It's got to be one of these.....(Scanning Drawings)

  • Thread starter Thread starter HahNathaniel
  • Start date Start date
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HahNathaniel

Hello, I'm a semi-up and coming webcomic artist and I kind of need
help, and this seemed like the best palce to ask. I have a very, very,
big problem with jagged edges in all my drawings. Practically every
fifth pixel has a stray pixel sticking out. Now, I know it's got to be
one of these three things.

1) I'm using a Visioneer OneTouch 8600(2001, I believe) Scanner.

2) I'm using Microsoft Paint as the program I transcribe to.

3) The inking pen I use is not thick enough.


If you know exactly which one of these would be the problem, it would
be a great help.

Of Note
1)I MUST scan my drawings with Black and White so I can color them on
my computer.
2) In order to get the correct size, I have to scan them at 100dpi.
 
Hello, I'm a semi-up and coming webcomic artist and I kind of need
help, and this seemed like the best palce to ask. I have a very, very,
big problem with jagged edges in all my drawings. Practically every
fifth pixel has a stray pixel sticking out. Now, I know it's got to be
one of these three things.

1) I'm using a Visioneer OneTouch 8600(2001, I believe) Scanner.

2) I'm using Microsoft Paint as the program I transcribe to.

3) The inking pen I use is not thick enough.


If you know exactly which one of these would be the problem, it would
be a great help.

Of Note
1)I MUST scan my drawings with Black and White so I can color them on
my computer.
2) In order to get the correct size, I have to scan them at 100dpi.
Click to expand...


Hi...

Several points, hopefully others will add more info...

First is that you don't have to scan at 100 dpi, doing so is guaranteed
to get you lots and lots of jaggies in your scans. Scan at the maximum
*optical* resolution you can get (in your case 600 dpi). Print "Size"
has nothing at all to do with scan dpi.

Second is that if you're hoping to make a profession of this your
scanner is way out of date; hopefully you're budget will allow for an
upgrade so that you can scan at a much higher density.

Third is that you don't have to scan in black and white, you can (and
should) scan color, and then using your software convert to black and
white. I don't know the "cartoon" business at all, but you may even
be better off converting to gray scale, but that could be very wrong :)

Take care.

Ken
 
Ken brings up some good points, but just to expand, there is a difference
between input scanning resolution and output scanning resolution.
Furthermore, output resolution will be different based on how you plan to
output something for a particular project (e.g. printer resolutions vs.
monitor/website resolution). You should go to www.scantips.com and work
through the tutorials to understand the concepts.

Doug
 
Hello, I'm a semi-up and coming webcomic artist and I kind of need
help, and this seemed like the best palce to ask. I have a very, very,
big problem with jagged edges in all my drawings. Practically every
fifth pixel has a stray pixel sticking out. Now, I know it's got to be
one of these three things.

1) I'm using a Visioneer OneTouch 8600(2001, I believe) Scanner.

2) I'm using Microsoft Paint as the program I transcribe to.

3) The inking pen I use is not thick enough.


If you know exactly which one of these would be the problem, it would
be a great help.

Of Note
1)I MUST scan my drawings with Black and White so I can color them on
my computer.
2) In order to get the correct size, I have to scan them at 100dpi.
Click to expand...

!) Get a new scanner, Cannon, Epson, Microtek or Umax.
2) Stop using Paint, it is about the worst graphic program ever
invented. Adobe Photoshop Elements is a reasonably priced program. Free
you can get IrfanView or GIMP. GIMP will give most of the editing
choices you get with PSE, IrfanView is a small quick reasonably
powerful program and is worth it just as a jpeg viewer, both support
scanners well.
3) Scan using greyscale or color, I have never been happy with B&W
scanning except with text, but it still drops greys.
4) 100ppi is fine (see 3) if your ouput is small, you may do better
with 150ppi or 200ppi as the scanner maybe better at those resolutions
(mine is). Then resize in a good graphics program.
5) You may want to look at one of the graphics suites Corel or Adobe.
If you are a student the discounts are large on these programs.

Tom
 
Thanks for all the good advice...I think I really needed it.

However, I have a certain problem with scanning in gray-scale. I
originally tried scanning my pictures in gray-scale, but around the
black lines I ended up with a very, very, light gray. This would not be
a problem if I left my drawings as black and white, but since I want to
color them...well......When I fill in the color, it leaves the almost
white there; which looks extremely awkward. I have a Black
line.....then this white space....then my color. How do I work around
the problem of the almost-but-not-quite-there white outline when
coloring my drawings?
 
Thanks for all the good advice...I think I really needed it.

However, I have a certain problem with scanning in gray-scale. I
originally tried scanning my pictures in gray-scale, but around the
black lines I ended up with a very, very, light gray. This would not be
a problem if I left my drawings as black and white, but since I want to
color them...well......When I fill in the color, it leaves the almost
white there; which looks extremely awkward. I have a Black
line.....then this white space....then my color. How do I work around
the problem of the almost-but-not-quite-there white outline when
coloring my drawings?
Click to expand...

Hi...

Don't know your scanner, so just generic info, for what it's worth.

First at the risk of repeating myself, don't scan gray scale either;
scan in color, then use a good photo editor to convert it to black and
white or gray scale.

What you're describing may well be sharpening effects, so *if* your
scanner allows you to sharpen (or usm) while scanning, turn it off.

Scan at your maximum dpi (in your case 600). Do your work (coloring,
and whatever else) at that large size. A good photo editor will let
you look at the whole picture at once, by using a "fit to screen"
view, but you can then look at small portions of it at 100%, and
scrolling around do much better (finer) work. When you're finished
your editing you can then as a final step resize it to the working
size you want for the web. (save for yourself also a large version,
in case further editing is required)

You can then, after all editing and resizing is done, add a little
sharpening and/or usm if you think it looks better.

I mentioned a good photo editor. I suggest photoshop or it's
subset elements, or paint shop pro. Photoshop is expensive,
elements and paint shop pro are both reasonable, and about the
same price. My personal preference is paint shop pro, the rationale
being that (imho) the learning curve is much less steep. I don't know
about the others, but paint shop pro has a time limited trial version
available.

Take care.

Ken

Disclaimer: Nothing whatsoever to do with any of the products
mentioned, other than a user of them.
 
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