What's the best way to speed up colour scans

  • Thread starter Thread starter Brian
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B

Brian

I'm scanning a few pages of a book that has coloured photos and
creating a pdf file.
Is there some way I can speed up my scans?

Regards Brian
 
Brian said:
I'm scanning a few pages of a book that has coloured photos and
creating a pdf file.
Is there some way I can speed up my scans?

Regards Brian
Click to expand...
Get a faster scanner. Otherwise No.
Speed of a scan is mostly the mechanics of the scanner. How fast the
stepping motor moves.
 
CSM1 said:
Get a faster scanner. Otherwise No.
Speed of a scan is mostly the mechanics of the scanner. How fast the
stepping motor moves.
Click to expand...

Scanning also involves processing data that has been read and transferred to
the computer (colour processing, ICE). When creating a PDF even more
processing is needed. So a faster computer may also speed up the scanning.

Another way to increase scanning speed is to limit the amount of data that
has to be read and transferred, by decreasing scan resolution, or by
scanning only part of the page.

Paul
 
Paul Simons said:
Scanning also involves processing data that has been read and transferred to
the computer (colour processing, ICE). When creating a PDF even more
processing is needed. So a faster computer may also speed up the scanning.

Another way to increase scanning speed is to limit the amount of data that
has to be read and transferred, by decreasing scan resolution, or by
scanning only part of the page.

Paul
Click to expand...
Thanks Paul and CSM1 for your replies.
I've tried the suggestions of Paul but the only fast scan is when it
is scanning a preview scan.
I'm using usb 1.1, connection to the computer so maybe a faster
scanner with usb 2.0 would help.

Regards Brian
 
Brian said:
I'm scanning a few pages of a book that has coloured photos and
creating a pdf file.
Is there some way I can speed up my scans?

Regards Brian
Click to expand...
if you are usb 1 or 1.1, then you are shoving bits into the computer
at a very (relatively) slow rate.

if you are scanning in "millions of colors" or "16 bit color", etc,
then consider reducing the number of colors to 256 - but this depends
on the images - are they photographs, or childrens books with only
three or four primary colors? (never mind, just re-read, and they are
photographs)

consider reducing the resolution - 2400, 1200, 600 dpi is way too
much. try 300, 200 or 150 dpi for scan resolution.
 
[email protected] said:
if you are usb 1 or 1.1, then you are shoving bits into the computer
at a very (relatively) slow rate.

if you are scanning in "millions of colors" or "16 bit color", etc,
then consider reducing the number of colors to 256 - but this depends
on the images - are they photographs, or childrens books with only
three or four primary colors? (never mind, just re-read, and they are
photographs)

consider reducing the resolution - 2400, 1200, 600 dpi is way too
much. try 300, 200 or 150 dpi for scan resolution.
Click to expand...

Thanks catfish for your help.
I'm scanning no higher than 300 dpi.
Some of the pictures are for illustration so I might try reducing the
number of colors like you suggested.

The scanner is a Epson 1200U which I've had for about 5 years so maybe
scanners are faster now and have a fast usb 2.0 connection.

Regards Brian
 
find a scanner with an integrated jpeg compression board.

One example which comes to mind is the Fujitsu Fi-5110C . Take a look
at www.fcpa.com

This scanner has a hardware jpeg compression board allowing the scanner
to scan 15ppm/ 30ipm (images per minute) duplex. The scanner has 2
600dpi True-optical resolution CCD's with white lamps giving the best
image quality possible in any ADF scanner. The small footprint and
portability are nice with any office environment. And unlike the
ScanSnap, this scanner is both Twain and ISIS compliant allowing the
scanner to be used directly with 3rd party applications (such as
photoshop, adobe acrobat, paper-port, etc...

the scanner's ADF is what sets this scanner apart from the competion.
Although the cost may seem higher that the other flatbed scanners
available, once you see the difference that a GOOD ADF (Auto document
feeder) scanner makes to your time spent scanning documents, you'll see
that the investment is definitely worth the investment.
 
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