start

Epson see below for Canon



Change the mode to 'Professional'



You may not see all of the same settings but try to match them wherever possible with the exception of resolution which should be set no larger than your scanners maximum optical resolution which you can find in the specification document or online.

Click the reset button to set everything to deafult.
Now click the preview button



Drag a box around your image - Click in one corner and whilst holding the left mouse button move the mouse to the diagonally opposite corner and release.



Repeat the above selection process is scanning multiple items.
Click the 'All' button if scanning multiple images.
Click Scan. Let your scanner do its work then click Close.

Canon - This is from a Lide 20



First select professional mode - 1
Select your optimal resolution - 2
Click Preview - 3



Ensure the selection mode is enabled - 1
Draw a selection around the stamp - 2
Click Scan - 3

----End of scanning section----

You should now have an image in Picasa.



Image editing

Double click the scanned image to go into editing mode.
You should see on the left hand side 'Basic fixes' Select straighten.
Use the slider to align your stamp with the gridlines.
When straight click 'Apply'.



I wouldn't recommend any other changes except for engraved stamps which benefit from some minor sharpening.
This can be found on the 'Effects' tab on the left hand side.
Again adjust the slider to suit your requirements.
Click 'Apply' when done.



The next step is to get our scanned image uploaded to a site from where we can share it.
So open Flickr in your internet browser and login.

Click on the Upload link



Click on Choose Photo and Videos.
Browse to where you save your scans (My Documents\My Dropbox\Scans) and select you file or files.

Your file(s) will appear in the list to be uploaded.



Click 'Upload Photos and videos'



Now wait for your images to be uploaded.

Getting your images into a forum post

Now your images are in Flickr we can share them.
In Flickr click on 'You'



You should see the images you uploaded.
Choose the image you want to upload by clicking on it.

Choose 'Share this'



Click on 'Grab HTML/BBCode'
Choose the size you want from the dropdown box.
Select BBcode.
The section we are interested in is

{img}http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1111...c2f331aa.jpg{/img}

I have changed the brackets from square [] in the above example so you can see it.

Paste this into your post - click preview and hopefully you should see your image appear.

There you have the basics so now get those images posted.

That's a great tutorial Anthony, very useful. I think I might try Flickr also and use it in addition to Photobucket.

Funny you used the West German Adenauer/De Gaulle stamp in your demonstration, it was in the pile of stamps I was soaking yesterday.
It's actually one of the last German engraved stamps, all are now printed offset/litho.

Well done Anthony!

Anthony, in Picasa I've noticed when straightening a stamp it blurs it slightly and even after using the sharpening effect it still isn't like the original.

I guess I will just have to continue to place them in the Hagnar or on the glass as plumb as possible.

wow, very good. But what do I do? I use a Cannon, image shack, paint.net and some forensic image software?

(just kidding, I was only be a smartass)

Litho - I do notice the same. I guess it is down to algorithm used so as you mentioned try to get the stamp as straight as possible to start with. If when you preview you can see the stamp isn't straight then try to scan with a big border, rotate and then crop to preserve some resolution.

SV - I know you what you mean with so many variables but the method is pretty similar as I have used a Canon Lide at work.
Joking aside I DO use other software but only because I'm used to it. This is mainly Jasc Paint Shop Pro v8 which is many version out of date.
Once people get used to the process I think they also get more comfortable to try other options.

touch wood, never experienced that myself.
That must be very annoying.
I am still using the early version of Picasa,
when I attempted to load the latest Picasa, it tried to access
every image on my hard drives,
(I could have been waiting till
Tony was fed up with collecting India)

I suppose with practice the process would be easy, but good grief, what a list of things to do.

I have only just recently begun posting images. I use a Canon Lidescan 100(an el cheapo). I just scan the image, transfer the scan to the desktop, open in paint and resize the pixels until the size falls below 100 kb.. Presto, it is ready for upload. What could be simpler. Oh I am sure there are ways to tweak the process, but for a simple image in a post, why try to paint the Mona Lisa, when etch-a-sketch will do.

The only "must" in the above process is after resizing in paint, is to save the image you have scanned as a jpeg and not leave it as a bitmap, which is what emerges from the scanner. (This may be a peculiarity of my model of scanner and may not be typical of other scanners)

Hi Rohumpy,
You are of course quite correct that you can upload images to the site so that they are displayed but the file size limit is too small to show the detail of engraved stamps for example. So etch-sketch quality is not an option in this case.
For a lot of other instances though it is a fair comment.
Most of my scans are between 500k and 1.5Mb when scanned at 1200dpi

Example.

Full size - Click on image to see it in full.



uploaded

AnthonyUK, I agree that if the necessity is to show fine detail, then another means other than resizing an image to under 100 kb is necessary. I did not mean in anyway to imply that what you had posted was a bad idea, just that as you pointed out, it may be necessary only in some instances.

I will have to set up a Flickr account and try my hand at a more detailed image.

I have been using version 10 for about 5 years and it is easy to use. Slight blurring on straightening does happen, but is not greatly noticed on images 600 dpi or larger. There is a re-sharpening tool which can fix it up a bit if noticeable.

Your images are very sharp Anthony because you scan at 1200dpi.
I usually only scan at 800dpi since if I go up to 1200dpi to scan a whole page it slows it down to a crawl and sometimes freezes altogether.
If I scan one at a time at 1200dpi it's not bad but for me 800dpi is good enough.

One question. After preview can you zoom in on a portion of the scan and then scan this enlarged area ?

Hi Litho,
Yes 800 dpi is perfectly fine.
Have a look at the image where I drew a selection around the stamp to scan. If you click the zoom tab at this point it will zoom to your selection.

Thanks Anthony. I knew I had the zoom feature but I never used it or actually couldn't use it since it was greyed out I suppose because I always used the home mode.

Ever since I reset the scanner I switched over to professional mode and now the zoom works.

Thanks again.

Rohumpy, sometimes you can change the image output type in one of your scan options menus. You might be able to change your default output from bitmap to jpeg.

I've added some screenshots for Canon scanners too.